SINNER OR SAINT

Lately, disgruntled erstwhile Golden State Warriors Captain Stephen Jackson is hugging the NBA limelight with his controversial behavior. During the summer, “Captain Jack” publicly announced that wanted out of the Bay Area outfit and said he is tired of the losing attitude and image of the team.

Then came the recent pre-season game against the Los Angeles Lakers wherein he committed five fouls and a technical in ten minutes of play in the opening period then left the team in disgust straight to the lockers and never returned in the said ballgame. After serving his two-game suspension from the team, Jackson relinquished his team captaincy in a meeting with Warriors coach Don Nelson and general manager Larry Riley. According to reports, the Warriors had been busy since the off-season trying to shop Jackson around but the problem is there is a very low sign of interest coming the rest of the league.

To his credit, Jacko is one of the main men of the Warriors during their amazing run in the 2007 playoffs wherein they shocked the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round. Curiously, Jackson seems happy with the team when he signed a contract extension last year.

Let’s dig deeper into this Jackson scenario as we take a look into some interesting quotes from the perspective of a troubled man.

1. On Relinquishing the Team Captaincy:

“Don't try to dig into it, that's just how I feel and I don't want to be a role model. ... Being captain was overrated to me, anyway. You don't do anything but go out before the game and talk to the refs. I don't want to do that, anyway.”

2. On his two-game suspension imposed by Coach Nelson:

"Any time somebody takes $150,000 from me, of course it's going to change. If my mom took some money from me I'd still love her to death but I'd still be upset about it. And he's not my mom. This ain't the first time I lost money. I lost $3 million on the fight (2004 Pacers-Pistons brawl). I didn't agree with (the latest suspension). Anybody who'd seen the game saw how I got handled out there. I got treated wrong, no question."

3. On possibilities that the Warriors may opt to sit him out the rest of the 2009-10 season or a contract buyout :

"If they want to send me home and pay me, I'm fine with that. It has to be right. I doubt if they'd do that (contract buyout)."

4. On Kobe Bryant during their pre-season game:

"Basically, to beat a dead horse, (Bryant) was just playing dirty. He was getting favoritism out there. I'm not saying the refs were cheating. I'm not saying that at all. I think he was getting away with stuff that I couldn't get away with. And I didn't think it was fair. So I reacted on it. And if it happens again, I'm going to react the same way.

I'm not going to bow down. I'm not a fan of Kobe. I'm not somebody who looks up to him. I'm a grown man myself. So when I go out there and play the game, I play the game. I feel like I'm just as good as him. I might not get the publicity or notoriety he gets, but I feel like I can play with anybody in the NBA any given night.

"I think everybody should feel like that. Everybody should be a competitor and I don't back down from anybody. I've never been like that and I'm not going to start today. ... It ain't envy. I ain't jealous of anybody. At the end of the day I'm still blessed to be in this game, taking care of my family. I think it's just the fact that what's fair is fair and I want to be treated fair as a man. Just like anybody else would."

5. On his Warrior teammates during the Laker game:

"Nobody reacted but me so the team didn't have a reaction. It was only me standing up for myself. I don't think anybody else stood up for me. But if the shoe was on the other foot, I would have stood up for somebody on my team. And they didn't do the same for me."

Jackson should make up his mind now or else he may end up ala “starbury” a year ago.