Implying Mark Jackson’s Jehovah’s Witness Status Was An ‘Issue’, Andre Iguodala Once Delved Into Why He Was Blackballed by The NBA

Back in 2019, Andre Iguodala showed up on the Breakfast Club podcast to promote his book, ‘The Sixth Man’. Among a range of topics, Iggy proceeded to talk about his former coach at the Golden State Warriors, Mark Jackson. Jackson is often credited with having built the Golden State Warriors team that ended up winning four Championships since 2015.

However, Jackson was fired in 2014, a move that Iguodala suggested might have something to do with the fact that he was a Jehovah’s Witness. Regardless, he started by speaking about how Jackson was utterly well-liked by the Warriors team.

“We were a huge fan of Mark, he was a real player’s coach…He was like, ‘come in, compete, play hard.’ He was gonna put you in the best position to make the most money…He said Klay and Steph are going to be the best backcourt ever, they said he was crazy. This was 7 years ago,” he said, before claiming that Jackson never forced the team to ‘go to church.’

Speaking about his firing, during the stint of former Warriors president Rick Welts, Iguodala claimed that the beliefs prevalent in Jackson’s religion might have played a part.

“One particular issue was, what I heard, was gender, or marriage, and what the Bible said on your sexuality. Our head of business, he just went to Hall of Fame, He was the brains behind the All-Star weekend…Rick Welts, Genius, and he celebrated as one of the top execs in sports on the business side, and he is gay. So there were conflicts with that, widespread like everyone was talking about that,” he said.

Hence, while Iguodala himself did not make the said claim, he confessed that he had heard similar accounts from other sources as well. Welts, whose tenure resulted in 4 NBA championships for the Warriors, was homosexual, and Jackson’s religion had rigid guidelines on a range of topics, including sexuality.

The former Warriors star Iguodala himself appears to be one of the people who believe that might have played a role in the decision to ultimately fire Mark Jackson.

Several reasons played a part in Mark Jackson’s ultimate firing

Warriors Owner Joe Lacob had also revealed why he ended up firing Mark Jackson, according to SB Nation. Lacob claimed that Jackson did not show the kind of willingness Steve Kerr did to make upgrades in his staff.

Talking about how Kerr was willing to spend big in order to get the best assistants, he claimed Jackson was simply unwilling to let go of his loyalty towards his own staff. While that got him fired, it seems as if the players also showed loyalty towards Jackson.

Speaking on Checc’n Podcast, Green claimed that he and the Warriors were devastated when they found out Jackson was being fired.

“We were all crushed when [Mark Jackson] got fired because, again, we went from 23 wins to 46 wins to 48 or 49 wins the following year. We all felt like we were building towards something. You take a team who hadn’t been to the playoffs but one time in the last 20 years or something – and we went to the playoffs in back-to-back years – and then he got fired,” he said, claiming that the Warriors’ then-young core did not know what to think.

Hence, it might simply be a case of a lack of clarity, that resulted in the likes of Iguodala and others believing Jackson’s religion might also have played a role in him losing his job.