Who will the Bucks pick to coach them in a championship push?
The Milwaukee Bucks were a good team, but they probably weren’t great. And that was precisely Adrian Griffin’s problem.
News of Griffin’s firing in Milwaukee floored the NBA world on Tuesday. Not because folks were shocked the Bucks fired Griffin, who reportedly had issues with his scheme and some of his players. But because of the timing. At 30-13, Milwaukee is tied for the second-best record in the NBA at the halfway point of the regular season. There was no guarantee that standings success would last but, again, the second-best record in the league! It’s late January!
Nonetheless, the Bucks clearly have their eyes on someone who they believe can elevate their roster in the postseason. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard won’t be around forever. One of the rumored early favorites is Doc Rivers, who might be able to deliver on that promise.
Here’s a list of head coaching candidates for the Bucks to consider as they chase a second title with Antetokounmpo.
Jackson was set to begin calling games with the Knicks on an upcoming road trip but the team put a stop to it. You’ll absolutely never guess the reason why.
With ESPN letting go of commentators Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, it leaves the network’s lead NBA announcer Mike Breen without his longtime sidekicks.
They’ll reportedly be replaced by longtime NBA reporter Doris Burke and former NBA coach Doc Rivers.
It’ll be a tough transition for Breen, however, as he’d really developed a great chemistry with Jackson and Van Gundy in the years they’d all worked together.
You could tell in Breen’s words how much the partnership meant to him.
“It’s sad because we really thought we had something special and that’s going to be the thought going forward is that we were able to do it a lot longer than anybody ever did,” Breen told The Post. “It’s something we’ll all treasure, but we just wish it was a little bit longer.
“You don’t expect it, because it was such a great team and to have it completely broken up was a surprise.”
This is a tough turn of events for Breen, but Burke and Rivers definitely could replace Jackson and Van Gundy with success.
It’s just never easy to say goodbye to your on-air partners, so we definitely get where Breen is coming from with his words. NBA fans will see how the transition goes when ESPN’s game coverage returns this fall.
The past few weeks, we’ve seen major on-air personalities get impacted by ESPN’s layoffs. And the network isn’t done making moves with some of its biggest broadcasts. That includes the NBA.
According to the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, ESPN is promoting Doris Burke to lead analyst for its NBA broadcasts and hiring former NBA coach Doc Rivers to work alongside her and announcer Mike Breen. The initial plan was to demote Mark Jackson to ESPN’s B-Team NBA broadcast, but Marchand later reported that Jackson would leave ESPN entirely. Jackson would later confirm his departure from ESPN. He joined the network in 2014 after coaching the Golden State Warriors.
Jackson’s departure (or demotion) seemed likely when ESPN laid off his broadcast partner, Jeff Van Gundy, in June. And while you’ll hardly find any announcers who fans all like, Jackson’s exit from ESPN had fans celebrating the news,
They all applied his “mama, there goes that man” catchphrase to the news of his exit.
The trio of Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson on ABC and ESPN is always solid, with the play-by-lay man providing his usual great summary of the action (including a “BANG” or two), and the former coaches/players coloring in the action from their perspectives.
But it’s kind of funny at certain point when Van Gundy goes off the rails, sometimes off something Jackson said, and Breen has to gently bring the broadcast back to the action on the floor.
All of that has turned into a hilarious new meme that is now everywhere as the NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat:
LeBron James added yet another statistical achievement on Tuesday when the Lakers beat the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
For the first time since the 2019-20 season, LeBron James suited up for a Los Angeles Lakers game at Madison Square Garden versus the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
He didn’t have a super-efficient offensive outing, but he achieved his first triple-double of the season: 28 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, and the Lakers survived in overtime, 129-123. It was a victory they simply had to have after losing their previous two contests.
With that triple-double, he surpassed two people on the NBA’s list of most career assists — Marc Jackson and Steve Nash — to move into the fourth spot on that list with 10,336.
BREAKING: LeBron James has passed Mark Jackson and Steve Nash for 4th on the NBA's all-time assists list 🪙👑 pic.twitter.com/rfnjtNcGIC
Next on the list is the Phoenix Suns’ Chris Paul, who has 11,246 assists, and after that is Jason Kidd, who retired with 12,091.
No one can safely predict if James will surpass Paul, especially since the Suns’ leader is averaging 8.7 assists a game this season. But many are learning to not count out the four-time MVP when it comes to anything that has to do with his longevity.
Wednesday marked one of the most iconic moments in Denver Broncos franchise history: “The Drive.”
The 1986 AFC championship game pitted the Denver Broncos against the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland’s notorious “Dawg Pound.”
Late in the fourth quarter, the Browns went up 20-13, and on the ensuing kickoff, the Broncos mishandled the ball, and eventually recovered it inside their own two-yard line. There were a little over five and a half minutes left in the game, and it was up to John Elway and Co. to come up with a drive.
What happened next is often considered the beginning of Elway’s legend.
In 15 plays, Elway orchestrated one of the guttiest late-game performances in league history. Of the 98 yards on the drive, Elway’s passing and rushing accounted for 93 of them. The final pass of the drive came with 39 seconds remaining, a five-yard touchdown strike to wide receiver Mark Jackson. Kicker Rich Karlis booted the extra point to tie the game.
The game went into overtime, where Elway put together a drive that allowed Karlis to kick the game-winning field goal, sending Denver to their second Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
“The Drive” remains one of the most iconic moments in the Hall of Fame career of John Elway, and one of the most memorable events in NFL history.
ESPN’s Jay Williams believes Mark Jackson, not Steve Nash, could be the answer for the Brooklyn Nets.
For now, Kevin Durant will be returning to the Brooklyn Nets for the 2022-23 season after backing down from his trade request back on June 30. The Nets were not able to find the right package for themselves and they have worked it out with Durant so that he will return.
Durant’s return does bring up the question of what happens with coach Steve Nash. It wasn’t too long ago that Durant made an ultimatum to team governor Joe Tsai that it was either trade him or fire Nash and GM Sean Marks.
Neither of that happened so now they have to make it work. What does this mean for Nash’s future with the Nets?
ESPN’s Jay Williams believes Brooklyn should be looking into former Golden State Warriors coach, Mark Jackson:
Steve Nash is on the hot, hot, hot seat. Don’t sit down as a matter of fact it was only a week and a half ago two weeks ago that Kevin Durant gave Joe Tsai an ultimatum by saying ‘Hey, look I’ll come back if Steve Nash and Sean Marks are not here’, but now Steve Nash being there. What position does that put him in? And the accountability that you need Steve Nash to hold? I still do not think that Steve Nash is the answer. I do not think that. I think Mark Jackson could be the answer.
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Jackson did a lot of good things with the Warriors helping Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson develop into the players they have become so he will be a prime candidate should the Nets move on from Nash. Therefore, the Nets will need a very successful season just to keep Nash’s job moving forward with the franchise.
Based on win shares, Mark Jackson immediately had his career-best campaign with the Clippers.
It’s time to play the most popular game of the NBA offseason: Could this team have won a hypothetical game against Michael Jordan’s Bulls?
Draymond Green posted on Twitter, wondering how the dominant 2017 Golden State Warriors would have handled MJ, and Kevin Durant weighed in. Now, former Warriors coach Mark Jackson is offering thoughts on a new theoretical query.
What would have happened, Jackson wonders, if the Knicks had not traded him to the Clippers in 1993? The point guard was moved in exchange for another player who would later become an NBA head coach, Doc Rivers.
Jackson recently reflected on the life-changing transaction (via SNY):
“Well I do believe that we win a championship,” said Jackson, who was traded to the Clippers in a three-team deal that sent Doc Rivers and Charles Smith to New York in 1993. “We had a great team, we had a process moving along, we advanced. We had the ultimate champs on the ropes. So I believe we win a championship if that team stays together. But I’m sure if you ask the opposition, they believe they win anyway.”
He continued:
“I believe if we stay together, we beat (Jordan and the Bulls). We were up in the fourth quarter of a Game 7, with Michael Jordan on the team. So I’m not saying something that’s asinine,” Jackson said. “They were an all-time great team and they had an all-time great player. But I believe we had a chance to beat him and I think that if we stayed together we would have.”
Based on win shares, Jackson immediately had his career-best campaign with the Clippers in 1992-93. He scored 14.4 points per game, the highest he ever recorded outside his sole All-Star season in 1988-89.
Meanwhile, Rivers’ scoring averages steadily decreased during the remaining seasons of his professional career after the transaction.
The Knicks made it to the Eastern Conference Finals and lost to the Bulls in 1993. Although they made it to the NBA Finals in 1994, the team was defeated by Mark Jackson’s Pacers in the 1995 Conference Semifinals.
New York last won an NBA title in 1973, nearly fifty years ago.
Mark Jackson wasn’t hired to be the Lakers’ head coach, but he still thinks highly of their roster.
Just after Frank Vogel was fired as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in April, a number of veteran head coaches emerged as candidates to replace him.
One of them was Mark Jackson, who had last coached the Golden State Warriors about a decade ago back when Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were starting to emerge as stars.
Before that, Jackson had a productive 17-year career as an NBA point guard.
He didn’t get the job, but he still seems to like the Lakers’ potential for this coming season.
While on ESPN’s First Take, he said the ceiling is very high for the team.
“Healthy, they can win a championship,” Jackson said. “If they are healthy and they compete on the defensive end, night in and night out.”
Defense was arguably the Lakers’ biggest weakness this past season. They were 21st in defensive rating, 27th in 2-point shooting percentage allowed and 22nd in defensive rebound percentage.
It resulted in many bad starts for the Purple and Gold throughout the 2021-22 campaign.
