https://nypost.com/2023/07/31/mark-jackson-out-at-espn-in-nba-booth-blowup/
Jackson joins Jeff Van Gundy in being laid off by ESPN after the two had been Mike Breen’s co-analysts on the NBA Finals.
Hell no, I’m convinced JVG actually hates basketball. All he does is complain and bring negativity to every game. Dude is just a bitter old man at this point.
Yeah but the rest of us--the bitter old men I mean--love having someone like that make us look reasonable. Seriously though, I enjoyed his analysis a lot, and he legit taught me a lot about the game. Yeah he feels strongly about certain things but I don't mind disagreeing with any/everyone so that's all good with me.
I think Doc has the know-how and enough charisma to be a decent caster. On the other hand his voice sounds like gravel in a blender.
I get that coaches are inherently on a different level than casual fans, but as a coach I don't really think he's anything special. He won with a stacked Celtics team where his fourth best player was a 40% 3 pt shooter who was a 7x all star before that year and eventual hall of famer, and he's been given a lot of stacked rosters and underachieved. If anything, his Celtics tenure was also mixed because that team had the talent where they could have easily won more than one. They had issues that weren't the coach, too, but it's hard to feel like he elevated them rather than just took the ride, and he's coasted a lot off of his time here.
And he just barely won that one ring in Boston. That superteam should not have been pushed to the brink as much as it was.
Glad he's out, but ESPN needs a lot more than better commentary to turn that burning ship around.