Andre Iguodala Once Stated That Mark Jackson Was Being Blackballed By NBA

Iguodala made his opinion known back in 2019

Former Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson has not been a coach for an NBA team since he was let go by the franchise. One former Warriors player, Andre Iguodala, believes that Jackson has been blackballed by the NBA, which is why he is still without a team.

According to Basketball Network, Iguodala, who won four championships with the Warriors during his time with the team, believed that Jackson’s views, particularly on sexuality, were one of the reasons he was terminated and has yet to be hired by any NBA team. Although the media outlet referenced The Breakfact Club‘s 2019 interview with Iguodala, it appears that six years later, Jackson has not been considered to coach any teams after his stint with the Warriors.

Most basketball fans will admit that, thanks to Jackson, the Warriors became the winning team during the time they won four championships (2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022) in seven seasons. When the Warriors got rid of Jackson, they brought in Steve Kerr, who just took what Jackson did and ran with it, literally, and has gotten the credit for the titles won. The team won a championship less than a year after terminating the Queens-bred coach. Jackson, an ordained minister and deeply religious man, was known to express his views, whether invited or not, and it was rumored that this turned off many of the players who just wanted to play basketball. And, according to Iguodala, one of the executives in upper management, Rick Welts, was a gay man, and Jackson’s views conflicted with his lifestyle.

“One particular issue was his views on gender, or marriage, or what the Bible says on your sexuality. And the head of our business, Rick Welts, he’s celebrated as one of the top execs in sports on the business side, and he’s gay, so there was conflicts with that that was widespread,” Iguodala said on the morning program in 2019.

Jackson grew up in New York City, where point guards were aplenty and he had a storied basketball upbringing, growing up in Queens and then playing his collegiate career at St John’s. The hometown team, the New York Knicks, selected him in the first round, and his hometown hero status was complete. For years, whenever a coach is fired from the New York team, Jackson’s name is brought up, including this year, after the team terminated Tom Thibodeau at the end of the season. Although some New York sports fans were hoping he would get a chance, Jackson was overlooked when the team hired Mike Brown.

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