Former Warriors coach Mark Jackson is looking for some distance from his former team on the East Coast.
The current ESPN analyst will pursue the Nets head coaching job, according Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix.
Expect ex-Warriors coach Mark Jackson to push to get in the mix for the Nets coaching job. Jackson has coveted that job in the past.
— Chris Mannix (@ChrisMannixSI) January 10, 2016
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The Nets are clearly in a transition period, having just fired coach Lionel Hollins and reassigned general manager Billy King.
The team went all-in a couple of years ago (2013-14) with a roster of expensive veterans that included Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Joe Johnson and Deron Williams (only Johnson remains with Brooklyn). That team reached the Eastern Conference semifinals but was eliminated by LeBron James and the Miami Heat.
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The Nets have been in rebuilding mode ever since, and Hollins finished with a 48-71 record with Brooklyn.
Jackson is a Brooklyn native who began the transformation of the Warriors when he took over as coach in 2011-12. The team won 23 games his first year, 47 his second and 51 his third year before his relationship with Golden State management deteriorated to the point of his release.
Jackson had the benefit of molding the Warriors backcourt of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
The Nets, who are 10-28 heading into Wednesday's game against the visiting Knicks, don't appear to have any budding superstars on their team. But the opportunity would give Jackson a chance to show how much of a hand he had in the Warriors' ascension to the NBA throne. He certainly still has an uneasiness with Golden State after his Christmas Day comment about Curry hurting the game was misconstrued.
The possible Nets-Jackson pairing has drawn mixed reaction.
"There is no question that the Nets could do much worse than Jackson," thecomeback.com wrote. "He may not be the type of coach that they want to lead them back to contention, but he is more than capable of doing so."
But from awfulannouncing.com: "He had an impressive playing and broadcasting career (including working as a Nets' analyst on YES), but while his coaching stint was solid in some areas, it's not certain that it would make him a viable HC choice. His nonsensical and vindictive comments about Curry and the Warriors don't make him look good, either. Still, no one knows what Nets' owner Mikhail Prokhorov is going to do, and hiring Jackson instead of a more-proven coach would certainly be far from inconceivable for him."
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