By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

I know it’s way late, but I did want to collate the collective analysis of the end of the Stephen Jackson Era in Oakland and have it in one handy place.

I never did get a chance to write any lengthy analysis, but I think, from listening to all of Larry Riley’s comments on Monday, that Jackson finally broke the Warriors’ back with his quotes after the Brandon Jennings Explosion™ on Saturday.

It was a bad enough look when Jack praised himself for not getting T’d up during the Clippers’ road beatdown of the Warriors, which made it clear that he cared not one iota for what happened to the team on the floor.

But in the aftermath of the Bucks’ 129-125 win, Jackson let loose with both barrels.

First up was coach Don Nelson’s decision at the end of the game to call a play that involved Anthony Morrow, Corey Maggette and Monta Ellis all as options as the Warriors looked to tie the score. It wasn’t flat-out insubordinate, but it was sure coming close: “All I know is that I’m one of the best scorers on the team, and I was taking the ball out. That’s all I know. My job was to pass the ball inbounds. When you’re in the huddle at the end of the game, you pay attention to what you’re supposed to do. You don’t want to be the one who messes up. My job was to get the ball inbounds, and I did a great job.”

Then came what was, IMHO, the final straw — throwing his teammates under the bus for Jennings’ double-nickel performance: “Nobody has ever given me 55 points, and I didn’t get 55 points scored on me,” Jackson said. “Somebody has got to man up and take that 55, and I’m not going to take it. I wasn’t guarding him.”

That quote had to be especially galling because the Warriors have spent the better part of the last two years preaching about rotations and second and third efforts and all those team principles that Nelson and Keith Smart feel a team needs to become a good defensive unit. And Jackson, knowing all of that, just hung the young kids out to dry.

To me, that was the breaking point.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

[Ed. note: I realize this feature has not been as consistent or timely as I would like, so I’m going to try to slim it down from here on out so you can do your one-stop Warriors media shopping here every morning.]

PRINT MEDIA

Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): The lead lays it out in no uncertain terms: “Coach Don Nelson said before Wednesday’s game that the relationship between the Warriors and forward Stephen Jackson is irreconcilable and that his departure is imminent.”

For the sake of writing about something new, one can only hope.

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): I think “Do I look hurt?” needs to go down next to “I know it ain’t me” in the pantheon of great Stephen Jackson-as-a-Warrior quotes.

Conta Costa Times (Gary Peterson): Honestly, this is just plain mean to poor Warrior fans: A look ahead to all the ex-GSWs playing in the 2011 All-Star Game.

Indianapolis Star (Mike Wells): Mike got an inadvertent chuckle out of me when he discussed the fact that Jackson “thought he was going to be part of a playoff team every year after the eighth-seeded Warriors upset top seed Dallas in the first round of the playoffs in 2007. . . . It turns out that was the last time the Warriors made the playoffs.”

C’mon, now: Anyone who thinks playoff appearances for the Warriors will come more often than Halley’s Comet is just plain crazy.

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