Keidel: Mark Jackson Should Receive Another Chance To Coach In NBA

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There's been a lingering assumption that the Golden State Warriors were once a team on the edge of greatness, but didn't have the right leader to take them there. 

Mark Jackson had become head coach of the Warriors during the 2011-'12 season, and the club finished with a better record every year he was there. They finished the 2013-'14 season with a 51-31 record. Despite reaching the playoffs in his only two full seasons as coach - ballooning from 23 wins his first year to 51 in his third - the Warriors booted the former point guard for a former shooting guard. And if they were looking for Jackson's opposite, they could not have made a better choice. 

The media swooned over Steve Kerr because he was cool, progressive, and political. He looked like a hipster; spoke like that cool uncle whose young soul belies his age. If Jackson believed in discipline and his religious tenets, Kerr was the laid-back peer to his well-heeled players, way more bro than boss. The team continued to soar, won a historic number of regular-season games, won five Pacific Division titles, five Western Conference titles, and three NBA titles. 

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Steph Curry turned the three-pointer the new home run. Klay Thompson was the perfect No. 2. Draymond Green was the scrappy bodyguard of the team. And Kerr was the conductor of this hardwood symphony, the soothsayer who learned at the altars of Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich. Since Kerr had never coached an NBA team, it was just assumed the sheer pliability of his personality was the tonic for an NBA team with big dreams. 

How's all that going now?

While Kerr averaged 64.4 wins over five sparkling seasons, he's now lording over a team that has lost seven straight, nine of their last ten, and is 2-12 in his sixth season, good for last place in the Western Conference. Funny how the coaching wizard forfeits his wand once he no longer rolls with an All-Star team. Now that Curry and Thompson are injured, and the roster is stripped down to spare parts, Kerr is just another coach who must somberly speak to the media every night. 

Maybe Kerr was perfect for the young Warriors. But it's absurd to assume Mark Jackson could not have won with the same team. Lost in the faerie dust of the Warriors' history is the fact that Curry was just blossoming into a sharp-shooting savant. Thompson was just maturing into his role as the best all-around 2-guard in the game. And Green was just 23 years old when Jackson coached his last game in Oakland. 

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Even with those players in their prime, Kerr's Warriors still failed to win an NBA ring with a 73-9 squad. And folks conveniently forget that the Warriors added the human cheat code, Kevin Durant, long after Jackson was booted to the broadcast booth, where he grew into an All-Star in another job, calling games with Jeff Van Gundy for ABC.  

Jackson has a rep as a stern coach who lives by strong religious principles. He doesn't need to be your BFF, and takes the more traditional view of the coach-player bond. For some reason, people say his style wasn't working, when clearly it was. Yet he gets the rep as the anchor that kept the Warriors from flying and has yet to get another gig on an NBA bench. 

Jackson's basketball bona fides are flawless. He played high school ball in the Big Apple. He spent a fabulous college career playing for St. John's, part of those glory days for the Big East under Lou Carnesecca. Then Jackson won NBA Rookie of the Year as point guard of the Knicks. He ended his career with 10,334 assists, fourth-most in league history. Just as catchers see baseball from the widest (and often wisest) perspective, NBA guards see the floor like few others. And it's hard to imagine Jackson, who is the same age as Kerr (54) and was a far better player, would struggle to connect with current players. 

Pretty soon the Knicks will be looking for a coach. Unlike the Warriors, the Knicks are always abysmal. They just beat the Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden after 11 straight home losses to Cleveland, dating back to 2014. They are 4-10, tied for the most losses in the Eastern Conference. Many New Yorkers wanted Patrick Ewing to get the gig before he accepted the head-coaching job at Georgetown. But not even Ewing was ready for the Knicks, a team that's hired and fired a conga line of coaches (12 in all) this young century. 

But Mark Jackson has the bio, talent, and temperament to coach the Knicks. After whiffing on every free agent of note, the Knicks are already lottery-bound, planting their flag in their familiar place in the cellar of the standings. If there is to be a rebirth of NYC basketball, perhaps it takes a native New Yorker to deliver it. 

Twitter: @JasonKeidel