Stu Jackson

Stuart (Stu) Wayne Jackson (born December 11, 1955, in Reading, Pennsylvania), is an American former head coach and current executive in the National Basketball Association. He has coached two different NBA teams: the New York Knicks in 1990 and 1991, and the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1997; he also has served as the Grizzlies' general manager.

Jackson worked as an associate coach and head recruiting coordinator under Rick Pitino at Providence College from 1985-87. He also worked as an assistant coach at Washington State from 1983 to 1985 and at the University of Oregon from 1981 through 1983.

He was head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers in the 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 seasons.

As of June 2007, he is the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations for the NBA, a league official whose duties include penalizing players for on-court misconduct.

Jackson was the center of controversy for his handling of suspensions related to several incidents in the fourth game of the Phoenix Suns/San Antonio Spurs series in the 2007 NBA Playoffs. [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/sports/basketball/16suns.html] [http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/0516suspend0516.html]

In the closing seconds of Game 4, with the Suns leading 100-97, the Spurs' Robert Horry committed a flagrant foul on Suns point guard Steve Nash, sending Nash into the scorer's table. Several Suns players moved away from their bench toward Nash and Horry after the foul. Jackson suspended Horry for two games for the hard foul on Nash and for delivering the forearm to Bell. Two Suns players were also suspended - starting center Amare Stoudemire and swingman Boris Diaw - for leaving the immediate bench area in violation of a league rule.

Jackson was also involved in controversial decisions to suspend Mavericks sixth man Jerry Stackhouse for the pivotal Game 5 of the NBA finals against the Heat and to suspend Wizards reserve Darius Songaila for a pivotal Game 6 of a playoff series in 2008 against the Cavaliers.

External links

* [http://www.nba.com/nba101/stu_jackson.html Stu Jackson profile] at NBA.com
* [http://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/jacksst99c.html BasketballReference.com: Stu Jackson]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/sports/basketball/16suns.html A New York Times article on the recent controversy.]
* [http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/89772 A short East Valley Tribune story on the issue.]
* [http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/0516suspend0516.html A fairly detailed Arizona Republic article on the event.]
* [http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/051607dnspomooreqt.2d9d750.html Criticism of Jackson in the Dallas Daily News.]
* [http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6814904 Criticism of Jackson from Fox Sports.]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051501847.html Washington Post article about the decision.]
* [http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AlaRIXdQsJctayPuLBc1Kfa8vLYF?slug=sk-sunsspurs051507&prov=yhoo&type=lgns Kerr's embarrassment over Jackson's handling over the situation.]