According to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Golden State Warriors have suspended F Stephen Jackson for two games, adopting the dreaded explanation, "conduct detrimental to the team." This is the latest turn in what's been a dramatic series of interactions between Jackson and the Warriors over the past few months.
After publicly requesting a trade earlier this summer, Jackson was censured by the NBA League Office for making his demands public, but nonetheless maintained privately that he'd like to be traded, reiterrating as much at Golden State's Media Day (where he was none too happy about this Santa Hat). Then, last night, in a preseason game against the Lakers, Jackson had 5 fouls and a technical in just 9 minutes of play. Which is just... Wow.
One of the more remarkable displays of self-sabotage seen in some time. Vince Carter is the ultimate forebearer for the NBA malcontent looking to force his way off a team, but his tactics were passive aggressive. He demanded a trade, and then proceeded to loaf around the court and fire off-balance fall-away jumpers until the Raptors management either had him killed, or relented and granted him a trade.
Jackson, though, appears to have adopted a much more direct approach. If he plays, he's going to foul out as soon as possible, and possibly get himself thrown out of the game on technical fouls. Whatever your stance on Captain Jack--I think he's the NBA's version of Kanye West--you gotta admit, that's certainly a proactive way to go about this.
More on this story as it develops.