And up next in our continuing Milwaukee Bucks drama, the club trades Stephen Jackson for a Kardashian to be named later.
OK, maybe not, but would it surprise you that much these days? The Bucks have been about as predictable as roulette. They win when you think they’ll lose – hello Spurs, Heat, Knicks and Lakers. They lose when winning’s a foregone conclusion – greetings Charlotte and Sacramento.
They collect injuries like Super Dave Osborne. And when you think they’ve suffered one injury too many, like Andrew Bogut’s fractured ankle, they go out and win two of their next three games. Suddenly, they’re 9-11, which doesn’t sound like much until you remember they were once 4-9 and 0-8 on the road. Now, they’re looking like playoff material, and the continued development of Brandon Jennings is a big reason why.
But in the midst of all this has been the Stephen Jackson subplot.
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| Is the marriage of Stephen Jackson and the Bucks about to become a rather short one? Photo courtesy of Bucks.com. |
He arrived as a savior of sorts, an odd role for a man perhaps best known for The Malice at the Palace and an appetite for technical fouls. But beneath the headlines was a guy who happened to help teams win games, who reads Malcolm Gladwell and was once called the “ultimate teammate” by an ultimate teammate named Tim Duncan. Moreover, trading for Jackson was how the Bucks relieved themselves of the problematic Corey Maggette and John Salmons contracts.
And Jackson certainly started out saying the right things, talking of leadership and making history. It was enough to make you think maybe, just maybe, he’d be a prosperous piece of the puzzle.
Since then, however, his Bucks tenure has been anything but smooth. He wanted a contract extension. He shelved the desire. His back flared up. He played through it. He played poorly. He played well. He played poorly again. And yes, he was reunited with his old friend, the technical foul.
He spoke out about being blamed for the team’s troubles, then promptly overslept before the Jan. 20 game in New York and missed a team bus. The Bucks fined him for the extra sleep, but didn’t suspend him, only to not play him in that night’s game. The Bucks won anyway.
A few games later, the NBA did suspend him for verbally abusing officials. He missed the Lakers game, but the Bucks won anyway.
Then on Monday night against the Pistons – fully fit, willing and able to play – Jackson was a $9.2 million bench fixture, except for when he was standing and cheering on teammates. Did not play, coaches decision. And the Bucks won anyway.
Afterward, Jackson addressed his plight. He sounds sincere about wanting to maintain a trouble-free locker room. All indications are that his teammates still hold him in high regard. But he also sounds sincere about wanting to play. And it’s sounding increasingly possible that he might be doing so in another uniform.
“My situation is going to get better soon,” Jackson said. And he said it as rumors swirled about his availability on the trade market. Some of those rumors, at least those being floated by ESPN’s Ric Bucher, have rather specific destinations like New Jersey. Does two plus two equal trade?
If there’s one thing we know about Bucks General Manager John Hammond, it’s that he’s not afraid to use ESPN.com’s Trade Machine. So if the winds align, it’s entirely plausible they could blow Jackson to Jersey. Maybe they blow back a center to fill in for Bogut, perhaps Mehmet Okur (if the Nets follow through for Orlando’s want-away Dwight Howard) or the quite-available Chris Kaman from New Orleans.
It’s all speculation, of course. But the point is, the trade possibilities are out there, and Jackson seems to be in the middle of them. Maybe that’s not surprising for Jackson, who has a penchant for drawing attention. His short tenure in Milwaukee has already been quite eventful.
It also might end up being quite short.
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