I think Curry said it all. What I hated at the time was HOW the firing was handled, and the bad-mouthing by Lacob at a conference later. I think the FO grew up from that experience. As far as the coaching goes, his greatest asset was he was a great motivator, which young guys needed. As far as his coaching staff goes, they were never "his; most had a Lacob connection (his sons HS coach?) and, spent time reporting to the FO (taping the coach in the locker room?). At any rate, everyone was ready for Steve Kerr: the tightly-knit/motivated players and the FO.
Interesting to hear Curry's take on Jackson: that he understood things from a player perspective and could be inspirational. The coaching stuff at the time was just weird, and gave me pause. The "Pastor Mark" stuff seemed false to me. Kerr has been a very impressive human being from his freshman year in college. Obvious success wherever he went. Of course, Apricot is right - SVG would have been horrible.
I didn't know what to think when they fired Mark Jackson. Up to that point, the coaching decision of Lacob and Guber were hit and miss - firing Don Nelson and promoting Keith Smart looked like a bad move in real time, the defensive improvements under Jackson were real but hard to separate from the player improvements ... I couldn't tell if this ownership knew how to evaluate coaches.
Steve Kerr on the other hand - the player changes were minimal that summer, and the team changed in dramatic ways. Was his hiring a stroke of luck? Can we get metrics for ownership performance?
I was shocked that they fired Jackson. It seemed like they were jettisoning a good coach to try to shoot the moon.
But in retrospect, the killer to me was that Jackson feuded with his own staff. He didn't seem willing to listen to anyone. And that just wasn't going to work. Kerr himself has had his moments of strange in-game decisions, but he brought talented assistants and listened to them. He's worked well with the front office and ownership. He's a collaborative guy. Jackson... did not.
I think Curry said it all. What I hated at the time was HOW the firing was handled, and the bad-mouthing by Lacob at a conference later. I think the FO grew up from that experience. As far as the coaching goes, his greatest asset was he was a great motivator, which young guys needed. As far as his coaching staff goes, they were never "his; most had a Lacob connection (his sons HS coach?) and, spent time reporting to the FO (taping the coach in the locker room?). At any rate, everyone was ready for Steve Kerr: the tightly-knit/motivated players and the FO.
Seems to me he wasn’t fired as much for wins/losses, X’s/0’s or feuding with his coaches as much as he was for not understanding that he had bosses:
- Didn’t adequately communicate with Lacob and the rest
- Wouldn’t let Jerry West into the gym
- Wasn’t pretty blatant in his feelings toward LGBTQ+ folks, on a team with a gay president
Interesting to hear Curry's take on Jackson: that he understood things from a player perspective and could be inspirational. The coaching stuff at the time was just weird, and gave me pause. The "Pastor Mark" stuff seemed false to me. Kerr has been a very impressive human being from his freshman year in college. Obvious success wherever he went. Of course, Apricot is right - SVG would have been horrible.
I didn't know what to think when they fired Mark Jackson. Up to that point, the coaching decision of Lacob and Guber were hit and miss - firing Don Nelson and promoting Keith Smart looked like a bad move in real time, the defensive improvements under Jackson were real but hard to separate from the player improvements ... I couldn't tell if this ownership knew how to evaluate coaches.
Steve Kerr on the other hand - the player changes were minimal that summer, and the team changed in dramatic ways. Was his hiring a stroke of luck? Can we get metrics for ownership performance?
I was shocked that they fired Jackson. It seemed like they were jettisoning a good coach to try to shoot the moon.
But in retrospect, the killer to me was that Jackson feuded with his own staff. He didn't seem willing to listen to anyone. And that just wasn't going to work. Kerr himself has had his moments of strange in-game decisions, but he brought talented assistants and listened to them. He's worked well with the front office and ownership. He's a collaborative guy. Jackson... did not.