Out of the Golden State ‘snake pit’

SACRAMENTO, California—Imee Marcos, now Ilocos Norte governor, once remarked in disgust that Malacañang was a “snake pit.” That was during the reign of her father, Ferdinand.

In the regimes following the fall of Marcos, it has been the stuff of news that the Palace has become a bigger snake pit, where serpents slither about, biting off each other’s head to curry favor with the sitting President.

Is the snake pit scenario exclusive to Malacañang? Of course not.

It could happen in any organization where agitation is high and where bench tacticians fail to mesh with management upstairs.

Such was the case at the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, a team near and dear to Bay Area Filipinos.

Golden State, once home to Raymond Townsend, the first Filipino-American and first Asian-American athlete ever to play in the NBA, fired coach Mark Jackson on May 6.

Jackson was let go despite a job well done because of personality clashes with team executive Jerry West and with his assistant coaches.

The 49-year-old Jackson, a player for 17 years and a broadcaster for seven, was hired by the Warriors in 2011. He had one year remaining on his contract.

In three seasons, Jackson compiled a 121-109 record (.526) and twice steered Golden State to the postseason.

The Warriors’ 2013 first-round victory over the Denver Nuggets marked just the second time the franchise has advanced in the playoffs since 1991.

Golden State went 51-31 in 2013-14, its first 50-win season since 1993-94, before losing to the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round.

“Mark Jackson has had a big impact on… our team and the success… over the last couple of years,” Golden State owner Joe Lacob said in a perfunctory statement. “Nonetheless, we must make some difficult decisions in our day-to-day operations of the club.”

The candidates for Jackson’s job include TNT analyst and former Phoenix Suns executive Steve Kerr. Jackson meanwhile says he’s “trying to be a blessing… trying to impact people, that’s the way I live my life.”

Mark has become the poster boy of ownership impatience, says coach Doc Rivers of the Clippers, who beat Jackson’s Warriors in the first round.

Rivers said Lionel Hollins built his Memphis Grizzlies into a 56-win team, “takes ’em to the conference finals and gets fired.”

“That means things are crazy,” Rivers said. “George Karl was Coach of the Year last year and got fired. Jackson gets a team to multiple playoffs for the first time in a thousand years and gets fired… We have a tough job.”

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A long-lost friend, Cynthia Bonta, reconnected via Facebook recently. Cynthia was an office mate in the late 1980s at the California Department of Water Resources, where I edited the employee newsletter.

“I still have the article on Rob that you wrote and published in the DWR News and People,” Cynthia said.

Rob is her son whose academic odyssey I had featured. He had gone on to Oxford University and Yale Law School and is now making his mark in California politics.

Rob Bonta is a freshman California assembly member, the first Filipino-American to get elected to the State Legislature.