In this episode of The Draymond Green Show, host Draymond Green interviews Stephen Curry about former Warriors head coach Mark Jackson. Both players praise Jackson’s unique confidence‑building style, describing how his relentless hype and motivational pre‑game speeches helped shape the young Warriors’ identity and contributed to their early success. They express surprise that Jackson has not secured another NBA head‑coaching job, noting that his name has resurfaced in recent Lakers coaching rumors. The conversation also touches on media narratives that have painted Jackson as bitter—highlighted by a controversial comment where he claimed "Steph Curry ruined the game of basketball"—and how such moments have affected his public perception. Throughout, Green and Curry discuss the volatile nature of NBA coaching, the importance of alignment among ownership, general managers, and coaches, and the challenges of navigating a constantly evolving league.
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What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. Speak on Mark Jackson a little bit. One thing I always say to people, and I would love to get your perspective, I don't think people, like, it's just not something that we talk about.
Mm-hmm.
But I felt like Mark Jackson, Coach Jackson to me. But I feel like one thing that he was great at is he gave, like he breathed confidence in guys. Like he's just spewing confidence in the guys. And I think that was huge in our growth and who we eventually became is the confidence that he gave guys. I know people, like I was actually watching earlier today the clip when— When Yeah. he said, "I got the best shooting backcourt in the history of basketball." He sounded crazy at the time. He sounded crazy.
Yeah.
I thought he was crazy and out of his mind. Everybody in the world thought he was crazy and out of his mind. But he said, "I got the best shooting backcourt in basketball history." What did Coach Jackson do for you in your career in helping you understand like, no, you are one of them dudes. What was that for you? 'Cause I know for me, Like he breathed confidence into me and made me felt like I belonged in this league. Yeah.
It's the balance of like, as a player, like people who say they don't hear or read anything, they lying. Like you hear everything that happens there. People like media, analysts, coaches, other players. Like it's a small fraternity and group and a family in this NBA. And then also within these organizations. So you hear everything about you and it's just a matter of like, that awareness mixed with, like you said, your confidence and who you are, your identity. And then obviously what you go and do out on the floor. To have somebody that's a decision maker, that's, you know, in that head coaching position that goes out of his way to either defend, hype up, like breathe life into, like you say, to your players. Like that meant so much, especially as a first-time head coach. Yeah. 'Cause he was going out on these limbs that, like I said, some people thought he was like out of his mind, just kind of just a ride or die with no kind of thought. Like he was very strategic and intentional about everything that he said. And that meant so much to us as a young team trying to just find an edge and find an identity. And it was contagious, man. Like, you know, he would come into every pregame locker, pregame speech and give us a, like a sermon almost.
Absolutely.
And it would just be like something like you wanna run through the wall or laugh or feel some type of emotion. And we go out and hoop. And he was so consistent in that front. So at that time in my career and our career as a team and journey that we were trying to come into, he was perfect for that 'cause he was an extreme motivator, an ultimate defender. He would hype you up, he'd breathe confidence into you. And that's how we went out and played. And I think to his credit, sometimes you could think about how everything ended after that third year. He almost would use different motivations that weren't even real. Like you kind of have to manifest something like almost like the Kobe mentality or like MJ back in the day. Like I might make something up in terms of there's, you know, some enemy that doesn't even exist, but I'm gonna make sure everybody's on the same page against whatever that is. Absolutely. That's just how he rolled. And it was great for us in terms of, you know, giving us that edge.
Has it been shocking for you that he hasn't been able to get a job? Oh, 1,000%.
I understand the drama around when he left because it was a front office coach disagreement. And he would probably admit that there were a couple interviews he did right after he left that he probably didn't need to do. He spoke his mind and he spoke his truth, but he probably, you know, I don't say regret, but you think about like, you know, doing it a different way on the back end. But when you talk about like somebody that knows the game, somebody that knows how to relate to players, somebody that is the ultimate competitor and play at the highest level, play with amazing, great, play for some great coaches and with other amazing, you know, players throughout his career. Like all that wrapped into one person and just his vantage point as an analyst and all that. Like I'm— Yeah. I was extremely surprised. I know his name floats up a lot. He definitely, he deserves another opportunity. Whoever wanna take our opinion.
100%. 100%.
Definitely surprised. And hopefully it won't, that won't remain too long.
I think when I'm looking around NBA, I hope he gets an opportunity that he does not have to build a team the way he had to build us. But, but, The reality is, is there's 10 to 15 teams a year in that same position that I, that he's proven right here that he can handle that job for sure. Now if you wanna say, oh well he hadn't coached superstars because when he coached us you weren't a superstar yet. Klay wasn't a superstar yet. You know, like we, none of us had grown into who we became. So if you wanna say, all right, well he hasn't proven he can coach superstars. Well, what he has proven is at least that he can do that.
No doubt.
And so that part has been a bit shocking to me, I must say. And I hope to see, you know, obviously his name just came up in the Lakers job and I hope to see him get an opportunity because I think he did an incredible job. Everyone has their differences. I don't think any head coach or general manager or ownership group is on the same page at all times. I don't believe that. And after being in this league for 10 years, I can almost say that's for certain. I mean, and if you have one that's always on page at the same time, I'm always on the same page, then they're an outlier, they're a unicorn.
Yeah.
Because it just doesn't happen. This is a very, It's a dynamic situation.
Things change so fast in this league. And the fact that we can, you always gonna have to recalibrate and reassess and like you say, find some middle ground even almost because there are so many, you know, especially when you have a lot of cooks in the kitchen. Like, I mean, what the Lakers are going through and what's coming out now.
Yeah. Everything coming out of there now.
Like, it's crazy. Just the evolutions of all this stuff. And it's what we do and what everybody, it's not easy.
No, for sure. And I think, like you said, some interviews that he maybe wanna take back now. But I also think he caught some things that came his way that were a little unfair. And here's one of them. Steph Curry ruined the game of basketball. When he said that, everybody was on edge. Like, wow, did he really come out and go at Steph like that?
He bitter, he bitter. He got fired, now he coming at him.
Absolutely. You look at the game of basketball today, I understand exactly what he was talking about.
Absolutely.
You watch an elementary school play, you watch the NBA. I know exactly what he was talking about. But at that time, I think that also fueled the narrative of him being bitter, right? It fueled the narrative of, oh man, it wasn't all working there. And look, now he's shooting that step. And it was actually more of a compliment than anything.
Just had to let the dust settle and figure out exactly what the context. He had been in gyms with his sons. They were hooping. He was watching, you know, middle school games every week. And he was like, yo, what is it? They're literally watching this dude and thinking they can skip a bunch of steps and be like him. So it's hard to get that in on a broadcast, especially that was one of the worst things that next year when he got, after he got let go and Coach Kerr's in, we're on a run. They put him in like 20 of our games.
Every game. Why you set my man up for, set him up for success? For sure. Every game he was on. I mean, I, That's another story. Everybody's trying to say that's good TV. No, no. It's not. Y'all are really making him look like he can't even speak the way he wanna speak. For instance, saying Steph Curry ruined the game of basketball and everybody's just piling on everything he say. The moment he criticize anything the Warriors is doing, like any analyst, they're gonna go at both teams. That's what you do as an analyst. You're gonna pick the game apart. And he'd say something about us and it's, I mean, it's the headline of the game.
