- Cam Inman of The Oakland Tribune: "This is a familiar storyline to the Bay Area, and a recent one, too: A franchise stuck in a playoff drought just hired a first-time coach who happens to be a former player and licensed minister. Let's hope Mark Jackson doesn't bomb like Mike Singletary did in a 49ers tenure that goot extinguished before he could finish out the 2010 season. By reaching the playoffs in 14 of his 17 seasons as a player, Jackson obviously has ambitious goals for a franchise routinely absent from the postseason. ... Phil Jackson might have been a more convincing -- albeit unattainable -- choice considering his ring collection. But Mark Jackson's selection should bring energy and renewed interest to one of the league's most loyal fan bases."
- Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: "The Warriors' hiring of Mark Jackson a few hours ago caught most Bay Area types by surprise. The sense was that the process would drag on for another week or so, with owner Joe Lacob waiting to speak with Dallas Mavericks assistant Dwane Casey after the NBA Finals. But Lacob just seems to love the drama. He loves the surprises. (See his hiring of Jerry West as a consultant). Whether he has a clue about successfully running an NBA franchise is another matter. This is a risky hiring, to say the least. ... Jackson's hiring surely seems to further the notion that the Warriors plan to bust up the undersized backcourt of Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis. It doesn't work and was never going to work. Ellis, who was skeptical from the start, was only telling it like it was. And is. Serious trade talks to continue."
- Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: "As a coach, strategist and day-to-day manager of an often rocky locker room, broadcaster Mark Jackson is a total blank slate, an unknown, a great leap of faith. He has zero high-level coaching experience, so Jackson is a giant sideline question mark, in capital letters and triplicate. But the Warriors,
it is clear, were not exactly aiming for any of those specific things when they surprisingly hired Jackson as their coach Monday. Co-owner Joe Lacob was going for something else, something less tangible and something a lot riskier: Headline-making, room-dominating personality. 'You want to have a guy who's strong enough to be in charge,' general manager Larry Riley said Monday night. 'Mark has a strong personality -- not abrasive, but he has a strong personality and should have the right mix to be able to lead our team.' Yes, even the Warriors have to couch this hiring with words such as 'should have' and 'we think,' because Jackson has a long career as a player and now offbeat announcer, but no track record as the boss. Nobody knows what kind of offense he will run, what kind of players he will lean on (other than the point guard) and how he will deal with the daily grind of the media and the like. ... The Warriors aren't an easy team to coach, and Lacob thinks a strong dose of attitude and confidence can overcome a complete lack of most other qualifying traits. It's a risk. Not a small one. When Lacob says he is willing to take them, he isn't kidding. It's just his personality." - Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News: "His on-court production has slipped, but his rhetoric increased significantly on Monday. First off, Jason Terry doesn't believe that Miami's defense is the best that Dallas has faced during the playoffs. 'Portland, by far, has the best 'D,' Terry said. Terry was asked about LeBron James' ability to limit him offensively during the Finals. Terry said James' 'length and his strength, his ability to close out and still be in the area to contest the shot,' make him a very good defender. But Terry doesn't seem to buy the notion that James' has shut him down altogether. 'I'm welcoming the challenge,' he said. 'We're going to see if he can do it for seven games. That's going to be the challenge. Right now, it's Game 4. Can he do it again in Game 4? He wasn't able to do it in Game 2. He did it in Games 1 and 3, so Game 4 is another opportunity.' Terry did not make a field goal during the fourth quarter of Game 3, but as he pointed out, 'Well, I'm going to have to get more than four opportunities at the basket to be effective. That's on me being aggressive, looking for more opportunities.' "
- Clarence E. Hill Jr. of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "From a historical perspective, the situation looks bleak for the Dallas Mavericks, down 2-1 to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. Since the NBA went to a 2-3-2 format in 1985, the Game 3 winner of a 1-1 series has gone on to win the title every time. And in the history of the NBA Finals, when a team loses Game 3 at home of a 1-1 series, it has rallied to win the title just 5 percent of the time. Add another loss and the Mavericks could be doomed, considering that no team has rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA Finals. Dallas is looking at tonight's game not only as a must win, but as its chance to save the season. 'This is it for us,' guard Jason Terry said. 'I'm looking forward to Game 4 and we are going to treat it as Game 7.' "
- Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Up 2-1 in these best-of-seven NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks, with the series resuming Tuesday at American Airlines Center, the outside impression of the Heat is a team of offensive flair, dazzling dunks, silky jumpers. But the reality is this series is being won with defense, defense that limited the Mavericks to 37.3-percent shooting in the Heat's series-opening 92-84 victory, defense that harassed the Mavericks into 20 turnovers in Dallas' 95-93 Game 2 win, defense that limited every Dallas starter not named Dirk Nowitzki to 27 total points in the Heat's 88-86 Game 3 victory on Sunday night. This, of course, is Ron Rothstein's world, the type of coach who would view a 2-0 final score as a work of art. But even for such a defensive maven, this is something completely different. Those Detroit defenses Rothstein helped assemble for Chuck Daly's 'Bad Boys' Pistons in the '80s were more about brawn and bulk, players such as Rick Mahorn and Bill Laimbeer. This Heat defense is about athleticism, the type of closing speed that can pack the paint and still chase 3-point shooters off their spots. 'We have some athletes on this team that are just off the charts,' Rothstein said."
- Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun: "Adversity rears its head just about each time Miami drops a game or when a failure to close out an opponent plays out in the late stages of games. For Bosh, his ability to bounce back from his Game 2 disappointment and his perseverance from that eye injury spoke to his focus of winning a title. For Bosh, it was the third time this playoff run that he’s been poked in the same eye. 'I feel great,’ he added. 'Just as long as I feel as good as I do now, I’ll be all right. Things happen. We just have to take the necessary precautions and get ready for Game 4. It’s not limiting my vision. I can see pretty good. I guess I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. We’ll spit on it and put a band aid on it and patch it up later.' "
- Mike Potash of the Chicago Sun-Times: "When Dallas Mavericks center Tyson Chandler was asked Monday about his days at Dominguez High School in Compton, Calif., he sounded like a guy who had gone on to bigger and better things. 'High school’s high school,’ he said. ‘But it was definitely fun being on big stages.’ For the Miami Heat’s Juwan Howard, it was a little different story. Howard grew up on the South Side, played at Vocational High School on 87th Street from 1987 to ’91 and reveres his upbringing in the Chicago Public League -- where every gym, no matter how small, was the big stage. 'I can remember it like it was yesterday,’ Howard said Monday. ‘I can take it game by game almost, as far as recalling what happened throughout my entire high school career. High school was a fun time. Chicago, the city, has been great to me. I love it. It’s my home. It taught me how to grow as a person. It’s a big [reason] I am where I am today because I learned not only to become a professional basketball player, but how to respect others in so many ways. If everything goes well and we win a championship, I can look back and say the path I took from adolescence to where I’m at now, it was well worth it.’ "
- Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News: "Ian Mahinmi has come a long way. From France to the Austin Toros to the place he stood Sunday night. At the free-throw line? Of the NBA Finals? The camera caught his reaction. He grinned. Still, going by what he did in his few minutes, Game 3 suggests the distance he’s come can be measured with a Texas road map. He’s in the same state he’s always been in, which is why he made a mistake last summer. He shouldn’t have gone from one Texas playoff team to another. He should have gone where he could have played more. Mahinmi shows no such regret now. The optimistic personality that endeared him to the Spurs is still in place. If anything, he feels more comfortable with his second NBA team. Since early December, when he thought the Mavericks needed some life, he continues to preface every game with a primal scream in the huddle. In San Antonio, only Gregg Popovich ever did that. Sunday deserved Mahinmi’s best scream. Once drafted by the Spurs who had just finished a Finals, he now was getting to play in one himself. With Brendan Haywood out Sunday with a strained right hip flexor, Mahinmi had a few moments."
- Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle: "If Jeff Van Gundy could do it all again, he would handle his relationship with Rockets owner Leslie Alexander differently. 'I should have sought him out more,' Van Gundy texted Monday. This is precisely the kind of thing Kevin McHale will hear from a lot of people at Toyota Center over these next few months. Of the many pieces of advice the friendly local columnist will dispense in the years ahead, this might be the most important. Once a week, pick up the telephone and touch base with your boss. When you're in town, stop by his office. Tell him what's up with the team. Tell him what you like and what you don't. Answer his questions. In other words, build a comfort level, if not a friendship. Most of these conversations won't last 10 minutes, but they could be hugely important in allowing the Rockets to function smoothly. If your job security is increased along the way, so much the better. Instead of having team president Tad Brown or general manager Daryl Morey serve as a go-between, instead of allowing tension to fester, why can't we all get along? Is it important? Of course it is. How silly to think otherwise. For one thing, it's basic common sense. How does it work at your office? ... 'It mystifies me,' Alexander said Monday. 'You'd think somebody who is the ultimate decider of your fate and wants to know what's going on would not have to claw information from them.' In the NBA, many coaches prefer to work as their own separate entity. They have their players and their assistants and their trainers, and they wall them off from the rest of the organization. Mistrust develops. Hard feelings, too."
- Shannon J. Owens of the Orlando Sentinel: "Shaq's time is done and now he wants to watch Howard carry the NBA torch for the big guys. But I think expecting three or four championships out of Howard's current situation is unfair. Sorry, but I just don't see Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and Gilbert Arenas as championship pieces. After a first round loss to the Atlanta Hawks, I doubt I'm alone. Are they good basketball players? Yes. By function, everyone in the NBA is at least good. But championship teams are built on greatness with a dash of extraordinary. O'Neal won championships with two potential Hall of Fame guards in Kobe Bryant andDwyane Wade. That alone is why the Miami Heat will win the NBA championship this season. They have two great talents, Dallas has one inDirk Nowitzki. I didn't ace high school calculus, but it's a pretty simple equation; two is greater than one. Two great talents, at minimum, has always been the NBA title formula since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, Shaq and Kobe. Of course, these teams were loaded with more than the aforementioned. Howard isn't surrounded by that caliber of talent. He's had very good players around him who, occassionally, play great. One of two things are certain to happen, either the Magic will put greatness around him or Howard will put himself around greatness."
- Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News: "John Kuester was the only coach Austin Daye has known during his two seasons in the NBA. And although he wasn't exactly surprised to hear about his firing, Daye wasn't rejoicing either. 'You hear things through the year, but you never really know,' Daye said Monday. 'The season is over anyway, we didn't make the playoffs.' Much has been made of Kuester's issues with communicating with his players, but Daye has a simpler reason for the move: 57 victories in two years. That total was unacceptable for a franchise that had been used to winning 50-plus in a season. 'I feel like communication was a part of the issue, but winning was the bigger part,' Daye said. 'If you're winning, then communication isn't such a big issue.' The bigger issue for Daye this season, however, was the constant lineup changes Kuester made."
- Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune: "Timberwolves forward Anthony Tolliver was born and raised in Springfield, Mo., where tornadoes flit across the countryside in an annual rite of springtime. But May 22 -- when an F-5 tornado ripped through nearby Joplin, Mo., killing 141 people -- was a day unlike any other. On Wednesday, Tolliver is holding two clinics in Joplin, where children from kindergarten through eighth grade can play, get autographs and forget for awhile. ... He talked recently with Star Tribune beat writer Jerry Zgoda about Joplin, the Timberwolves' coaching situation and a guy named Ricky Rubio. Q You know all about tornadoes, but did you ever think you'd see anything like this? A It's crazy, crazy that so many people died in the storm, crazy how it hit so close to home. It opened my eyes to how quickly life can change. Q Why did you choose to try to help this way? A Just doing something different. Most of the gyms there are being used as shelters for people who don't have homes anymore. We felt lucky to find a gym that actually was available. I read that more than 20 high school students who were graduating passed away. I just want to help kids get their minds off things they shouldn't be worrying about."
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