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The self-aware Stephen Jackson rips players who choose money over winning
Let’s just get right into this, as our subject often does.
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Stephen Jackson, a man who played 14 seasons in the NBA with eight different teams (one of them, whom we’ll discuss later, twice), is attempting to make a comeback after failing to latch on with any squads following a nine-game stint with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2013-14. In a recent interview with HoopsHype, in the midst of discussing his bonafides, Captain Jack went all in on the snot-nosed money-grubbers that make up too much of the ranks of the modern NBA:
“There’s a lot of guys in the NBA right now that are making money but they really don’t care if they win or lose as long as they are getting the paycheck and I’ve never been like that.
“That’s the sad part of the NBA right now, that there are some players that are making a lot of money but they don’t really care about winning games and bringing the championship or a winning season to the organization, and that’s what the fans are complaining about. And that’s why a lot of fans want me back in the game. Because they know I appreciate the game, I’m not just there to get a paycheck.”
In 2002-03 Stephen Jackson played for the San Antonio Spurs. He started 58 games during the regular season and all 24 of its playoff games ahead of rookie Manu Ginobili (still nursing an ankle injury from the World Championships the summer before), averaging 12.8 points per game in the postseason. He was absolutely key in the team’s eventual run to the title, notching 17 points in the team’s deciding Game 6 Finals win over the New Jersey Nets.
In the offseason, he signed a two-year deal with a player option for the second year with the Atlanta Hawks, a team that missed the playoffs the year before and fired its coach (Lon Kruger) 37 games into the season. That offseason, Atlanta relinquished the rights to several free agents and dealt its second-best player (Glenn Robinson) in a massive trade that would only net them the insurance paid-for contract of Terrell Brandon, who had already played his last game and would act as a payroll break.
The understanding was that Jackson would not only earn Bird Rights with the Hawks and sign a major deal the next summer, after the Hawks won just 28 games and fielded 23 total players in 2003-04, but ramp up his value as a major scoring threat on a terrible team. With the plan successfully executed, prior to 2004-05 Jackson signed a six-year, $40 million deal with the Atlanta Hawks and was immediately shipped to the Indiana Pacers. The Spurs went on to win the title that year.
Jackson used his short time with Atlanta to load up his resume in ways that went beyond “championship role player.” He finished second on the team with 18.1 points per game, and parlayed that into a hefty contract (for its time). It’s true the Spurs were looking to clear cap space in the summer of 2003, but Jackson certainly could have stuck in San Antonio (the defending champs) for what he ended up making during his lone, shot-happy season in Atlanta (the minimum of $1 million).
Instead, he chose to leave a champion to go to a terrible team in order to loft enough shots to secure a big pay day. Good for him, we’d say, if he weren’t out here 13 years later criticizing unnamed players for doing the same thing.
Players, that, frankly, we’re having a hard time finding.
Bismack Biyombo left a Toronto Raptors team that made the Eastern finals this summer to sign as a possible backup in Orlando, but that was only after Toronto informed him that they weren’t in the business of paying well over $30 million a year for its two centers. Dwyane Wade and Joe Johnson left the Heat this offseason, but for a hometown team (Chicago) in Wade’s case, and what will be a better team (Utah) in Johnson’s case. Harrison Barnes did leave the Golden State Warriors this summer for Dallas, but only after the Warriors dumped his massive cap hold in its successful attempt to sign Kevin Durant.
Durant? He left a very good team for the greatest regular season team in NBA history, and Stephen Jackson’s reaction was one many of us share:
“Well, it’s all about winning. You can’t be really mad at Durant, he wants to win. He had the chance to win last year with the Thunder against Golden State but he didn’t. Me personally, I would have stayed, give it a shot and stay loyal to the organization. There’s no other guy in the NBA like Russell Westbrook, he’s a triple-double assassin every year. But you have to respect this man’s decision.”
But back to Stephen Jackson, who has always been about the money.
After the Golden State Warriors rescued him from his incident and suspension-marred turn in Indiana, Jackson decided to use his initial burst of very good production with the team to agree to a three-year contract extension two years before the deal he signed with the Hawks was going to expire. Mid-contract extensions are a rarity then and now, but Jackson scammed a team into paying him over $10 million during the season he turned 35 (a season that saw him shoot 37 percent from the field and 27 percent from long range), and good for him.
After Jackson made his relationship with the Warriors unworkable, they sent him packing to Charlotte, a team desperate to make the playoffs for the first time in its history, loading up on overpaid vets. The then-Bobcats did make the playoffs in 2010, with Jackson getting hefty minutes and hefty shots, but expectedly they missed the postseason the next year and Jackson was flipped to Milwaukee after 2010-11.
It was there that, during his introductory press conference, Jackson already began pining publicly for yet another contract extension on a deal that had two years left on it, calling the move “mandatory.”
Stephen Jackson seemed to be the only person associated with the NBA that was unaware that the Bucks could offer no such extension at the time, and that the NBA as a whole was hours away from locking out its players and stopping all such transactions (you couldn’t acquire LeBron James for a second round pick, if Miami offered) due to the work stoppage that would begin hours after the press conference.
(Jackson also wanted a contract extension with a 35-win Bucks team, it should also be reminded, because it’s all about the winning.)
The swingman was eventually dealt back to the Warriors after shooting 35 percent in his lone season in Milwaukee, who traded him back to San Antonio a few days later. Jackson partially redeemed himself during the postseason in 2012, shooting a playoff-leading 60.5 percent from long range during the Spurs’ three-round turn, but he was released just before the playoffs in 2013 after complaining about playing time.
San Antonio offered the release months earlier so that Jackson could catch on with another playoff squad, but Jackson refused. Due to the timing of the release, he missed out on his chance to play in the 2013 postseason, a playoff run that saw the Spurs take the Heat to seven games in the NBA Finals before falling just short of a title.
In 2013-14, the season that would have served as the first extension year of the contract Jackson asked for back in Milwaukee, he shot just 23 percent in nine games with the Clippers before his release. He hasn’t played in the NBA since.
According the Stephen Jackson, Rajon Rondo and Jimmy Butler “want [him] on the Bulls,” and he relayed that Steve Kerr is aware of his offseason work habits and the potential for him to contribute to an NBA team at age 38.
We’d love to see him back in the league. It’s always nice to have guys who are good for a hilariously unaware quote.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
