Mark Jackson is back at the broadcasting table and Steve Kerr is in Jackson’s red hot coaching seat at Golden State. Jackson did a lot with this Warrior franchise. His biggest mistake might have been overachieving, raising expectations too high too fast. When he couldn’t push the Warriors deeper into the playoffs last year, despite being without 7-footer Andrew Bogut, management decided to go with Kerr. Jackson is a my-way-or-highway perfectionist and his style apparently irked some front office people. Players worked hard for him, clearly. Didn’t Golden State ownership like the winning?
Whether it was hubris to fire Jackson or enlightened decision-making will be seen soon, as Steve Kerr takes control of this talented team. Golden State will start an athletic, big, interesting squad in Steph Curry, Bogut, David Lee, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson. If Kerr has this team working right, there is really no more interesting starting five in the league (with apologies to Cleveland, San Antonio, OKC and Dallas). Remember a lot of people in Chicago were upset when the Bulls fired Doug Collins (1989) after he had done a very good job improving Michael Jordan’s Bulls. Warriors coach Steve Kerr played for the guy who replaced Collins–guy by the name of Phil Jackson. The Warriors are hoping this move turns out just like that.
