The basketball court isn't the only place where Andre Iguodala is a straight shooter. On Tuesday, appearing on ESPN's "The Breakfast Club" to discuss his newly released book "The Sixth Man" he said he believes former Warriors coach Mark Jackson has been blackballed by the NBA.
"I do," he said. "Yes. Absolutely."
Iguodala joined the Warriors for the 2013-14 season in Jackson's third, and final, season as the team's coach.
"He was one of my favorite coaches of all time," Iguodala said. "It was like, come in, compete, play hard. He was going to put you in the best position to get the most money."
Jackson led the Warriors to back-to-back playoff berths. And suddenly he was out of a job. The closest he's gotten to another league job is his current position as a broadcast analyst for ABC/ESPN.
Iguodala said that Jackson, an ordained minister, offered church services to the players: "We had a team of believers. We were going to church regardless."
Iguodala also said that Jackson would conduct streaming church services on Wednesday night in the team facility in Oakland.
"It would be around 7 o'clock at night," he said. "There was nobody in there. But I feel like the politics, man ...
"You know how it is. Once they want you out, they're going to find something."
According to Iguodala, the Warriors did.
"One particular issue was, from what I heard, his views on gender or marriage, or what the Bible said about your sexuality."
Now as then, Warriors COO Rick Welts was a valuable executive on the team's business side. "He just went in the Hall of Fame," Iguodala said. "He was the brains behind All-Star weekend. He's celebrated as one of the top execs in sports."
He also is openly gay, with beliefs that would have conflicted with Jackson's. "So there were conflicts with that," Iguodala said. "It was widespread. Everyone was talking about that."
Iguodala tackled another weighty issue on "The Breakfast Club" _ namely the pressure Kevin Durant must have felt to rejoin the team during the recently concluded postseason.
"Everyone's feeding stuff in our head," Iguodala said. "When are you getting back? Last year it happened to me. I missed the last three games of the Houston series. It goes to Game 7, we barely get out of that series.
"And now they're looking at me like, when you coming back? And I had a fractured leg."
(After the initial injury, the Warriors said he had a left leg contusion.)
"It's being put out there like you've got a bone bruise. The final diagnosis was a "spider fracture."
"So K, he's getting it every day, too," Iguodala said. "Not just from the team but the family, people close to him: 'This is our moment. This is our stage. This don't last forever.' "
