Curry: A firing would be shocking
Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry doesn't want to see coach Mark Jackson go anywhere.
"What Coach has gone through this year has been unlike anything I've seen -- just the amount of distractions, the circus that has been around him and the decisions he has had to make," Curry said. "I love Coach more than anybody. For him to be in a position where his job is under scrutiny and under questions is totally unfair."
Warriors owner Joe Lacob will hear numerous opinions while evaluating Jackson, who has led Golden State to back-to-back winning seasons. Multiple reports describe Jackson and the Warriors' ownership group as not being on the same page.
"It would definitely be a shock to me if anything like [a firing] would happen," Curry said. "I'm definitely going to voice my support for Coach to anybody that asks me all summer.
"He deserves to be our coach next year, and we're going to come back and build off of the momentum we've gained over the past three years and continue to grow as a team. I want Coach Jackson to be that guy leading us."
Jackson, who had his 2014-15 option picked up at the end of last season as the Warriors declined to offer him a contract extension, has steered the team to two straight seasons of at least 45 wins. Still, this season included the departures of two assistant coaches under murky conditions and saw a physical playoff series with the Los Angeles Clippers end with a Game 7 loss and a postgame shouting match.
"That's nothing we can worry about. That's really out of our hands," Warriors forward Draymond Green said. "At the end of the day, we did everything we could do to fight for Coach. He did everything he could do to fight for us. We're not going to act like this was a one-way street. He put everything he had into it."
Jackson has repeatedly refuted reports that the atmosphere around the Warriors is dysfunctional or that management has told him his job is in jeopardy. Instead, he just called it "sideline music'' and reminded anybody who would listen that building a championship contender "is a process that takes time.''
