And on his seventh attempt, Mark Jackson nailed it.
He got the position he desired. He’s an NBA head coach, without
gaining the experience some suggested he acquire.
By Monte Poole – The Oakland Tribune
OAKLAND, Calif. – And on his seventh attempt, Mark Jackson nailed it.
He got the position he desired. He’s an NBA head coach, without gaining the experience some suggested he acquire.
Jackson never bought into that concept, even as he spent recent years interviewing with six franchises, none of which hired him.
But the former point guard who spent 17 seasons in the league impressed Warriors general manager Larry Riley, gained the approval of heavyweight consultant Jerry West and, most important, sold himself to team co-owner Joe Lacob, who hired Jackson.
Lacob deserves credit for entering the process thinking big and exiting boldly. The new coach has enough swagger and allure to fill a room. As a player, Jackson couldn’t make a 3-pointer without adding a wiggle-and-shimmy flourish.
He also possesses abundant bravado, as he proved the other day when he told reporters in Dallas that the Warriors will be a playoff team next year and, moreover, that the team’s new brain trust is “looking to turn the Bay Area upside down.”
The cynic might cringe at such bombast, recalling how a newly hired Raiders coach boasted during his introductory news conference of winning “multiple Super Bowls.”
Joe Bugel led the Silver and Black to a 4-12 record in 1997. He did not return for ’98.
Jackson, however, was just being himself. He is, like Lacob, almost imperious in his conviction that he’ll have a positive his impact. The new coach has strategic ideas, but that’s not the primary reason he was hired. Nor is it the most important trait in an NBA head coach. Jackson’s greatest asset is his effect on those around him.
He is, and has been since he was a prep star at Brooklyn’s Bishop Loughlin High, a natural at commanding the respect of those in his midst.
“I’ve been a leader my entire life,” Jackson told reporters covering the NBA finals, where he is working as a game analyst for ABC/ESPN, “and I’m not going to accept anything other than a total commitment from everybody that puts on a Warriors jersey and everybody that’s committed in this organization.”
Yet there are lingering concerns about his lack of experience. Never, at any level, has Jackson been a head coach – or even an official assistant.
“It’s a legitimate question,” said Chris Mullin, the former Warriors player and executive who has known Jackson since 1980. “And it will be answered in the long run. I think he’ll be great.”
Jackson is following the blueprint of Doc Rivers, who followed that of Larry Bird insofar as neither had been a coach. Both were highly intelligent and widely respected former players, both own winning records as an NBA head coach and both succeeded by building relationships with players and leaning on their assistants.
Though Bird was the head coach in Indiana, most of the strategy was designed by Rick Carlisle (offense) and Dick Harter (defense). And Rivers, clearly the spiritual head of the Celtics, might not have the 2008 championship without the defensive wizardry of assistant Tom Thibodeau, now head coach in Chicago.
As part of Boston’s ownership group in ’08, Lacob observed this dynamic, saw it result in a championship. That makes it easier to take the risk that comes with hiring a first-time head coach based more on intangibles than tactical aptitude.
He’s willing to trust Jackson in ways the Knicks and Hornets and Timberwolves and Suns and Bulls and Hawks – teams that previously interviewed Jackson – could not.
The strategic arm of Jackson’s staff will be led by assistant Mike Malone, stolen from under the nose of the Lakers, who were trying to pry him from New Orleans. Malone’s reputation is as a defensive strategist, perhaps the next Thibodeau.
Today’s NBA coach need not be an ace strategist. It’s more important that he manage players, build bridges between the front office and the roster and set the tone for dedication and expectation.
“This is new to me,” Jackson said. “I would be the first to tell you I don’t know everything. I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything. I’m smart enough to be secure enough to put people around me that can put me in position to be effective and to get the job done.”
Aside from inheriting a fabulous roster, there is no foolproof formula to project the success of an NBA head coach. Veterans flame out. Neophytes produce. A disciplinarian such as Gregg Popovich does well, a disciplinarian such as Jim Cleamons falls on his butt.
Jackson stuck to the belief that he needed no coaching experience to run a team. He’s talking big, sticking out his chin, like the New Yawk native he is.
He’ll win the news conference. To win more games, though, he’ll need a better roster.
