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In October of 1999, Stephen Jackson was waived in coaching camp by the then-Vancouver Grizzlies, together with Wealthy King and Antwain Smith, although the latter two wouldn’t make Vancouver remorse it, as neither performed one other minute within the NBA after that.
Jackson, however, would go on to play 14 seasons within the NBA, successful one championship in his profession as a member of the San Antonio Spurs. Moreover taking part in a task in San Antonio’s 2002-03 championship, Jackson additionally earned Most Improved Participant votes twice and even MVP votes (a really small quantity) in 2009-10.
After all, it’s arduous to offer Vancouver an excessive amount of grief for waiving Jackson, as he performed for eight NBA groups in his profession, bouncing round loads – nearly definitely due to his perspective – and didn’t even play within the NBA in 1999-00, the season after the Grizzlies waived him.
It’s a little bit of a tricky search for the Grizzlies, nevertheless, contemplating Vancouver wasn’t precisely a powerhouse on the time Jackson didn’t make its roster, with the group going 22-60 that 12 months. The Grizzlies did have lots of wing depth on the time, although, together with one-time All-Star Shareef Abdur-Rahim and veterans Antoine Carr and Dennis Scott.
Jackson did fail to make the group over one other younger guard, Felipe Lopez, who the group had simply invested a first-round choose on a 12 months prior. Lopez wound up taking part in simply 4 seasons within the NBA. That makes the Jackson waiving look a bit political within the sense that even when Jackson did outplay Lopez in coaching camp, Vancouver nonetheless needed to go along with Lopez on its roster because it had made an enormous funding on him and had him on his rookie contract for one more two years.
The identical applies for one more younger guard on Vancouver’s roster on the time, Michael Dickerson, a late lottery choose in 1998 who the Grizzlies had acquired in a commerce for eventual All-Star Steve Francis. To Vancouver’s credit score, Dickerson did at the very least common 18 factors the season after Jackson was waived.
Regardless, in a statistical sense, nobody has produced extra after being a coaching camp reduce than Jackson. In hindsight, it clearly doesn’t actually seem like a very good choice, particularly contemplating Vancouver had fairly weak younger guards on the time. However possibly Jackson wanted to get his priorities straight and pay his dues in lowly leagues earlier than getting one other shot within the NBA to blossom into the participant he finally grew to become.
