Former Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson hit the radio circuit this morning to discuss his feelings about being fired yesterday.
On relationship with Kirk Lacob, MJax: "I had no problem with Kirk...Kirk called my phone last night and went against has been reported."
— Sea Dubs Central (@SeaDubsCentral) May 7, 2014
Some parts of the interviews echoed what Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News reported yesterday, but Kevin Trahan of SB Nation summarized some of the key points from his interviews on The Dan Patrick Show and 95.7 The Game in an article published earlier today. And among the more consistent themes in his interviews is that there is a lot of misinformation out there in terms of how all of this transpired, as illustrated in this excerpt from his interview with Dan Patrick.
On unnamed sources and leaks:
"I believe that for both sides, it was a tough, draining year. Too many sources. I go into a meeting to discuss the job opportunity, and before I come out, it's been tweeted, and I'm in the meeting. And then I'm being fired. That's not how you do business, and you're worrying about business relations?"
"You did know a lot, but you also heard a lot of lies. Jerry West wasn't banned from practice ... There certainly was a lot of stuff that was told and lied about and leaked, and some of it wound up ultimately being true, as far as my job being at risk, and friction, and people believing that I didn't have relationships and all of that.
Jackson spoke in a lot of vague terms, which prompted Patrick to suggest that he was holding back; you can respect that he's taking the high road here, but - as outsiders still trying to make sense of all of this- he left a lot to be desired in terms of what exactly happened leading up to this situation.
As an example, although he wouldn't say that he would've resigned had he not been fired he also made it crystal clear that the frustration went both ways and the fact that information about his job was leaked before he even left the meeting didn't exactly seem to help alleviate that.
For now, all we can say is that this was a situation that was deteriorating fast - independent of who's to blame - and got to a point where coach and management couldn't co-exist.
You can hear the interview on 95.7 The Game by clicking here. For more excerpts from his radio interviews, check out the article at SB Nation. For more on this developing story, check out our storystream with reaction to the coaching change and analysis of Mark Jackson as a coach.