jeff hornacek (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account
ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors (36-24) play the Phoenix Suns (36-25) tonight and both teams are neck-and-neck in the standings of the Pacific Conference, with only a one-game difference in the loss column.
What each former-NBA-player-turned-head-coach is trying to do, with Golden State’s Mark Jackson and Phoenix’s Jeff Hornacek, in terms of a culture change at each franchise has parallels.
“The difference is that (the Suns) have had success recently,” Jackson said, “but to his credit, the guys that were there pretty much weren’t part of their success. He had to turn it around. He had to instill confidence in those guys.”
The formula for both coaches has been to, quite simply, get their teams to play together and play hard.
“One thing you gotta do is stress winning and Mark’s been a guy that’s been on several winning teams,” Hornacek said pregame before tonight’s tipoff, “He’s a competitor and as an ex-player that’s what you kind of do. The first thing is, you don’t want to concede any games. You go out there and he probably said the same thing that we tell our guys, ‘Just play hard and play together and you’ll win games.'”
“He had to have a plan and stick to his plan,” Jackson said of Hornacek, “He had to let them know that he was committed to his vision and he had to have the backing of ownership and management. He’s done an outstanding job and deserves a lot of credit.”
Hornacek was also quick to credit Jackson.
“That’s step one in any rebuilding process,” Hornacek said, “Getting the guys to play hard and play together. He did that here and they took that step last year and we’re getting off to a decent start with it ourselves.”
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