If Mark Jackson was a basketball fan in Los Angeles, he knows how he would handle the decision whether to attend Game 5 of the Clippers first round series with the Warriors at Staples Center on Tuesday night.
“I believe, if it was me, I wouldn’t come to the game,” Jackson, the head coach of the Warriors and a former Clipper, told reporters in Oakland, Calif. on Monday. “I believe the fans, the loudest statement that they can make as fans is to not show up to the game.”
Jackson quickly made it clear his feelings had nothing to do with trying to diminish any potential home-court advantage inside for the Clippers.
“As an African-American man that’s a fan of the game of basketball and knows its history and knows what’s right and what’s wrong, I would not come to the game [Tuesday], whether I was a Clipper fan or a Warrior fan,” he said.
As for the potential of having the Clippers players boycott the game, as some have suggested, Jackson thought there was a difference between that and fans now showing up to watch the teams play.
“Should the Clippers boycott? They’re getting paid to play,” Jackson said. “They’ve got families and bills. This is their job. This is their livelihood. They dreamt their whole life for it. Same thing with us.
“But it’s different for me to pay to come see it.”