Brian Scalabrine was reassigned — or demoted — by the Golden State Warriors earlier this week. It has been reported that head coach Mark Jackson is the one who forced the demotion against the wishes of ownership, but Scalabrine may have actually been having a hard time getting along with fellow assistant coach Pete Myers.
According to Jordan Ramirez of Warriors World, Scalabrine and Myers got into a heated verbal altercation after Golden State’s loss to the San Antonio Spurs last Saturday. Scalabrine was reassigned to the D-League on Tuesday. Jackson simply said there was a “difference in philosophies” when asked why Scalabrine has been demoted, but he laughed off any talk of dysfunction.
“We are excited about what’s taken place up until this point — the culture, the environment with no dysfunction at all,” he said. “That’s comical. I know dysfunction, and that could not be further from the truth, and if it was true, there’d be more people in the choir singing it. That’s entertainment.”
Last season, Jackson and former Warriors assistant Michael Malone supposedly went weeks without speaking to each other. Malone has since left to become the head coach of the Sacramento Kings, but his relationship with Jackson has led to a common belief that Jackson has trouble getting along with his coaching staff.
The interesting thing about all this is that the Warriors are 44-27 and headed for the playoffs. Despite that, Jackson and the team have not discussed a contract extension. There were also rumors over the offseason that he was trying to throw his name into the mix for some head coaching vacancies. Success or not, something doesn’t seem right.
