Warriors Jermaine O’Neal On The Mark Jackson Negativity: “Come Spend Some Time With Our Team” (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — Seventeen-year NBA veteran Jermaine O’Neal, who has seen his fair share of ups and downs as a highly touted but sparingly used rookie with the Portland Trail Blazers and then with the championship-contending Indiana Pacers team that got broken up after “Malice At The Palace”, took some time last week to address the recent negativity concerning Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised in this business anymore,” O’Neal began, when asked about his reaction to the Jackson controversy and resulting “hotseat” storyline after the reassignment of Brian Scalabrine, “I don’t really read articles and listen to sports talk shows — and those things are alive for a reason, because negativity is what sells — but one thing I do notice, when we win, there’s very few of you guys (media). When we lose, it’s standing room only.”
O’Neal has been the veteran sounding board and pick-me-up this season for the relatively young and inexperienced Warriors. Aside from O’Neal and Steve Blake, who are 35 and 34 years old respectively, the remaining 13 players on the roster are all 30 years old or younger.
Drafted out of high school in 1996, O’Neal spent his first four years in Portland before blossoming into a near-double-double machine for the next seven years with the Pacers. In 2003-04, the Pacers won 61 regular season games, but were ousted in the Eastern Conference Finals by the eventual NBA champions, the Detroit Pistons.
The following off-season, Stephen Jackson was added to a core that include O’Neal, eventual Hall-Of-Famer Reggie Miller, and a young Metta World Peace (then Ron Artest), who was in the middle of his prime, and soon there were talks of the Pacers being the favorite to win the NBA Finals. Then the brawl with the rival Pistons occurred in November of the 2004-05 season and the team was dismantled shortly thereafter, with Miller retiring.
“And this isn’t to everybody. There’s some negative people out there. Put them on point. We have a fantastic fan base and the love is incredible, even when I’m pumping my gas,” O’Neal added, “The fans are just all love, all the time and I really appreciate that.”
As we reported earlier, the overwhelming support by the players for Jackson, despite a fan base that seems to love its players, particularly its superstar, doesn’t seem to have a mathematical transitive relation to its coach.
O’Neal offers a solution for that.
“Anybody who has a question about Coach, tell them to come and spend some time with our team and you’ll get a better view on why we love him as a coach and as a person you know,” O’Neal said, “Whatever your opinion is in a negative way, if you feel that strongly about it, this is a very fair family friendly organization. Ask them to let you come down and spend some time with our team, see the type of love and respect we have for each other, see the type of preparation we put in and see the type of dedication that we have, trying to be a good team.”
O’Neal was particularly frustrated by the amount of negativity Jackson was getting in comparison with the wins the team was producing under the coach’s leadership.
“When you have a chance to win 50-plus games and every other week — we could win five games in a row and then lose a game — all of a sudden coach should be fired,” O’Neal explained, “To me, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen, especially from a city that’s so hungry for a winner. When you’ve got something good, fully cherish it.”
As Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group wrote:
O’Neal, whom Jackson noted was “underpaid” and “a steal” while playing on a $2 million, one-year contract, said he would choose Golden State despite the distance from family because Jackson has shown just how much he cares about his players.
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Offering up an example, the business-minded O’Neal said Jackson allowed him to miss practice Tuesday so he could go to Mountain View to attend Y Combinator’s Demo Day, which features startup companies making presentations.
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O’Neal also appreciated how Jackson has been mindful of putting too much of a physical burden on him because of his age and experience.
O’Neal went on about Jackson looking out for his players.
“This business, some of these coaches are about themselves and securing themselves financially or whatever it may be,” O’Neal said, “Coach Jackson, he comes to me every single day and says, ‘How are you feeling, be smart,’ even when I’m trying to push the needle a little bit. Sometimes I tell Coach, ‘Let me go, let me go,’ and he’s all, ‘Nah nah nah, just wait.’ That shows you that a coach like that, it’s easy for him to be pushing the needle and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to run you guys to death because we want the perception to be that we’re just grinding and working really hard.'”
Jackson has maintained throughout his tenure that his priority is to allow players to perform at their best when called upon, a “players’ coach”, as they say.
“Coach has done a great job on keeping us very even keel, keeping it easy going,” O’Neal explained, “It’s kind of strange because even when we have guys out — normally on teams you’re worried a little bit when you have some of your main guys out — but for us, he just instills that confidence, that ‘Hey, it’s your turn, we are fully capable of winning with you.'”
O’Neal finished up answering the question about Jackson by offering a plea to #DubNation.
“You want something special to happen for the people that support us. Just give us a chance,” O’Neal said, “Just give us a shot to finish this season. Let things fall as they may and then you make your evaluation after that. Don’t be negative just because something doesn’t go the way you think it should go.”
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