Report: Mark Jackson Made Anti-Gay Comments About Warriors President, Jason Collins

Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images

ESPN The Magazine reportedly declined
to run a feature story in 2016 that included several criticisms of former Golden State Warriors head coach and current ESPN analyst Mark Jackson,
including alleged anti-gay comments about former NBA player Jason Collins
and Warriors president Rick Welts.

Reporter Ethan Strauss, a former Warriors beat writer, detailed the
allegations earlier this month, and they were picked up by NBC Sports’
Dan Feldman and other outlets on Tuesday:

While the article Strauss referenced
was apparently squashed, ESPN’s Scoop Jackson wrote about several of
the issues related to Jackson’s tenure with the Warriors in the
immediate aftermath of his firing.

That included the strain created by
Jackson’s concern with Collins becoming the first
openly gay player in NBA history in 2013, which was contrasted by the
Warriors front office’s support of Collins after Welts became the
league’s first publicly out executive in 2011.

The article also referenced the “us
against the world” mentality that became central to Jackson’s
approach in leading Golden State, which was on the ascent thanks to the
still-active trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

Jackson, a former NBA point guard,
expressed relief after his time with the Warriors ended:

“I wake up absolutely relieved.
Because there are no more unnamed sources that can affect me. I don’t
have to answer the question that others won’t answer. I can speak
clearly about who I am and how I can conduct myself. It is
unfortunate because everything the unnamed source said—that I was
done if I did not get out of the first round, that there was
friction, that there was this and there was that—and there claimed
to be no unnamed sources. Well, it’s come out true.”

In 2021, he explained on the Boardroom:
Out of Office podcast (via CBS Sports’ Brad Botkin) the narrative
that surrounded his exit from Golden State combined with suggestions he enforced religious beliefs on his team have so far prevented him from getting another
coaching job.

“I’m incredibly blessed to have
had that opportunity. Now, when you do things as a believer, that
doesn’t mean it’s always going to work out. And sometimes, you’re
gonna be used in ways that you don’t wanna be used. So did the human
side of me think, ‘Man, this is messed up. I got fired? How did I get
fired when I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, and I’m trying to
live right, and I’m trying to instill and motivate and inspire and
all those things. I got fired?’ The human side of me certainly feels
some of that. But as you mature as a believer in life, the objective
is for the spiritual side to be stronger than the human side. So my
spirit man checks my flesh man and says, ‘Are you kidding me? It’s
not about you. It’s not about you. It’s about a bigger purpose, a
bigger call on your life.'”

Jackson has interviewed for head
coaching jobs in recent years. He was a finalist for the Sacramento
Kings job earlier this offseason before the team opted to hire Mike
Brown.

He hasn’t commented on the latest
allegations made against him.