From the NJ Star Ledger:
http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/inde...710.xml&coll=1
NEW YORK -- Stephen Jackson already had his revenge, so don't think forcing Vince Carter to miss 21 shots in a Nets uniform gave him any special satisfaction. The real revenge came two years after the Nets had dumped him and Jackson won his only championship by helping the Spurs beat his old team. Point made.
So, this first-round playoff series is not about payback for the Pacers guard. In fact, Jackson looks back fondly on his time with the first NBA team that gave him a real chance, and believes it might have lasted longer if only he weren't such close pals with Stephon Marbury.
Jackson traces his departure from the Meadowlands to his close relationship with the former Net and current Knick, and he said it really bothered him when the Nets just cut him loose in the summer of 2001.
"It definitely made me upset, but at the same time I think it had more to do with things besides basketball," he said. "I was doing my job. I think it had to do with me hanging out with Marbury. The organization and Marbury were parting ways. They didn't want to keep us hanging on. I understood it was a business (move) and I took it in stride. I was ready to go somewhere else to play."
Jackson, a top high school talent who dropped to the second round of the 1997 draft, joined the Nets after drifting around several NBA training camps, two CBA cities and stints in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. When he finally arrived in East Rutherford in the fall of 2000, Marbury was there to welcome him into the fold, for better or worse.
"He was like my big brother," Jackson recalled yesterday as the Pacers practiced for Game 2 of their playoff series against his former team. "He took me under his wing and showed me a lot. I was with him all the time. Everything he did, I did. So, I guess the team wasn't winning with Marbury, he had been here a couple of years, and they wanted a clean slate. I was part of it."
Jackson started his first NBA game with the Nets in 2000, and averaged 8.2 points per game that season, earning a spot with Kenyon Martin on the rookie All-Star Team. That's heady stuff for a guy who had been playing in Caracas and Fort Wayne.
But at the end of the season the Nets didn't offer him a contract and Jackson signed in San Antonio, where he would win a ring. Nets president Rod Thorn is truly happy for Jackson, but says his friendship with Marbury wasn't the cause for his departure.
"Not really," Thorn said. "That team just didn't mix the way we wanted it to mix and we just decided we needed to go in another direction. We didn't rebound very well, we weren't great defenders and we weren't a good passing team. ... We didn't have good chemistry, either, but that's not just one guys' fault. We just needed some changes."
Thorn did remember that Marbury was extremely gracious to Jackson, lending him a car and buying him clothes to help smooth his transition into the NBA.
"Stephon was very nice to him," Thorn recalled.
Marbury and Jackson are still very close, and Jackson said they talk every day. Recently they have been discussing the Pacers' playoff potential and their unexpected victory in Game 1 over the Nets, but they have also spoken a lot about Marbury's trying times with the Knicks.
While Jackson has won one championship and has played in 38 playoff games over three seasons, Marbury has never made it out of the first round -- although he and the Suns gamely took Jackson's Spurs to six games in 2003 -- and his time with the Knicks, especially this year, has been a disaster.
"He wants to stay here because he is New York," Jackson said. "When you say New York, you think of Stephon Marbury. He would love to be here. But you know, he wants to play basketball, too. So, wherever he's wanted, wherever they say he has to play basketball at, he's going to do it.
"One thing we don't control is who we play with or where we go. We just play basketball, and that's always been Steph's attitude."
http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/inde...710.xml&coll=1
NEW YORK -- Stephen Jackson already had his revenge, so don't think forcing Vince Carter to miss 21 shots in a Nets uniform gave him any special satisfaction. The real revenge came two years after the Nets had dumped him and Jackson won his only championship by helping the Spurs beat his old team. Point made.
So, this first-round playoff series is not about payback for the Pacers guard. In fact, Jackson looks back fondly on his time with the first NBA team that gave him a real chance, and believes it might have lasted longer if only he weren't such close pals with Stephon Marbury.
Jackson traces his departure from the Meadowlands to his close relationship with the former Net and current Knick, and he said it really bothered him when the Nets just cut him loose in the summer of 2001.
"It definitely made me upset, but at the same time I think it had more to do with things besides basketball," he said. "I was doing my job. I think it had to do with me hanging out with Marbury. The organization and Marbury were parting ways. They didn't want to keep us hanging on. I understood it was a business (move) and I took it in stride. I was ready to go somewhere else to play."
Jackson, a top high school talent who dropped to the second round of the 1997 draft, joined the Nets after drifting around several NBA training camps, two CBA cities and stints in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. When he finally arrived in East Rutherford in the fall of 2000, Marbury was there to welcome him into the fold, for better or worse.
"He was like my big brother," Jackson recalled yesterday as the Pacers practiced for Game 2 of their playoff series against his former team. "He took me under his wing and showed me a lot. I was with him all the time. Everything he did, I did. So, I guess the team wasn't winning with Marbury, he had been here a couple of years, and they wanted a clean slate. I was part of it."
Jackson started his first NBA game with the Nets in 2000, and averaged 8.2 points per game that season, earning a spot with Kenyon Martin on the rookie All-Star Team. That's heady stuff for a guy who had been playing in Caracas and Fort Wayne.
But at the end of the season the Nets didn't offer him a contract and Jackson signed in San Antonio, where he would win a ring. Nets president Rod Thorn is truly happy for Jackson, but says his friendship with Marbury wasn't the cause for his departure.
"Not really," Thorn said. "That team just didn't mix the way we wanted it to mix and we just decided we needed to go in another direction. We didn't rebound very well, we weren't great defenders and we weren't a good passing team. ... We didn't have good chemistry, either, but that's not just one guys' fault. We just needed some changes."
Thorn did remember that Marbury was extremely gracious to Jackson, lending him a car and buying him clothes to help smooth his transition into the NBA.
"Stephon was very nice to him," Thorn recalled.
Marbury and Jackson are still very close, and Jackson said they talk every day. Recently they have been discussing the Pacers' playoff potential and their unexpected victory in Game 1 over the Nets, but they have also spoken a lot about Marbury's trying times with the Knicks.
While Jackson has won one championship and has played in 38 playoff games over three seasons, Marbury has never made it out of the first round -- although he and the Suns gamely took Jackson's Spurs to six games in 2003 -- and his time with the Knicks, especially this year, has been a disaster.
"He wants to stay here because he is New York," Jackson said. "When you say New York, you think of Stephon Marbury. He would love to be here. But you know, he wants to play basketball, too. So, wherever he's wanted, wherever they say he has to play basketball at, he's going to do it.
"One thing we don't control is who we play with or where we go. We just play basketball, and that's always been Steph's attitude."
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