12 Players who turned their back on the Golden State Warriors

6. Mark Jackson

The Golden State Warriors needed Mark Jackson as a head coach. The onetime point guard was hired to replace the inconsistent and outmatched Keith Smart and he gave the Warriors a defensive identity and oversaw the growth and development of their young core, including empowering Stephen Curry as a star guard and believing in Klay Thompson as his long-term running mate.

For all that he was necessary, Jackson also had some very real friction with the organization. Some of those were normal on-court realities; Jackson raised the floor of the team but wasn't able to raise their ceiling. Simply as a head coach the Warriors needed to ultimately replace him and by hiring Steve Kerr unlocked a modern dynasty.

The reason Jackson makes this list, as the only non-player to do so, is because the problems with his coaching tenure were not simply his limitations as a head coach. Jackson was embroiled in an extortion case revolving around an affair with an ex-stripper early on in his tenure. Then came numerous reports of a bad leadership culture in the Warriors' organization, which led to staff secretly taping interactions and number of accusations of backstabbing between Jackson and other members of the Warriors.

Nearly all head coach firings are contentious, but the firing of Mark Jackson was exceptionally so. His relationship with the organization does not appear to have improved in the years since. For whatever reason, his fault or no, Jackson wasn't able to make peace and help pull the ship in the same direction, and the Warriors were worse off for it.