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Warriors owner slams former coach Mark Jackson

Rocky Widner / Getty

The marriage between the Golden State Warriors and former head coach Mark Jackson evidently soured towards the end of his tenure in Oakland.

Jackson, who coached the Warriors between 2012-14, was fired this offseason and replaced by rookie head coach Steve Kerr, who has the Warriors firing on all cylinders en route to a franchise-best 16-2 start.

In speaking with Diamond Leung of Inside Bay Area, Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob shed some light on the team's decision to cut ties with Jackson.

"Part of it was that he couldn't get along with anybody else in the organization," Lacob said of Jackson. "And look, he did a great job, and I'll always compliment him in many respects, but you can't have 200 people in the organization not like you."

Lacob also cited concerns over Jackson's unwillingness to hire better assistants to round out his staff. The need for experienced assistants was imperative, as Lacob felt Jackson "didn't know X's and O's, really" when he first took over. 

Only one of Jackson's five former assistants currently has an NBA job, Leung notes.

"You can't have a staff underneath you that isn't that good," Lacob said. "And if you're going to get better, you've got to have really good assistants. You've got to have people that can be there to replace you. We all know this from all of our companies. 

"It's ... Management 101. A lot of people on the outside couldn't understand it when we (fired Jackson)."

In three seasons as head coach, Jackson led the Warriors to a regular-season record of 121-109, and was 9-10 during the playoffs.

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