Let me lend a little bit of perspective on the adjudicator of the Horry v. Nash situation.
Stu Jackson was, in all reasonable analysis, the worst general manager in the history of the NBA, if not the worst GM in the history of professional sports. In fact, if you studied the case long enough, you could make the argument that Jackson might have failed more successfully at his job than anyone in the history of anything.
Foisted upon the good people of Vancouver by David Stern in a case of affirmative action gone bad, Jackson wasted first-round picks on Bryant Reeves, Antonio Daniels (#4 overall!), Steve Francis (who had already indicated he wanted to play in Vancouver about as much as David Stern wanted to be commissioner of the Palestine Liberation League), and Stromile Swift (#2!). Oh, and he also refused to select Steve Nash in the draft, even though Nash would have been an immediate hit in Vancouver due to his Canadian heritage.
Not satisfied with that unprecedented level of crapitude, or perhaps sensing that he was hopelessly inept at finding quality college players despite possessing high level picks, Jackson punted, and dealt a #1 pick to the Detroit Pistons ... for Otis Thorpe. And this wasn't prime-time O.T., either, this was 35-year-old Otis Thorpe, the Otis Thorpe that Jackson peddled to the Sacramento Kings for Michael Smith and Bobby Hurley. Um, yeah.
So you have to forgive me if I'm not the slightest bit surprised by Jackson's lousy decision-making in suspending Stoudamire and Diaw for Game 5. You see, after Jackson was ousted from Vancouver, Stern allowed him to crawl back to NYC and become the league's suspension czar. It was either that, or Stern would have to admit that he (Stern) had made a horrible mistake in letting Jackson be a GM, and you know David isn't keen on admitting mistakes.
The outrage shouldn't be that Jackson made a bad decision. The outrage should be that that an imbecile like Jackson is even allowed to have a job in the NBA at all.
12 comments:
Don't forget Jackson selected the players for the last US Olympic team - way to go for the bronze Stu.
Did you see former coach Jim O'Brien's take on Jackson, on today's Daily Dime? Absolute codswallop:
"The bottom line is I know Stu Jackson. The NBA could not ask for a more capable person to fill the position of senior vice president of basketball operations. He is a man of tremendous class and integrity. He has coached enough games in his career to know the ramification of his decision-making."
Nice mark in Jackson's last year of coaching (96-97) in Vancouver:
6 wins, 33 losses.
To be fair, he had a good record in NY, but he got canned the next season ... I'm guessing that if Stu was such a great coach, he wouldn't have spent the last decade holed up in David Stern's office.
This is the man who drafted "Big Country" Reeves. He is a complete tool.
The appropriate thing to do would be to suspend the players for the procedural violation (not the on-court violation) for the first games of next season.
Horry should be suspended for two games. But Stu Jackson made Amare's and Boris' violations equal (two games between them), when they obviously were not equal.
If I'm the ownership, management, coaching staff, players, and fans of the Phoenix Suns, I have no problem making this series as dirty as David Stern can possibly handle.
Send in Kurt Thomas to hip-check Tony Parker into the third row. Have Jalen Rose give Manu Ginobili a few hard fouls into the basket support. Why not?
If a role player can get away with an unnecessarily hard foul on your best player at the end of the game - why doesn't that door swing both ways?
Go get 'em, Phoenix. Show David Stern and Stu Jackson exactly what precedent they have set. Get in their and hack the cr@p out of Duncan, Manu, Parker and the rest of them. There's no real penalty. So what if Jalen Rose is suspended for the next 2 games? Maybe he can take a few Spurs with him. That's precedent.
Who cares about Stu?
Amare was an idiot. He's the one to blame for the Suns predicament. Hell, if he had any self control on fouling, he wouldn't have been on the bench in the first place.
Neat idea Larry.
No problemo for the Spurs... they'd love to see the Suns lose their cool. Go ahead and hack away. The Spurs will just dust themselves off, sink a few tech FT's, and laugh at the Suns players being sent to the locker room.
The retaliation move is tempting for Phoenix right now; I'll guarantee that the Suns don't do anything stupid, at least for the first quarter of the game.
The test for D'Antoni and how tight a grip he has on the team will come in the 3rd or 4th quarter - especially if the game gets out of hand. Sooner or later, somebody fromthe Spurs (most likely Ginobili, that freakin' jerk) will drive the lane and get a thumpin' from Kurt Thomas. I hope that it ends with that, and it doesn't escalate, but nobody wants to see a game 6 and/or 7 with half of the roster from both teams wearing street clothes.
Excellent insights about Jackson's inability to make the right decision. As I wrote in my blog post on the same subject (from a different angle), the NBA has been behaving like a bad parent this season. First the Kobe Bryant "flagrant flail" crap, now this. Keep your hands off, Stu, and let them play some basketball.
As a Vancouver resident and a person who was relatively close to the inner workings of the Grizzlies, I have to say that you might have understated Stu Jackson's level of "crapitude." It is truly encouraging that a man who played a major role in destroying what was a potentially strong franchise received a new job (and a promotion) from his Uncle David in New York. All of Vancouver's hoop/sports fans (and there are actually quite a few) still despise Stu Jackson. It's like he's out to prove that he was right about Steve Nash's game... by keeping the Suns from their destiny as a Finals team. We're also still wondering what the deal is with his one funny eyebrow? Did I mention we really hate him...
He took the same Knicks team that won 50 games for his predecessor (Pitino) and his sucessor (Riley) and won 45 and 39 games. That's pitiful. They were swept out of the playoffs by the Bulls in that second year, too. He coached the Wisconsin Badgers basketball team to two straight losing seasons in the big ten, even though he had Michael Finley and Rashard Griffith. He is the embodiment of the Peter principle...
Amen brother. Could not agree more. That Pistons pick turned into Darko Milicic, but still, the Grizzlies could've used that pick to get Carmelo, D-Wade or Chris Bosh.
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