When Draymond Green finally got his longtime Golden State Warriors teammate Klay Thompson onto his infamous podcast, it somehow ended up in both men stumping for Mark Jackson.
The two spent considerable time talking about their first NBA head coach on “The Draymond Green Show,” in an episode released Monday. Jackson was the Warriors’ head coach when both players were rookies (Thompson was a 2011 draft pick, and Green was selected in 2012) and manned the bench until the Dubs fired him in the 2014 offseason and hired Steve Kerr as his replacement.
Both heaped praise on Jackson’s ability to build up their confidence as young players, with Thompson saying Jackson’s words “did so much for me” and Green saying Jackson’s ability to give a young player confidence is “one of his strong suits.” Green then spoke about the young teams around the NBA, the ones who “can’t get a win, suck year in and year out,” and asked Thompson what he thinks about Jackson not getting hired for those gigs.
“Yeah, it’s strange. It just doesn’t add up,” Thompson said, invoking the Warriors’ ascension to a dynasty after Jackson’s three-year stint. “Because without Mark, there’s no foundation for what was to come, especially defensively. I mean, we had the top rated defense in consecutive years with Mark.”
Thompson continued, discussing how Jackson let him and Steph Curry shoot 3-pointers at a high volume. Thompson said that was “taboo” at the time, but the strategy has now taken over the sport. In Thompson’s words: “If it wasn’t for Mark, this would never have happened.”
“It does not make very much sense, how he has not had another shot to lead a franchise. But I hope he really does because, man, he was great,” Thompson continued. “Those are really special memories for not only me, but when you were young, and Steph, and all the guys we played with: Kent [Bazemore], HB [Harrison Barnes], Festus [Ezeli]. We were a young team, and without that kind of false bravado that Mark provided, we would have never believed we could beat a Tim Duncan-led Spurs, or go to Denver and win a playoff series being 23 years old, 22, some young 20-year-olds.”
Thompson concluded by saying he “doesn’t know why that hasn’t happened” and said Jackson was “a joy to play for.” Green quickly added, “I second that.”
Despite Thompson and Green’s posturing, it’s really not a mystery why Jackson hasn’t gotten another head coaching gig. While no one disputes the positive impact he had on the then-budding Warriors stars, Jackson created significant internal tension with the front office, as has been widely reported since he was let go.
“Part of it was that he couldn’t get along with anybody else in the organization,” owner Joe Lacob said of Jackson in December 2014, a few months after firing Jackson. “And look, he did a great job, and I’ll always compliment him in many respects, but you can’t have 200 people in the organization not like you.”
While the internal struggle was the main reason Jackson got fired, there was a perception pushed even by former Warriors player Andre Iguodala that his homophobic views were also a factor. Jackson’s prejudices were known in the locker room, according to a report at the time; a 2022 story from Ethan Strauss, who covered the Warriors in the mid-2010s for ESPN and now runs the House of Strauss newsletter, reported that Jackson uttered homophobic slurs about then-Warriors President Rick Welts and NBA player Jason Collins, who came out publicly as gay in 2013.
During a 2022 interview on KNBR, Strauss said Jackson was fired because he “couldn’t manage up,” and not for the reported homophobic comments. Since leaving Golden State, Jackson has been in the running for other NBA head coaching gigs, including two recent openings in California. He was a finalist for the Kings’ job in 2022, which ultimately went to Mike Brown, and was apparently favored by LeBron James when the Lakers had an opening that same offseason, though that job went to Darvin Ham.
Even a decade later, he still has two advocates in his ex-Warrior players Green and Thompson, who touched on a wide range of topics during an hourlong conversation — one Green apparently had been seeking to have on his podcast for more than a year. They discussed Steve Kerr’s impact on their careers, how Thompson reacts when Green gets ejected or suspended, Thompson’s upcoming free agency and even Thompson’s boat and love of nautical travel.
Thompson and Green also ribbed Curry a little bit, with Green quipping that Thompson holding the record for 14 3-pointers in a single game “still stings” the point guard. Thompson commented that he could have made even more shots from deep against the Bulls in the 2018 game, but Kerr pulled him out before he could.
“I know he wants to beat it bad, but he’s No. 2,” Thompson said of Curry. “Him and Zach [LaVine] are No. 2 and they can stay there, hopefully. That record will be broken, records are meant to be broken, so I’m going to enjoy it while I got it, but it’s going to be broken one day. I just hope they put an asterisk next to mine, like, ‘did it in 27 minutes.’”