Mark Jackson Isn't The Bad Guy

Tramel Raggs: 

In a society built on instant gratification, it should come as no surprise that many people base their opinions on headlines instead of taking the time to read what follows them.

There is no greater example of media outlets taking advantage of our society’s laziness than the negative reaction to, ESPN commentator, Mark Jackson's comments about the reigning MVP Stephen Curry.  

During a rematch between the Warriors and Cavaliers, while commentating the game Jackson stated, “Steph Curry is great, Steph Curry is the MVP, he’s a champion. Understand what I’m saying when I say this. To a degree, he [Steph Curry]’s hurt the game. And what I mean by that is, I go into these high school gyms, I watch these kids and the first thing they do is run to the 3 point line. You are not Steph Curry. Work on the other aspects of your game. People think that he is just a knock-down shooter. That’s not why he’s the MVP. He’s a complete basketball player.”

Unfortunately for Jackson, instead of looking at the entire quote, many journalists and fans alike only focused on Jackson saying, “he’s hurt the game.” 

If you type Mark Jackson and Stephen Curry in Google, you’ll see inflammatory headlines like, “Mark Jackson criticizes Stephen Curry’s three point shooting.” Headlines like this are what’s wrong with the journalism industry today. Media outlets are so focused on making money that they could care less about misleading the public with “click-bait” headlines.

Jackson never criticizes Curry or his three point shooting.

The only criticism Jackson dishes out, if you want to call it that,  is to the next generation of basketball players.

He’s just pointing out an obvious issue. Today everyone wants to be the star.

Every youngster wants to dunk like Blake Griffin, make behind the back no look passes like Chris Paul and pull up from 30 feet out like Curry. But no one seems to want to put in the work.

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No one wants to wake up at 5 am to shoot a thousand jumpshots like their idols, but they sure as hell want to pull up from half court and jack up three’s. Which Jackson points out when he states, “We don’t fall in love with the things that make em great, we fall in love with the things that they do great.”

The media has been trying to set Jackson up as a bad guy, ever since he was fired as head coach. Rumors say he was removed, due to disagreements about the team owners son’s sexuality.

The real reason ESPN has him cover every nationally televised Warriors game is because they want him to slip up. Painting him as the bitter ex coach brings attention to the games. He has to praise the successor, that was handed the team that he built. Jackson has been placed in a position where, regardless of objectivity, any potentially negative comments about his former team or its star player, makes him seem villainous.

As a society we focus heavily on sports highlights. We ooh and ahh when players slam down alley oops but we don’t acknowledge all of the little things that go into making these highlights possible. You don’t just wake up and start dunking on people or splashing three pointers.

Jackson wasn’t trying to take a shot at the star of a team that fired him as head coach. His only intent was to shine a light on the fact that young basketball players need to focus on the entire game instead of just making top 10 plays. Mark Jackson used Steph Curry as an example because he was commentating a WARRIORS game.

For media outlets to try and mislead the public with inflammatory headlines on Jackson’s comments is truly sickening. I know they have to make money, but when did making a quick buck become more important than reporting the truth?

Main photo via: cbssports.com