In a sermon delivered last weekend, former Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson commented on team owner Joe Lacob’s inference that nobody in the organization liked him.
Jackson, an ordained minister who was speaking at the True Love Worship Center International in Reseda, California, responded to public comments that Lacob made about the coach’s firing.
During his sermon, a smiling Jackson noted that Lacob “said I was good for nothing, an owner that knew me for three years and spent a couple of minutes around me, an owner that had the audacity to say that 200 folks don’t like me in the business.”
On December 4, Lacob went public with some of the reasons the team fired coach Jackson even though the team had qualified for back-to-back playoffs under Jackson’s guidance, a rarity in the franchise’s recent history. Despite Jackson’s team winning more regular season games in 2013-2014 than any Warriors team since 1991-1992, ownership gave him the boot.
Lacob insisted that Jackson was fired because no one in the organization could work with him. The owner said that “you can’t have 200 people in the organization not like you.”
But only days later, on December 7, Lacob apologized for making the comments.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Mark Jackson and what he accomplished as our head coach,” Lacob said in an e-mail to the Mercury News. “He did a terrific job. I’ve said that many times over the last several months and in recent days, including at this week’s event.”
“I was asked to draw comparisons earlier this week between building businesses in the tech world and the sports world and, unfortunately, I used some poor judgment. That’s my mistake,” Lacob continued. “I did attempt to reach out to Mark on Friday, and I certainly apologize for my comments and any unintended harm. I know that Mark will succeed again in this business.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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