mark jackson controversy (Photo: LetsGoWarriors.com game photo)
Last night, Golden State Warriors Head Coach Mark Jackson made headlines for his comments pre- and post-game. His heated Q&A session following the Warriors’ 43-point win over the Philadelphia 76ers drew responses all over the board.
Some thought he made a mistake. Some a poor joke. Some questioned his relationship with Andrew Bogut. Some even questioned his job security. It simply buried Marreese Speights‘ big night against his former team.
Jackson’s take: “Please don’t twist my words.”
Before the game, Jackson made a comment, as most objectively documented by Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle about Bogut’s shoulder injury that has kept the big man out of the past two games.
“As far as I know, (the injury) wasn’t on the court,” Jackson said, “It wasn’t in practice. It wasn’t in a game. I’m not really sure. It may have been sleeping, and I say that in all seriousness.”
Turns out, Bogut took issue with the assertion the injury having come during sleep.
“I just wanted to address that the sleeping comment is absolutely ridiculous,” Bogut said, “I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know if I should read between the lines with it. The frustrating thing is: I don’t know when I hurt it against Utah. I just know after that game, it was a little sore. It hasn’t gotten better.
Bogut went on to say more, but the gist of it was he and Jackson got their wires crossed.
Whether Jackson’s comment was a mistake or a swing-and-miss joke, it’s clear that Jackson thought his words were taken out of context. He felt media portrayed his comment in a way that suggested he didn’t really think Bogut was injured.
As he pointed out, he called Bogut’s injury a “legitimate” one before the game. In fact, in Simmons’s pregame article, filed literally right after the comments were made by Jackson and Bogut in succession, use of the word “legitimate” was confirmed.
So it’s no surprise that Jackson took issue, whether he was at fault or not.
We know Mark Jackson well enough by now that this is just par for the course.
It wasn’t a good moment, for Jackson or the Media, but we already know that Jackson has a tendency to rub people the wrong way with his direct nature. He’s also a fiery personality defined by his strong leadership.
Things might have gone better if Jackson had come out and said he made a mistake, in seriousness or as a joke.
But that’s not who he is.
Like he said partway through his tirade, “I’ll go down being me. I can’t be anybody else.”
With all we know of Jackson, rumors of him being on the hot seat over this don’t add up. And it seems certain people have taken the liberty of putting him there. Matt Steinmetz and Ethan Strauss come to mind.
Steinmetz is known for his hyper-critical analysis of the Warriors and their ownership. His take last night:
The emotion/hostility/defensiveness of Jackson doesn't make sense over that small a misunderstanding. That's why more gotta be going on.
— Matt Steinmetz (@MMS_Steinmetz) February 11, 2014
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Follow that logic if you can. It’s a pretty big leap for me.
Strauss has also decided to become the voice of the people, apparently:
"You guys are making too big a thing of this" is fanspeak for "This topic makes me uncomfortable"
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) February 11, 2014
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Whatever is going on or went on in the Warriors’ locker room, it seems like something Jackson wanted to make a quick fix. What he did was make it an even bigger story, and piss off a few local writers.
“It’s a fun time. I mean, we are 10 games over .500. Some of you guys haven’t seen that in a long, long time. So keep on acting like you have,” Jackson said.
I guess we’ll see if this builds into any bigger issues, or if it’s all just a little media backlash from those with an axe to grind.
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