Former Indiana Pacers point guard, Mark Jackson will shimmy his way from the broadcast booth to the bench for the Golden State Warriors.
According to Adrian Wojarowski, Jackson agreed to a 3-year, $6 million dollar contract with other reports mentioning a team option for a fourth year.
While broadcasting for ESPN/ABC the past few years, Jackson has been pining for a lead chair on the pine in the NBA despite his lack of coaching experience, either has the head coach at another level or an assistant in the NBA. His counter that he coached throughout his playing career from the point guard position appears to have finally struck a chord with the Warriors and their new leadership group which includes new owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber along with Jerry West in the front office.
Tweets are flying with expectations that Jackson will add assistants with plenty of coaching experience, taking a page from Larry Bird who jumped into his first coaching gig supported by strong assistant coaches in Rick Carlisle and Dick Harter.
So will this hire speed up the Pacers hiring process?
If they are waiting for the labor dispute to clear up before officially hiring Frank Vogel, they better make sure he finds the assistant coaches he wants to hire to bolster the experience on the bench.