Kansas swingman Josh Jackson is widely expected to be a top-five selection in the 2017 NBA Draft. However, he also happens to the only elite prospect in this class with notable off-court issues and, as a result, Jackson was prompted about an anger management class that he has been taking in the days before he formally becomes a professional basketball player.
In meeting and working out for the Los Angeles Lakers, Jackson opened up to Lakers.com digital reporter Joey Ramirez on the subject. When prompted about whether he was taking such a course, Jackson did not shy away from it.
“There is some truth to that, Jackson said. “I have been taking an anger management course. I’m just about wrapping it up right now. It was just something I had to do and I learned from the mistake that I made. I’m making it through it.”
Later, Jackson shared what he gleaned from taking the course. “One of the biggest things I got out of it,” the one-and-done wing indicated, “was just to worry about the things that I can control and not to worry about the things that I can’t. It sounds so simple, but I went home and I thought about that a lot. It made a huge amount of sense to me, because there’s a lot of things in this world that we can’t control, yet [they] frustrate us. But you just can’t worry about them too much.”
Jackson was charged with misdemeanor criminal damage in March after an incident in which he is accused of threatening bodily harm to a Kansas women’s basketball player. In addition, Jackson was also cited for a hit-and-run incident with a parked car during his time on the Kansas campus as a freshman.
The talented young wing offered a public apology for the incident in March and he indicated in the interview with the Lakers that he “learned from the mistake” that he committed. Whether these are viewed as genuine or if they translate to full-blown character concerns that would dock him among NBA teams remains an open question at this point and, frankly, it is unlikely that the general basketball-viewing public will ever know.
However, if Jackson were to fall in the NBA Draft next week, whispers will continue about the possibility that off-court issues played a part in that slippage.
