With Lakers’ search for a new head coach recently going viral Mark Jackson’s name was immediately brought up. As time went on people learned that Lakers would not be selecting Mark Jackson to replace the fired Frank Vogel. There has been sentiment on social media that is fueled by a theory that Mark Jackson is being blackballed by the NBA, but no one really ever knew exactly why that could be possible. Now new allegations about Mark Jackson’s time with the Warriors are coming out that are very eye popping.
Is Mark Jackson Homophobic? Details Behind Allegation Mark Jackson Used Gay Slurs Towards Warriors’ Owner and Staff
According to the well known writer Ethan Sherwood Strauss ESPN spiked an article that allegedly revealed the turmoil Mark Jackson caused within the Warriors organization during his time as head coach. Spiking an article means to withhold it from being published for political, commercial, or editorial reasons. In this situation the allegations against Mark Jackson were so heinous that ESPN allegedly didn’t want to make them public.
According to Ethan Sherwood Strauss the ESPN article would have revealed that Mark Jackson made homophobic comments about Jason Collins who was a Warriors assistant coach, and Warriors’ owner Rick Welts who are both gay men. The reports alleged Mark Jackson used gay slur ‘penis grabber’ to describe them, and said they were both going to hell for being gay. It’s well known that Mark Jackson is very religious, so the allegations are not unbelievable.
In September of 2021 when Mark Jackson was interviewed by Shannon Sharpe he said he ‘doesn’t know’ why he hasn’t been offered a coaching job since he was fired by the Warriors. He also made it clear that he wants to coach again saying ‘I look forward to the day when I’m coaching again‘.
If Mark Jackson used gay slurs towards Warriors management and staff then it would make sense why he hasn’t been offered another coaching job. Verbally attacking the LGBTQ community is well known to be career suicide in this day age. However, Mark Jackson himself is still baffled about not getting calls for head coaching jobs, so it makes you wonder how true those allegations actually are.
One thing that’s certain is that every player he coached on the Warriors still speaks highly of him till this day, and he was was responsible for turning the franchise around well before Steve Kerr arrived. On paper it seems like he would have been the perfect coach for the Lakers.
