Mark Jackson, analyst, ESPN
Mark Jackson is in his sixth season back with ESPN as a color commentator on the network’s NBA broadcasts after spending three years with the cable giant from 2008-11.
Jackson, who played 17 seasons in the NBA, including parts of seven with the New York Knicks, has just three years of coaching experience on his resume. He was the head coach of the Golden State Warriors from 2011-14, going 121-109 over three seasons and leading Golden State back to the playoffs for the first time since the We Believe club in 2007.
Jackson was fired after losing to the LA Clippers in a seven-game first-round series in 2014 amid reports of dysfunction on his staff and Jackson forcing a reassignment of assistant coach Brian Scalabrine to the team’s G League affiliate. Later in the season, another assistant coach, Darren Erman, was fired.
ESPN later reported Erman’s dismissal was for secretly recording conversations between coaches and players without anyone’s consent to do so.
So there could be some lingering doubts about Jackson’s ability to control a coaching staff, much less control a locker room.
That the Warriors went on to five straight NBA Finals and won three championships immediately after Jackson’s departure can’t sit entirely well with Jackson, who was the NBA Rookie of the Year for the Knicks in 1987-88.
But the 54-year-old Jackson is a New Yorker through and through, born in Brooklyn, a prep standout at Bishop Loughlin Memorial in Brooklyn, an All-American at St. John’s and an All-Star with the Knicks.
That might make him a popular hire with the fans, something management may consider as a factor after just six playoff appearances and three series victories since the Dolan era began 20 years ago.