Bobcats GM Rod Higgins on Stephen Jackson: “He could conceivably be our best player right now”
November 18, 2009 – 9:00 am by Chris Fedor
After months of trying by the Warriors and Stephen Jackson continually letting the team know that he wasn’t happy in Golden State, he has finally been traded. While he is a very good player on the court, it became very tough to trade him because of his not-so-friendly contract and the baggage that he brings with him as well. The two teams that showed the most interest throughout negotiations were the Cavs and the Bobcats. Once the Warriors realized the Cavs offer was too rich apparently, they turned their attention to Charlotte and they got a deal done. Rumors were that the spiteful Warriors didn’t want to trade S-Jack to a contender. Now Stephen Jackson has gotten his wish. He is out of Golden State and with a new team, just not with a contending team.
This deal is very interesting for the Bobcats though. On the court Captain Jack is a very dynamic player that can fill up a stat sheet. On top of that you may be able to argue right now that Jackson is the best player that the Bobcats have on their roster. Then if you throw in the fact that they only had to give up Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovich to make the deal work, it makes all the sense in the world from a pure basketball standpoint and it makes the team better. Then you get into all the stuff off the court. He has been a big headache in the past, carries a lot of baggage and has a contract that can handcuff a team for a couple more years. Now, if he was going to one of the top contenders looking to make that final move to put them over the top like Cleveland, Orlando, Boston or even Los Angeles, it would make sense. However, this is the Bobcats and it doesn’t make much sense financially. They are not competing for a championship anytime soon and now it hurts their flexibility to try and improve the team going forward.
Bobcats GM Rod Higgins joined WNFZ in Charlotte to talk about why they decided to trade for Stephen Jackson, how much of a risk it was for them to take, the baggage that he brings to Charlotte and whether or not this makes them a playoff team in the Eastern Conference now.
On the timeline for the Stephen Jackson deal to get done:
“Well the conversations that I have throughout the league are ongoing and I talked to those guys probably the last three weeks about different combinations. Once we put our heads together over the week, it went really fast. We talked on Friday, then on Saturday it got more serious, and then on Sunday things just really took it to a high level of speed. We were able to come to a deal yesterday morning. I think the thinking from our standpoint is getting another player that can come in and start for us right away. He arguably had his best season last year and coming to our team he could conceivably be our best player right now. I think basketball wise it just really made sense for us. Stephen’s qualities are something that we can definitely use: his scoring ability, his passing ability, his grittiness, his toughness and being able to defend. I think he and Larry (Brown) will get a chance to work together. I think it’s a win-win for us in terms of our basketball situation.”
On the issues that he has had in the past off the court:
“Those are fair concerns. I think anytime a guy has had past discretions where he has obviously done his time so to speak and he’s paid the price for doing what he’s done, those concerns are valid. If he comes in here and does what he’s supposed to do which is be a competitive basketball player, we’re going to be fine. In terms of him being a malcontent, personally I don’t think that will come into play, but it’s a fair thing to think about. If those things come into play we have to address them. If there’s an opportunity for us to do something else with him, not that we would, but you can’t be afraid of making change. I don’t anticipate any problems with Steven to be honest. I have a working relationship already prior so he will come in here and we will have enough manpower so to speak to manage him and his expectations.”
On whether or not Stephen Jackson is misunderstood:
“Well I think the thing with Stephen you have to understand, he’s a lot like all of us that are here in the Bobcats organization from ownership on down. He’s highly competitive and I think when you’re a highly competitive person, sometimes your emotions tend to get in the way. He made a point to me in Golden State when I brought up the same situations with him in his past life, he said ‘I’ve always gotten in trouble for coming to the aid of a teammate so if I could be guilty of something make sure that you know that my intentions were always good.’ Be it the situation at the Palace or be it the situation at the club that night, it was always involving one of his teammates. He’s always been one of those guys in his locker room I think his teammates can kind of rally around. He’s always there for them and vice versa. I think the misunderstanding of Stephen Jackson is prevalent because he has always gotten in trouble for certain situations, but if you dig deeper, you see that he is just a highly competitive guy who wants to win like we all do here with the Bobcats.”
On whether or not the Bobcats can become a playoff team with this deal having gone down:
“I think it definitely helps us. You have to look at the way the East is rounding up, there are some good teams out there. Stephen made an announcement when he got here. I don’t know if he did it publically or internally to the locker room that we’re going to get to the playoffs. I think his mindset is definitely like that and I think he has enough players on the team, Gerald (Henderson), Boris (Diaw), Tyson (Chandler), Flip (Murray), D.J (Augustin) and Raymond (Felton), these guys are going to have that same mindset. We have 72 games to go in this season and I’m very highly optimistic that we are going to improve this team as we go forward.”
Listen to Rod Higgins on WFNZ in Charlotte with the Mac Attack
Tags: Charlotte Bobcats, Golden State Warriors, NBA, Rod Higgins, Stephen Jackson, WNFZ
