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WTFever, we'll never know what REALLY happened anyway.
Came across this article:
"While some face termination for not working hard enough, former Spurs forward Stephen Jackson said he was dismissed from the team for wanting to give more. “We had a disagreement,” Stephen told Sister 2 Sister about his most recent coach Gregg Popovich. “He wanted me to agree to players being better than me, and I didn’t agree. I’ve been in the NBA a long time, so it’s just something I didn’t agree with and something I have no control over. He’s the coach. He controls who plays, and he controls the team, which I do respect. At the same time, I know what I can do and what I been doing my whole career, and I’m far from ready to hang it up. So, I can’t let one person tell me where I’m at 35-years-old. To me, it just didn’t make no sense.”
So, instead of heading to the playoffs, where he’s helped teams like Golden State and Charlotte compete before, Stephen and his wife Renata are enjoying an early vacation.
However, the NBA veteran said if the Spurs’ management had either granted him more playing time or released him from his contract earlier, he may have been able to help another team advance to the playoffs.
“It was talked about before the all-star break, before the trade deadline…about me not wanting to be here and me going to other teams, but they wouldn’t do it then,” Stephen explained. “If they would have done it then, I would be on another team right now.”
While he’s not sure what team he’ll end up on, Stephen is confident that he’ll have a lot to offer as he has in the past.
“I went to Golden State and helped them get to the playoffs my first year there, and they haven’t been to the playoffs in 13 years. I played in Charlotte…and I got them to the playoffs. So, every team I go to, I make them better,” said Stephen, who considers it a blessing just to be in the NBA…and on the court.
“I don’t want to be a guy who’s just sitting on the bench stealing money,” he said."
http://s2smagazine.com/70298/stephen...spurs-release/
He had good intentions but there was a better way to handle it. Constant ing and moaning isn't the way to do it. You do it by playing well on the court. If he was playing better than the other guys in front of him Pop would play him more minutes. Just like the OKC series.
Anyway, take with a grain of salt as this is only one side of the story.
It was just a battle of egos and now the team is ed
Should have sent him to help the Hawks get into the playoffs.
they are both stubborn s
It is hard to imagine SJax immediately being signed in the off-season by an NBA team. Being waived a few games before the playoffs b/c of a dispute with your coach is pretty low, imo. A playoff team could possibly give him a call-up possibly midway through next season due to his playoff success, but I can't see it beforehand.
To stay and keep some things civil with Pop, do people on here agree that Jackson should have got more minutes knowing how terrible he has looked all year? With Diaw in, he wasn't gonna take many minutes at the power forward spot so his minutes would have solely been taken from Leonard. Agree or disagree?
Glad he's gone. His words weren't going to get him playing time. He needed to perform well in the minutes he was getting but failed to do so. So pop put him at the end of the bench. Easy.
He did nothing to show he deserved more time. Saying that, he would have had PLENTY of chances to prove himself in the playoffs.
The fact that Jack is running around telling the coach he's better than other players suggests that he doesn't get it. His role wasn't to sit on the bench and do nothing; it was to provide leadership and show young players how to be professional and how to always be ready. Instead, Jack sucked it up whenever he got time and seems to have been antagonizing other players on the team for getting playing time over him. Jack failed as a team member much more than he failed as a player.
I think Pop sincerely wanted to give Jack a lot of playing time. We all know he prefers to give veterans time over younger players. But Jack just couldn't get it done and he doesn't seem able to admit to himself that his bad play was his fault. It's a shame, a terrible shame. But it's over now, and everyone should move on. If Jack truly wants to play again, he's probably best served to not say anything about what happened. The Spurs were one of the last teams who'd endorse him.
I like Jack.
But when you shoot 30%, make dumb mistakes, and constantly to the officials you probably shouldn't be on the court. He's gotta take some ownership.
If the spurs traded him they would really look like some heartless s in light of his loss at the time. I bet he wouldnt have taken that well, so he needs to shut up about being on another team.
Prove your better by playing better. Not by ing and crying.
adios.
Truth bomb.
Damn I love me some Stephen Jackson but he should know better than to do something like this. My guess is that Stephen Jacksons mere presence in the locker room was causing division thus his Exodus. Some players probably were taking sides and Pop hates and eliminates any distractions.
Pop is a real professional and so is Jackson. I assume they came to a mutual agreement to part ways peacefully.
Jax epitaph: "the gangsta mentality did him in in the end"
Well said. It wasn't like Jack was getting DNP's, he had almost 20 minutes a game to show he was better. He didn't. Instead of going the leadership route, he complained.
Hope Jack catches on, but this path has an "Iverson" ending written all over it.
While I do feel for Jax, he just wants to play/contribute, if he wanted playing time, he should have performed better than he did. Even the most optimistic Spurfan acknowledged that he was playing like garbage, but were hoping he'd "turn it on" in the playoffs like Robert Horry. If the wanted minutes, he could have started by not being complete crap on the offensive end.
"I know what I can do and what I been doing my whole career,"
SJax seriously, terminally overrates himself.
He's not consistent, either as all around player and esp not as scorer. That's been true "my whole career", and it's more true at his age.
Sounds more and more it was just Pop's and Jax's egoes clashing. Stupid that it happened...
Exactly. If anything, players like Mills or Baynes may have better excuses to complain. (Not that I agree with any complaints from any players.)
Yep, and they clashed more than ever before. Too much pride between the two of them, with neither party willing to swallow any of it.
Jack would have a point if the minutes he was averaging, he was actually performing well but shooting 37% the entire season is just inexcusable. If we are all expecting Leonard to play up to 40 minutes in the playoffs, having Jack possibly cost us a few games in the PO would have turn this site upside down.
How soon he forgets 2003 and the fact that players like Steve Smith and Danny Ferry cheered from the bench as younger more inexperienced players played for and won a championship. It would have been very easy for someone as accomplished as Smith to complain that he was better than Jackson based on his history. Instead, he acted like a leader. Jackson will always be one of my favorite players for his heart and effort, but he played like crap this year and it was difficult to watch. Lenard is clearly the better player and if Jackson can't see that then its obviously that he does not realize that the wheels are falling off.
Same reason his first stint with us didn't work out (besides the money, obvi)
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