Hold ‘em players call this “a family pot,” when everyone at the table is playing into the same hand. This often results in a lot of chips going into the middle of the table, someone getting rich, and a lot of other people getting trimmed.
In other words, Stephen Curry wants to be consulted by the Warriors front office on any matter that involves the future of head coach Mark Jackson.
He didn’t say it in that Kobe Bryant-You’re-Damned-Right-My-Vote-Counts way, but he said it, and Curry does not say what he does not mean. If the Jackson issue has not become too far gone, he wants input.
From Comrade Poole (http://bit.ly/1dwqkvD) comes Curry’s offering into the pot, with highlights below:
• “I hope they ask, for sure. And I'd give them my honest opinion. And hopefully that means something.”
• "I love Coach and everything he's about. I love playing for him and that's all that matters to me.”
• "We're two years removed from being a terrible basketball team,'' Curry said. "The transformation we've had since coach Jackson has been here is obviously evident and it raises the expectations. Yeah, we've lost some winnable games and games we shouldn't have along the way, but that's part of the growth process. We're on pace for the best season in 20 years. That's a sign of good change.
• "I support Coach 100 percent and understand what he's done for us. Being in the locker room every single day and just observing from my rookie to year to now what has changed. Most of all of that is a result of him. So what people say or criticism he takes, I know he takes it on the chin and keeps moving. It doesn’t waver his confidence at all. That's what I admire most about him. We're going to go out and continue to play hard for the rest of this season and into the playoffs, and kind of block that noise out. Because I know everybody in the locker room supports him 100 percent.
• “Obviously, I'm not the one making decisions. But I have an opinion, just as each person does. And, hopefully, they listen to a certain point.”
And here’s why that matters, from Joe Lacob when Curry signed his four-year extension in 2012:
“It’s Steph’s team now.”
This is the spare key to the family Maserati, and Curry has been granted the use of it in the same way Chris Paul has been allowed to have say in Los Angeles. It’s not Bryant-level influence, but it is influence, and Curry may well be willing to exercise it.
There are continued indications that the rift between Jackson and the front office is considerable, and the events of the past few days – reassigning assistant Brian Scalabrine to ABH (Anywhere But Here) – are merely symptoms of the greater issue. Jackson’s leverage, which has been the team’s record and the possibility of a deep postseason run, had been considered the thin edge of the wedge, but if Curry means what he says about being a Jackson man, a new element has been introduced.
Curry may not exercise his full influence. Or his influence may not be enough to affect the tide of events. Or maybe the Warriors do get to the conference final or (dare we suggest) beyond, making the entire matter moot.
But it is now evident that Curry wants a seat at the table, and he will have one if he asks. That is, unless Lacob wants to wreck what’s been built over the past three years, which would require a level of insanity that had previously been the sole province of Chris (The Hologram) Cohan.
And Lacob is not that, as far as we know. I mean, with owners, you can never really tell, can you?
In any event, we now have a family pot, and you may fully expect the chips to start flying in every direction between now and the summer – whenever that begins.
Ray Ratto is a columnist for CSNBayArea Area.
Curry takes his seat at the table
Thursday, March 27, 2014 - 11:15am
