Sacramento Kings Head Coach Candidate Profile: Mark Jackson

The Sacramento Kings search for a new head coach is in full swing, with candidates announced and interviews expected to begin this week. With seven candidates named so far, it seems only fitting to take some time to break down each candidate.

I’m joined by our good friend Jill Adge, who hosts The SportsEthos Sacramento Kings podcast. We highly recommend listening to Jill on any Kings topic, but specially when it comes to coaching searches. Jill has done overviews of candidates for the Kings next head coach, as well as deep dives on some of the candidates that I will link in their appropriate articles.

With that, let’s jump into our next candidate.

Mark Jackson

Age: 57
Current Role: Broadcast Commentator for ESPN and ABC
Resume: NBA Player from 1987 to 2004, Warriors head coach 2011-2014

From Jill:

Mark Jackson the Wildcard. Known for his 17 year NBA career and building the foundation of the now Golden State Warriors. While he has had many successes, it has also come with a lot of turbulence behind the scenes.

Let’s start with the arguments in Mark Jackson’s favor as a coaching candidate. The list is short, so it won’t take long. Mark Jackson took over as head coach of the Warriors for the 2011-12 season. The Warrior improved significantly over the three seasons that Jackson coached, improving from 23 wins his first season to 47 wins and then 51 wins in his final season.

That’s it. That’s the entire case for hiring Mark Jackson. 8 years ago he oversaw a team with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut, David Lee, and Andre Iguodala, and they got better.

But if we look at the reasons why Jackson hasn’t been employed since then, despite regularly expressing interest in a job, there are plenty. Let’s focus first on the results of that stacked roster in his final year: A first round exit and being fired because Golden State management felt he was the wrong guy to lead the team forward.

https://twitter.com/AndyGlockner/status/870473995577049088?s=20&t=h-XRsSTWShD6_HJrCS_B4w

While there were issues on the court with his coaching philosophy, which still exist and are apparent to anyone who listens to Jackson commentate NBA games, it’s the issues beyond the court that matter.

Joe Lacob spoke about these issues in 2014:

“Part of it was that he couldn’t get along with anybody else in the organization,” Lacob said. “And look, he did a great job, and I’ll always compliment him in many respects, but you can’t have 200 people in the organization not like you.”

Lacob expanded further.

Look, I don’t think we should get into the great details of what did happen, other than to say that this is a decision that was based on what was good for the organization as a whole.

And when I say the organization as a whole I don’t mean just the team and just the 15 players that are involved and the coaching staff. I mean everybody. There’s 200 employees here.

So when we look at the organization going forward and the kind of coach we want and… not just the performance but everything else, all these factors matter. We took all that account.

For those who may find that to be lacking specifics, plenty of reports are out there. In 2018 Alex Wolfe of The Strickland gathered as many stories and anecdotes as he could for a thread of tweets. I’m not going to insert all of these tweets into this article, but you can read them here. Not all of the stories are well sourced, and some I would consider less relevant than others when assessing a coach, but in totality they paint a picture of why the Warriors moved on and why no other team has hired Jackson in the last 8 years.

Of the 7 candidates the Kings have announced so far, I have Mark Jackson in a bottom tier of his own. He would be the one candidate I would be truly unhappy with the Kings hiring. There are simply too many story of Jackson creating division in his locker room, among his coaching staff, and between himself and the front office. It’s everything the Kings should be trying to avoid.

Mark Jackson has had his name connected to many coaching openings in the last 8 years. He clearly has an agent that can curry favors. It’s hard to confirm but the last report I could find from years ago said Jackson was signing with Rich Paul, which would explain why teams keep entertaining him as a candidate. I’ll be concerned if he advances past the opening round of interviews, but at this point I’m just trying not to worry too much about his candidacy.

Up next: Charles Lee
Previously: Mike D’Antoni