Editor's note: The video above is CSN Bay Area Insider Monte Poole's reaction to Brian Scalabrine's firing in March 2014.
Brian Scalabrine, the first casualty of the Warriors' 2013-14 coaching staff, has finally detailed the events that led to his unceremonious exit.
Mark Jackson, Golden State's head coach at the time, was naturally right in the middle of Scalabrine's demotion to the D-League and ultimate dismissal from the team. According to the former NBA journeyman, who now serves as a television analyst for the Celtics, it all stemmed from a disagreement on one play in a Warriors home loss to the Spurs.
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In a Yahoo Sports podcast on Wednesday, Scalabrine went through the chain of events, which were later transcribed by the San Jose Mercury News.
"I wanted to watch the clip that we were talking about, which means watch the tape, right? And they wouldn’t put it on.
“ ... So we had this meeting of clearing the air, and the meeting was, it was like a bombardment of he’s trying to like get everyone to say that I’m a bad guy, and I’m a bad coach, and I should be off the staff.
" ... And what is an (assistant) coach going to do? You’re like some low-level coach, and Mark is your boss, and is Scalabrine disrespectful? Of course you’re going to say, 'yes.' So every person was like, 'yeah.' So then he brought in management and did the same thing. So we have a meeting where it’s me versus coaches and management.
Golden State Warriors
" ... Clearly you could see there was a lot of dysfunction, whatever. But his exit meeting comes into basically Mark saying like, 'I’ve got to let you go.' And me at the same time basically saying, 'You know there’s only 11 games left (before the playoffs).' Like not only am I worried about my reputation, and I’m not really worried about his reputation.
" ... I said, 'Listen, you can have all your money back. If you’re back next year, I’ll just go and do something else. It’s totally fine. This is not a good fit for me and you. But along the way, we don’t have ruin my reputation nor do we have to ruin your reputation.' As a way of pleading to him like, 'Do not do this, right?' No. Didn’t care."
Neither Scalabrine nor Jackson has coached since that season, though it appears that the latter could still be angling for another gig on the sidelines.