http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/11917424p-12804299c.html
NBA Beat: Jackson's baggage keeps piling up
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, January 2, 2005
Jim Jackson's reputation has soured again.
Since he held out most of his rookie season in 1992-93 with the Dallas Mavericks as the No. 4 pick, he has been labeled a malcontent - enormously talented but defiant of order and structure.
He never agreed with the assessment, of course, saying he was misjudged, that candor shouldn't brand a man.
Jackson, 34, is one of the NBA's true vagabonds. When the Kings signed him two months into the 2002-03 season, he fielded the inquiry from a desk in Ohio in his own business firm, where he dabbles in various interests. He had become a hired gun, picking and choosing where to ply his trade.
Though Jackson averaged a career-low 7.7 points as a Kings reserve that season, he had a career high in fun, saying often it was his most enjoyable season. He said then that he had matured, that he had grown to understand that he was in a business of change, moved along like so much cargo, useful to a point and then swapped for better goods. That season, he was content with his role as a versatile veteran for a team on the cusp of the NBA Finals.
Jackson became a free agent the next offseason, a sudden commodity because of his skills and seemingly refreshed attitude. He said he was greatly disappointed that the Kings didn't make an effort to re-sign him. He eventually agreed to a three-year deal with the Houston Rockets, with whom he became a starter again last season and this.
But with his warranty about to run out, or because the Rockets desperately needed point-guard help, he was shipped to the New Orleans Hornets on Monday for David Wesley. The Hornets would become his 11th team.
But as of the weekend, Jackson had not reported to a 2-26 team headed for NBA infamy. He has been suspended indefinitely. He lost $27,500 for missing one game already, part of his $2.475 million annual salary.
"I got the feeling from (talking to Jackson) that he didn't plan on showing up," Hornets coach Byron Scott told New Orleans reporters. "He said he was disappointed and that he didn't want to start over. He wants to have a chance to win a championship, just like 200 other people in this league." Jackson has next season remaining on his existing contract, wherever he'll be. Then he'll be a free agent again, likely back in a suit at a desk, ready to pick and choose.
Thanks but no thanks
Thirty years ago, he was the NBA's Coach of the Year with the Kansas City Kings.
These days, Phil Johnson is planted on the bench in Utah, Jerry Sloan's right-hand man for 17 years with no immediate plans to relocate.
Johnson was on a short list of candidates to replace the axed Jeff Bzdelik in Denver. He said the interest was "very serious" when he was contacted last week, and after discussing the possibility with Sloan and his family, he called Denver general manager Kiki Vandeweghe and pulled out of the running. Michael Cooper was promoted from assistant coach to interim boss in the meantime.
Loyal to Sloan, Johnson told Jazz reporters that there is too much work to do in Salt Lake City now to bail out. Utah endured its worst month in 22 years (3-12) after losing to the Kings on Friday. "We're in a tough time now, and I just felt like that's not the time you should leave," said Johnson, last a head coach with the Sacramento Kings in 1987. "It's nice to be wanted, of course, but when I analyzed it, I didn't want to be in interview mode right now, and I didn't feel right about the timing."
More Bzdelik
That must have been a gag line by Cooper, the new Nuggets coach on learning that, hey, you're the new man in charge, right? He told Denver reporters that Bzdelik's firing Tuesday "came out of left field."
Hardly. It had been bouncing around in left field since the offseason, picking up a little steam when Cooper was hired away from the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA to become the lead assistant.
Said Bzdelik: "After so many years in this league, nothing surprises me anymore."
Bzdelik went 73-119 with the Nuggets and will collect his entire $1.5 million for the final season of his contract. He likely will resurface next season as an assistant coach.
More Coop
Cooper's first day of practice at the Pepsi Center was "Meet the Team Day" for season-ticket holders. Chants of "Coop, Coop, Coop" rang out when he was introduced, and before long, there were pleas for a Cooper dunk, never mind he hadn't been a leaper of note since his Showtime era with the Los Angeles Lakers as the team's defensive specialist and alley-oop finisher.
Sure enough, Cooper looked his age, 48. He lost the ball on the way up for a dunk, fleeing to the bench amid laughter and saying his effort was "frutal," perhaps an exhausted effort to blend "futile" and "brutal" into one word. If nothing else, Cooper is about brevity.
Still no love
Divorce is never pretty, and it's not always about Kobe and Shaq.
Before his New Jersey Nets downed Scott Skiles' Chicago Bulls on Tuesday, Jason Kidd didn't deny calling Skiles, his coach in Phoenix, "a backstabber."
Kidd said Skiles was the one who pushed the Suns to trade Kidd to the Nets before the 2001-02 season.
"That's just the way I felt," Kidd told New Jersey media. "He's the reason I'm in New Jersey. You see - people link me to getting him fired. I wasn't there."
And his feelings for Skiles now?
"I really don't care about him," Kidd said. "He always wanted to beat me. He always thought he was better than me. But that's just the way it goes with Skiles. It's just a matter of what he has done behind the scenes. You ask his team. Ask Eddy Curry and all those guys how they feel about him."
When asked by Chicago media if he realized he and Kidd were no longer pals, Skiles said: "Yeah, we traded him. It's not brain surgery."
Where's the justice?
Jerry Stackhouse belted out a nice rendition of the national anthem Tuesday before his Dallas Mavericks hosted Boston, blowing away other athletes who shamed themselves in this sort of effort, such as the shrieking Carl Lewis. But Stackhouse was later thrown out of the game after picking up his second technical foul, probably marking some sort of first in NBA history.
"Guy sings the national anthem and gets ejected," Mavs guard Jason Terry told Dallas media. "That's a tough one."
Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki cracked, "He sings in the locker room all the time. It's getting to the point where it's a bit much."
Webber, meanwhile, grew up singing in his Detroit church choir but insisted he isn't national-anthem ready, not with a locker room full of guys ready to rib him mercilessly about it.
Baseline jumpers
A promising player whom the Kings will face Friday is just a teenager: Josh Smith. The No. 17 pick in the draft, straight out of high school, Smith has moved into the Atlanta Hawks' starting lineup. As a starter, he has averaged 10.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocked shots. He blocked 10 shots against Dallas on Dec. 18.
* It's good to see that Stephon Marbury isn't short on self-esteem. The Knicks star proclaimed himself the best in the business, telling New York reporters, "Don't get me wrong. I love Jason Kidd. He's a great point guard. But how am I comparing myself to him when I think I'm the best point guard? That doesn't make any sense. I mean, how can I sit here and compare myself to somebody if I already think I'm the best? I know I'm the best point guard in the NBA. I don't need anybody else to tell me that." Saturday, Marbury had more points (31-13) and assists (8-3) than Kidd, but the Nets beat the Knicks 93-87.
Layup lines
Dwight Howard said, given the chance, he was going to throw down a dunk on Tim Duncan when they met Dec. 22. The half-joking Magic rookie told Orlando media: "I got to go out and take it to him. If that means giving him a facial, then I'll have to give him a facial." There were no facials. Howard made only 1 of 9 shots and had five points. Duncan had 24, but the Magic prevailed 93-87.
* Henry Bibby, the recently fired USC coach, was on hand to observe a Los Angeles Clippers practice last week, and when reporters approached, he offered, "No scoops. I'm just here to watch." Bibby and Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy were once teammates with the Philadelphia 76ers.
* You think the Kings are short of point guards? Get a load of the Clippers' tough luck. Top pick Shaun Livingston has missed most of the season and likely will be out until February with a bad knee, and now starter Marko Jaric is sidelined for up to five weeks with a stress fracture in his foot.
* Don't let the Clippers' 13-15 start fool you. They have gone 0-9 against teams that reached the Western Conference playoffs last season.
They said it
"I don't think anybody would have imagined this. You can't imagine, out of your top eight or nine players, having five of them gone at the same time."
- New Orleans coach Byron Scott on his team's horrible season
"You give 'em a dunk or two, that's something they remember... It's a great feeling, that people enjoy what you bring to the game."
NBA Beat: Jackson's baggage keeps piling up
By Joe Davidson -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, January 2, 2005
Jim Jackson's reputation has soured again.
Since he held out most of his rookie season in 1992-93 with the Dallas Mavericks as the No. 4 pick, he has been labeled a malcontent - enormously talented but defiant of order and structure.
He never agreed with the assessment, of course, saying he was misjudged, that candor shouldn't brand a man.
Jackson, 34, is one of the NBA's true vagabonds. When the Kings signed him two months into the 2002-03 season, he fielded the inquiry from a desk in Ohio in his own business firm, where he dabbles in various interests. He had become a hired gun, picking and choosing where to ply his trade.
Though Jackson averaged a career-low 7.7 points as a Kings reserve that season, he had a career high in fun, saying often it was his most enjoyable season. He said then that he had matured, that he had grown to understand that he was in a business of change, moved along like so much cargo, useful to a point and then swapped for better goods. That season, he was content with his role as a versatile veteran for a team on the cusp of the NBA Finals.
Jackson became a free agent the next offseason, a sudden commodity because of his skills and seemingly refreshed attitude. He said he was greatly disappointed that the Kings didn't make an effort to re-sign him. He eventually agreed to a three-year deal with the Houston Rockets, with whom he became a starter again last season and this.
But with his warranty about to run out, or because the Rockets desperately needed point-guard help, he was shipped to the New Orleans Hornets on Monday for David Wesley. The Hornets would become his 11th team.
But as of the weekend, Jackson had not reported to a 2-26 team headed for NBA infamy. He has been suspended indefinitely. He lost $27,500 for missing one game already, part of his $2.475 million annual salary.
"I got the feeling from (talking to Jackson) that he didn't plan on showing up," Hornets coach Byron Scott told New Orleans reporters. "He said he was disappointed and that he didn't want to start over. He wants to have a chance to win a championship, just like 200 other people in this league." Jackson has next season remaining on his existing contract, wherever he'll be. Then he'll be a free agent again, likely back in a suit at a desk, ready to pick and choose.
Thanks but no thanks
Thirty years ago, he was the NBA's Coach of the Year with the Kansas City Kings.
These days, Phil Johnson is planted on the bench in Utah, Jerry Sloan's right-hand man for 17 years with no immediate plans to relocate.
Johnson was on a short list of candidates to replace the axed Jeff Bzdelik in Denver. He said the interest was "very serious" when he was contacted last week, and after discussing the possibility with Sloan and his family, he called Denver general manager Kiki Vandeweghe and pulled out of the running. Michael Cooper was promoted from assistant coach to interim boss in the meantime.
Loyal to Sloan, Johnson told Jazz reporters that there is too much work to do in Salt Lake City now to bail out. Utah endured its worst month in 22 years (3-12) after losing to the Kings on Friday. "We're in a tough time now, and I just felt like that's not the time you should leave," said Johnson, last a head coach with the Sacramento Kings in 1987. "It's nice to be wanted, of course, but when I analyzed it, I didn't want to be in interview mode right now, and I didn't feel right about the timing."
More Bzdelik
That must have been a gag line by Cooper, the new Nuggets coach on learning that, hey, you're the new man in charge, right? He told Denver reporters that Bzdelik's firing Tuesday "came out of left field."
Hardly. It had been bouncing around in left field since the offseason, picking up a little steam when Cooper was hired away from the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA to become the lead assistant.
Said Bzdelik: "After so many years in this league, nothing surprises me anymore."
Bzdelik went 73-119 with the Nuggets and will collect his entire $1.5 million for the final season of his contract. He likely will resurface next season as an assistant coach.
More Coop
Cooper's first day of practice at the Pepsi Center was "Meet the Team Day" for season-ticket holders. Chants of "Coop, Coop, Coop" rang out when he was introduced, and before long, there were pleas for a Cooper dunk, never mind he hadn't been a leaper of note since his Showtime era with the Los Angeles Lakers as the team's defensive specialist and alley-oop finisher.
Sure enough, Cooper looked his age, 48. He lost the ball on the way up for a dunk, fleeing to the bench amid laughter and saying his effort was "frutal," perhaps an exhausted effort to blend "futile" and "brutal" into one word. If nothing else, Cooper is about brevity.
Still no love
Divorce is never pretty, and it's not always about Kobe and Shaq.
Before his New Jersey Nets downed Scott Skiles' Chicago Bulls on Tuesday, Jason Kidd didn't deny calling Skiles, his coach in Phoenix, "a backstabber."
Kidd said Skiles was the one who pushed the Suns to trade Kidd to the Nets before the 2001-02 season.
"That's just the way I felt," Kidd told New Jersey media. "He's the reason I'm in New Jersey. You see - people link me to getting him fired. I wasn't there."
And his feelings for Skiles now?
"I really don't care about him," Kidd said. "He always wanted to beat me. He always thought he was better than me. But that's just the way it goes with Skiles. It's just a matter of what he has done behind the scenes. You ask his team. Ask Eddy Curry and all those guys how they feel about him."
When asked by Chicago media if he realized he and Kidd were no longer pals, Skiles said: "Yeah, we traded him. It's not brain surgery."
Where's the justice?
Jerry Stackhouse belted out a nice rendition of the national anthem Tuesday before his Dallas Mavericks hosted Boston, blowing away other athletes who shamed themselves in this sort of effort, such as the shrieking Carl Lewis. But Stackhouse was later thrown out of the game after picking up his second technical foul, probably marking some sort of first in NBA history.
"Guy sings the national anthem and gets ejected," Mavs guard Jason Terry told Dallas media. "That's a tough one."
Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki cracked, "He sings in the locker room all the time. It's getting to the point where it's a bit much."
Webber, meanwhile, grew up singing in his Detroit church choir but insisted he isn't national-anthem ready, not with a locker room full of guys ready to rib him mercilessly about it.
Baseline jumpers
A promising player whom the Kings will face Friday is just a teenager: Josh Smith. The No. 17 pick in the draft, straight out of high school, Smith has moved into the Atlanta Hawks' starting lineup. As a starter, he has averaged 10.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocked shots. He blocked 10 shots against Dallas on Dec. 18.
* It's good to see that Stephon Marbury isn't short on self-esteem. The Knicks star proclaimed himself the best in the business, telling New York reporters, "Don't get me wrong. I love Jason Kidd. He's a great point guard. But how am I comparing myself to him when I think I'm the best point guard? That doesn't make any sense. I mean, how can I sit here and compare myself to somebody if I already think I'm the best? I know I'm the best point guard in the NBA. I don't need anybody else to tell me that." Saturday, Marbury had more points (31-13) and assists (8-3) than Kidd, but the Nets beat the Knicks 93-87.
Layup lines
Dwight Howard said, given the chance, he was going to throw down a dunk on Tim Duncan when they met Dec. 22. The half-joking Magic rookie told Orlando media: "I got to go out and take it to him. If that means giving him a facial, then I'll have to give him a facial." There were no facials. Howard made only 1 of 9 shots and had five points. Duncan had 24, but the Magic prevailed 93-87.
* Henry Bibby, the recently fired USC coach, was on hand to observe a Los Angeles Clippers practice last week, and when reporters approached, he offered, "No scoops. I'm just here to watch." Bibby and Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy were once teammates with the Philadelphia 76ers.
* You think the Kings are short of point guards? Get a load of the Clippers' tough luck. Top pick Shaun Livingston has missed most of the season and likely will be out until February with a bad knee, and now starter Marko Jaric is sidelined for up to five weeks with a stress fracture in his foot.
* Don't let the Clippers' 13-15 start fool you. They have gone 0-9 against teams that reached the Western Conference playoffs last season.
They said it
"I don't think anybody would have imagined this. You can't imagine, out of your top eight or nine players, having five of them gone at the same time."
- New Orleans coach Byron Scott on his team's horrible season
"You give 'em a dunk or two, that's something they remember... It's a great feeling, that people enjoy what you bring to the game."
- New Jersey's Vince Carter on why fans cheer him
The Bee's Joe Davidson can be reached at (916) 321-1280 or jdavidson@sacbee.com. 