Jackson Sucks At Shooting Jumpers As Well as Hand-Guns

Reggie Miller, Mr. Pacer, seems to be the only one getting it right about what happened last Friday. The incident involving Stephen Jackson and three other Pacers led to shots being fired out side an Indianapolis night club. Miller, who gracefully retired in '05, called the incident a "black cloud" for the Pacer organization and criticized Jackson's teammates for supporting him.

Here's the Story from the Star.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061010/SPORTS04/610100362

The police say that the four Pacers appear to be the victims in the event. However, while the law may be on their side, what happened that night is despicable. Reggie had it right on the dot when he asked why Jackson was out at 3 A.M. in the midst of preseason training and with many of the team's young acquisitions looking up to him for veteran leadership.

I've never been a big fan of Jackson. First, we traded away Al Harrington, who was just getting to be a great all-around player, for him. Then Jackson went and played second oboe to Ron Artest's Malice at Palace performance. If you watch the clip, which I'm sure you've seen a hundred times, Jackson is throwing fists just as furiously as Artest. Not to mention Jackson's sub-par play these past couple seasons. Worst of all he is our replacement at the two guard spot for Reggie.

During the altercation, with some loud mouth drunks, Jackson shot five bullets into the air after he was punched in the mouth and hit by a car. He will miss the first pre-season game to night because of the stitches in his mouth.

Reggie also made a bold statement about how "ridiculous" it was that the Pacer's organization backed him up after the incident. ""What I don't like is that a lot of players who weren't at the club were standing behind Stephen Jackson. You shouldn't stand behind a player that is slapping you guys in the face" This statement comes in opposition to Coach Rick Carlisle and Jermaine O'Neal's staunch support of Jackson.

Carlisle has shown little bite in this episode. He's a good coach, but his main problem is that he does not realize that he has power, as head coach, to take control of the team. For example, before pre-season Carlisle got together with two Pacers and asked them if they still wanted him as coach. Who were these two? J.O. and Jackson. True, the Pacers lack a team leader, which is why Carlisle went out and got on-the-court general Darrel Armstrong. But, to ask Jackson for approval? His opinion should mean nothing. In fact he should have been moved in the off-season (He was Artest's best friend on the team). Carlisle said he would have walked if either one of them had said no. Thank God Jackson didn't blow that one or we might have had P-Diddy calling plays due to his knack for guns and night clubs.

What a mess, incidents like these make me miss the days of Miller, Smits, the Davis brothers and even Mark Jackson.