TalkBasket.net Basketball Forums

Full Version: Why didn't Jim Jackson get along with his teammates?
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
What interests me as to why Jim Jackson is a unique case of an NBA journeyman stemmed from his attitude and personal dealings with his coaches and teammates. Not even fellow journeyman such as Joe Smith, Chucky Brown and Tony Massenburg were able to stick around on an NBA team for longer but they didn't have toxic personalities that came with Jackson.

It's been well-documented that the Dallas Mavericks of the mid-1990s had failed because The Three J's trio of Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn all failed to get along, likely due to the fact that the Mavericks had lost a lot of veteran leaders who could've been helpful enough to help the trio grow. Only Kidd had a full career and realized his full potential, and Mashburn was about to be on the cusp of being a star if it weren't for his chronic knee injuries, and Jackson wasn't particularly a likable guy in locker rooms. Potential veterans who could've helped the Mavs grow into something positive were Derek Harper, Rolando Blackman, Fat Lever, Roy Tarpley and Sam Perkins. After 1990, Perkins left the Mavs to join up with Magic Johnson and the L.A. Lakers, injuries reduced Lever from a triple-double machine with Denver to an injury prone super sub 6th man with Dallas, Tarpley kept getting himself into trouble with drugs and the law and even earned himself a lifetime ban from the league, Blackman got shipped to a championship contender with a defensive-minded gameplay style that wouldn't allow for his scoring abilities to come in handy, and Harper became discontent with the franchise as their losing ways manifested, and even had a fight with Quinn Buckner.

Jackson had to end up a journeyman due to his attitude and nothing to do with his lack of skills because he was said to have been a talented scoring machine on offense that most teams would've loved to have scorers, meaning that Jackson could've been more than what he ended up being, but his attitude and personality ultimately eclipsed his NBA career and instead he became all the bad stuff anybody ever said about him. Don Nelson even called Jackson a crybaby millionaire and branded him a troublemaker, just after he was done cleaning house during '96-'97 when he took over as the Mavs' GM after shipping Jamal Mashburn to Miami, and Jackson to New Jersey. Nelson would've loved to have Jason Kidd stay on, but Kidd was already gone to Phoenix by the time Nelson took over.

Stories of Jim Jackson and his bad locker room attitude were plentiful through the years of his NBA playing career and he was not known as a team player. In the end, Jackson never overcame the stigma of being someone who has a rep for being hard to coach and deal with, and he keeps denying that he had nothing to do with the whole beef with Jason Kidd in regards to the Toni Braxton situation. Knowing him, Jackson had shouting matches with Quinn Buckner, Scott Brooks and even Portland head coach Mike Dunleavy, Sr.

In Buckner's case, it was after a game where the Mavs lost to the Clippers in '93-'94 and Buckner cited selfishness, and Jackson took it as an insult as if Buckner called him out for his ball-hogging ways and two separate incidents where Buckner blasted him for doing ESPN promos and Jackson lost all respect for Quinn Buckner when he alienated Derek Harper. With Brooks, it had to do with Jackson being livid that even though Dallas won a game against the Utah Jazz in 1995 or 1996, he got upset that Brooks didn't pass him the ball and so Jackson physically and verbally assaulted Brooks. Kidd was too scared to speak up about Jackson being a toxic explosion waiting to happen and that was before the Toni Braxton situation. And with Mike Dunleavy, Sr. while in Portland after the Trail Blazers got swept 4-0 by David Robinson, Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs, Jackson (who played the backup SG role in Portland) had another shouting match with Dunleavy and blamed him for not playing him more, and Greg Anthony had to get him to cool his notoriously short temper.

Now I wonder if Jackson's notoriously short temper and difficulty working well with others contributed to his disappointing NBA career?