/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/33107251/GYI0063575516.0.jpg)
I'm going to lead with four passages from four different pieces that have percolated since and in between the Mark Jackson firing and Steve Kerr hiring. In numerically dated order, the respective articles are linked in the names of the websites.
Adam Lauridsen of San Jose Mercury News:
Jackson carefully cultivated the image that he was loved by his players. For many, that’s undoubtedly the truth. Curry couldn’t have been more vocal in supporting him and others have weighed in after his departure. But according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation, not everyone felt the same way, with roughly half the locker room ambivalent or worse in their views on Jackson. The public got a glimpse of this during the Bogut sleep-injury brouhaha.
Jesse Taylor of WarriorsWorld:
Some of the players began to see through Jackson’s false bravado. The team was winning, but how much could be attributed to Jackson’s motivational tactics versus the fact that this was a talented group of players who were overcoming the coaching staff’s lack of preparation and game planning. Some players began to lose faith in their leader.
Marcus Thompson of Bay Area News Group:
Curry said he would prefer if ties were severed and that was it. But he admitted it stings to hear the way people talk about Jackson. It feels a bit excessive.
"It’s definitely frustrating for that to be the narrative about coach," Curry said. "We accomplished a lot. We’ve done things this franchise hasn’t done in a long time. Management, coach and us players had parts in that."
Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report:
"Guys are going to look at it from a race standpoint," the player said. "It shows what this was all about when they cut him as quick as they did. Guys question, 'Is this really about winning or is it about the way you want the place to look like?' "
The quotes from unnamed players, anecdotes from unnamed sources and pointed comments from Stephen Curry all coalesce to form a total clusterf*** of a situation. Or at least that's the perception that's given to the general public at this point. As it is with any break point of a relationship, the messy splits are beginning - they actually began a long time ago but fun quotes are starting to surface again with the expensive hire of an inexperienced Caucasian coach that doubles as Joe Lacob's BFF - to split and fray the edges.
This is probably way more overblown that it should be but that's the power of social media in the 21st century, or whatever age we're calling ourselves nowadays. The apparent silence of a few on Twitter ostensibly indicates that players ready to strike a mutiny. Whether it be Draymond Green or Jermaine O'Neal (the two likely outspoken players) that spoke out in Bucher's comments, there's still the other issue that not everyone in the locker room was quite as smitten with Mark Jackson's antics.
But my hand-waving of this entire situation doesn't quite wash away the collective racial issue at hand. Take a moment and read some of Jacob Greenberg and Kevin Draper's work over at The Diss. Or listen to Bomani Jones speak. Or drop Nate Parham and Tomas Rios a follow on Twitter. Those guys know what they're talking about.
Whichever way this is heading, the Steve Kerr hiring has made massive waves, creating the kind of pressure that's surely going to consume him and the Golden State Warriors next season.