Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry wasn't a fan of the critical comments owner Joe Lacob made about former coach Mark Jackson. Curry, who had a close relationship with Jackson, called Lacob's comments a "distraction."
Lacob cited Jackson's lack of management skills as the reason he fired the coach. The owner said Jackson made poor decisions with the assistant coaches he hired, didn't fully understand "X's and O's" and didn't get along with a lot of employees in the organization, all of which led to Lacob hiring first-year coach Steve Kerr.
Curry's closeness to Jackson has never been a secret, and he took issue with Lacob's assessment of his ex-coach.
"I think it's just unfortunate, just the distraction from what is going on right now," Curry said, via the San Jose Mercury News. "Obviously, we're playing well, and you can nitpick of what's the difference between this year and last year, but you're talking about two great coaches. I feel like Coach Kerr's doing his job great, and Coach Jackson did his job the way he thought was right. And obviously, there was a lot of success with it."
Lacob did issue an apology, something which Curry said he appreciated.
"For him to apologize is a big gesture," said Curry. "My whole thing is not to discredit anything Coach Jackson did because he was such a great coach for us and elevated a lot of our individual games, and I'm proud of that and appreciate that. And obviously it's a new era, a new experience that we're in right now, and we're enjoying it."
Kerr, who's Warriors have a league-best 17-2 record, had nothing but praise for his predecessor.
"I inherited a hell of a team," Kerr said. "And so, there's been a lot of good things done in this organization. Front office, coaching staff, player development, I'm sitting here with a great team. We have the best record in the league. That didn't happen because our staff showed up. It's happened over the course of several years, and a lot of people deserve credit for that, including the previous staff."
Golden State hosts the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday.
