What Would the Spurs Do?

…and if that isn’t possible (very likely) play him and suspend him according to his actions. If it gets bad enough, send him home to Texas for the rest of the season on a paid holiday and tell him he better show up next year a different man. Perhaps he could rehab his reputation in that time well enough so that we could actually trade him a year from now.

DON’T take long term money back and DON’T give away other Warrior prospects just to move him. Consider offering our expirings or even prospects only if truly needed talent were coming back this year.

Your idea does have a lot of logic, but I think its bad logic… This isn’t just about making our team look good; I think it’s more about protecting our assets. Jackson still has a lot of influence on the younger players, because he is a vet with a ring. Keeping him here and sitting him on the bench really doesn’t improve his value either IMO, just as it didn’t for Stephon Marbury in NY last year. And yes our management has made bad trades… but I don’t think this would be one of them. Stephen Jackson’s contract is WAY too long and cost WAY too much. I also think this is probably the peak of the remaining years on his contract in terms of being a good basketball player. If we wait a year, he loses another step and his contract will look even worse. To me, your article is basically saying keep him here to teach him a lesson, and show the league(and him) who is boss, however IMO that is just immature and would further disgrace our management. That is like telling a battered wife not to leave her husband because she has a history of abusive relationships, and telling her to wait while she takes karate classes and lifts weights until she can finally beat up her husband for revenge. IT’S JUST A RIDICULOUS IDEA THAT WOULD BE UNLIKELY TO HAPPEN, JUST AS THE BENIFIT OF KEEPING JACKSON HERE TO"SHOW HIM WHO’S BOSS". Yeah it would be nice to flex our authority for a change; I just don’t think this is the right situation to try to do it.

Tilte was to be: “The 2nd Reclamation of Stephen Jackson”

Now I’m going to have to get a little bracelet with the letters WWTSD.

Anyway, I say the same thing I said last month, sit Jackson for a while. Sit him and make him watch. Sit him with his own assistant coach assigned to him, showing him all of the things that the other Warriors are doing right. Sit him, and if he starts to come around, start listening to what he sees happening on the court. Sit him and teach him how to be a savvy veteran team player. Teach him how to be a leader. Give him every opportunity to show that he wants to live up to his contract without touching the court. Then, if he comes around, he’ll be a much better asset to the team, as he’ll understand the offense, understand the coaches, see the very real skills the rest of the team has, and have a motivation to play.

 If this does not work, and his poor attitude carries on for more than a month, void his contract for fraud. There is plenty of very public evidence and an unrequited, well documented effort to rehabilitate the relationship would make it abundantly clear the Jackson intends to attempt to collect paychecks without fulfilling the obligations he agreed to to earn them.

The league offices would likely back the Warriors on this; they have got to be sick and tired of dealing with Marburys and Tinsleys; and Jackson is already demonstrably on their persona non grata list (see fine for trade demand earlier this summer compared to Kobe, etc.) The NBA just doesn’t need the unwelcome publicity that a player like Jackson brings, especially when that publicity appears to hep drive away fans.

The Players Union, while likely not happy about the development, would be far less likely to come to the defense of a player who demonstrably quits on his team. Players know that when a player negotiates a contract as Jackson has, then quits on his team as Jackson appears to be, backing him up (and making sure he gets paid) only makes it harder for them to get paid in the future. Why? because teams have to factor the risk that they will turn out to be a fraudulent quitter into contract negotiations. This may not show up in individual contracts, where teams end up in bidding wars or believe they can protect themselves by smart front office work, but it will very likely show up in the pending collective bargaining negotiations, where the league has a very strong incentive to prevent teams (and the quality of play) from being destroyed by greedy, fraudulent, quitters. Coincidentally, the players themselves have a strong incentive to prevent the perception that NBA players are greedy quitters who whine – instead of work – to get what they want.

Jackson is painting himself in to a corner. Possessed by the demon-spirit of Al Harrington, Jackson has completely destroyed all possible trade value he ever had. This combined with the foolish contract he insisted on negotiating for (and the Warriors foolishly gave him) make him absolutely impossible to move – why would a contender risk anything on a malcontent and aging complementary player like Jackson? Why would a rebuilding team take him when he has already said he wants to play for a contender; that’s why he’s upset now. Even a team looking to dump a really bad contract would rather have a quiet really bad contract than Jackson and his contract. How many offers did the Knicks get for Marbury last season? He was willing to play.

If his pride will ever let him see them, maybe the Warriors can help Jackson learn from his mistakes and gain an even more valuable asset in return. If not, simply the threat of voiding the deal might be sufficient to negotiate a tolerable buy-out, but only if it is clear that all bridges have been burned.

(One potential doomsday solution – ie. none of the above works – if Cohan is willing to spend the money: trade Jackson and cash considerations paying a substantial portion of his salary to a team that needs money now, in a bad way, and can send back a player who’s contract expires in the next two years. Jackson, expiring contracts, a draft pick + 20 million dollars might be sufficient to persuade the Jazz to part with Kirilenko, but even then I’m probably dreaming.)

Its not hard to build a winner when you are blessed with robinson/duncan. Let me reitterate, you need to be really dumb to mess it up.