Stephen Jackson is one of the more outspoken ex-NBA players around. It should come as no surprise, then, that he blamed San Antonio Spurs point guard and then-teammate Tony Parker for the squad’s loss to the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2012 Western Conference Finals.
“I’m going to give you a perfect example,” Jackson said in a recent TrueHoop podcast (as transcribed by News 4 San Antonio) where he accuses Parker of being a “double agent,” concerned more with personal achievements than team triumph at times.
“We was up 2-0 against the Thunder, my last year with the Spurs. They came back and won three games straight. But game six in OKC, I was having a hell of a game. I had six threes. Me and Kawhi (Leonard) was playing well. At the end of the game, when my six threes and other guys shots got us back in the game, Tony came in the game and tried to save the day and stopped playing team ball. We ended up losing that series. I kind of felt like that while he was on the sidelines, he was over there saying sneaky stuff to players and the coaches about getting back in the game so he can try to get his own personal achievements in the game and that’s why we lost. Pop wouldn’t say that. But I remember right after the game, me, Kawhi and Tim (Duncan) was sitting down after we lost, he came over there and said ‘I should have rode you guys, You all did everything you could.’ That’s his way of saying I should not have put Tony in the game.”
Jackson is on the hunt for another NBA playing spot, despite being 38 years old. Confident as he is that he’ll land back in the league, this sort of openly critical talk about teammates probably doesn’t bode well for him in that pursuit.
(News 4 San Antonio; H/T CBS Sports)
