A day after abandoning his captaincy, speaking of a strained relationship with Nelson and reiterating that he wants out of Golden State, Jackson went a step further. He called out his teammates for the first time this season.
“Nobody reacted but me, so the team didn’t have a reaction,” Jackson said after practice Wednesday, referring to his emotionally charged matchup with Kobe Bryant on Friday. “It was only me standing up for myself. I don’t think anybody else stood up for me.
“But if the shoe were on the other foot, I would have stood up for somebody on my team, and they didn’t do the same for me.”
Jackson wanted someone – the coaching staff or his teammates – to back him when he and Bryant tussled through the preseason game’s opening 10 minutes.
“I’m not a fan of Kobe. I’m not somebody who looks up to him,” Jackson said. “I’m a grown man, so when I go out there and play the game, I play the game. I feel like I’m just as good as him.
