Photo Credit: Sue Ogrocki/AP
Steven Adams Rips Reggie Jackson In New Book
One of the most beloved NBA players has become an author.
Oklahoma City Thunder’s big man Steven Adams has published a book called ‘My Life, My Fight’. In the autobiography Adams talks about his life story, his humble upbringing, the impact of his father’s death when he was only 13-years old, the multiple challenges and setbacks he has faced, but also about basketball. As always, he is not mincing matters. Outspoken as ever, he rips former Oklahoma City guard Reggie Jackson in one paragraph.
Jackson played as Russell Westbrook’s and eventually wanted out, as he believed he deserved the starting role over Westbrook. Adams first talks about Jackson when talking the questionable out-of-bounds call Game 5 of the second round of the 2014 NBA playoffs against the Los Angeles Clippers. As Reggie Jackson drove the lane in a sudden transition opportunity, Matt Barnes swiped at the ball, made contact with the left hand of Jackson, and the ball popped loose and went out of bounds. The ruling on the floor by the officiating crew was that the ball was off of Barnes and it would be Thunder ball on the baseline.
Adam’s thoughts on that scene are somewhat interesting:
“As for the controversial out of bounds call given to us that everyone says went off our guy Reggie Jackson’s hand? I couldn’t possibly comment. Reggie was in a three-on-one fast break situation and chose to take it hismelf instead of passing to KD or Russ. That’s far more controversial to me.”
Later in the book, Adams then talks Jackson believing he deserved the starting role over Westbrook, a little more intense and burns him again:
When Russ came back from injury and took over the starting spot again, Reggie wasn’t happy. We were just looking at him thinking, ‘You’ve got to be some kind of fool to seriously think you should be starting over Russ.’ But that’s exactly what he thought, and that kind of thinking went against everything the Thunder was about. Yes, we competed in practice and fought for the starting positions, but once the actual game starts we all do whatever is required of us, no matter how much or how little.
“When the trade deadline got near, we knew Reggie wanted to leave. And because we knew he wanted to leave, we wanted him to leave as well. Why would we want to work every day with someone who wanted to be somewhere else? When he was finally traded to the Detroit Pistons, we forgot about him pretty quickly because we had new guys to welcome to the team.
I guess the two won’t ever become good friends. OKC also was in the right to trade Jackson away, as he has been pretty bad (and always injured) in Detroit as well.
