FILE—Head coach Mark Jackson and Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors confer in the game with the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center on October 31, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. The Clippers won 126-115. Stephen Dunn/Getty Images/AFP
Almost two years after he left the Golden State Warriors, former head coach Mark Jackson seems to still have bitterness towards his old squad after saying that reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry’s stupendous performance from beyond the arc this season has been “hurting the game.”
Calling the NBA Finals rematch between Golden State and Cleveland on Christmas Day in the ESPN/ABC panel together with Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy, Jackson unleashed his latest tirade against the Curry.
“Steph Curry’s great. Steph Curry’s the MVP. He’s a champion. Understand what I’m saying when I say this: He’s hurting the game. And what I mean by that is that I go into these high school gyms, I watch these kids, and the first thing they do is they run to the three-point line. You are not Steph Curry. Work on the other aspects of the game. People think that he’s just a knock-down shooter.”
Through 29 games this season, the 27-year-old Curry has been playing the best stretch of his career. He is averaging 30.8 points on a career-best 51.3-percent shooting from the field, including 44.5-percent from three-points, to go with 5.4 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and 2.2 steals. That, combined with Golden State’s amazing 24-game winning streak to start the season, is more than enough to inspire the fans and make his followers try to emulate their game after him.
Quick to defend the Warriors’ leader, Andrew Bogut told Bay Area News Group, “Anything [Jackson] says, you take with a grain of salt, and you can quote me on that.”
Curry also broke his silence on the issue in a report of Yahoo! Sports, but was more calm in his reply to his former coach.
“I have to talk to him. I don’t know what he means by that. If you can shoot, shoot. If you can’t, stop,” he said.
Jackson and Curry’s partnership with the Warriors for three seasons only got them as far as the Western Conference Semifinals back in 2013.
But with Steve Kerr taking charge in the 2015 season, Golden State immediately rose to the league’s highest echelon and took home the Larry O’Brien trophy last June.