<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">There's a perpetual hint of wariness in Jim Jackson's face. If a mug could silently exclaim, "Let me see what's in the other hand," this is it. Perhaps with good reason. The NBA record book doesn't have a category for Lottery Picks, Most Teams Played For, but Jackson would have to be at the top of it. He was the fourth pick in the 1992 draft and he's now with his 10th team in 12 seasons. That's an amazing testament to his desire to keep playing and searching for the right fit. When you look at the way he played for the Heat two seasons ago and the Kings last year and how he already has established himself as a stabilizing anchor in the Houston Rockets' starting lineup, what's even more amazing is that he's still looking. "I've always been behind the eight ball," he says. "I always keep a bag packed." Of course, then there are the rumors and the points of controversy that encircled him like a foul wind from the moment he entered the league. If you know of those, then the amazing part is that such esteemed coaches as Jeff Van Gundy, Rick Adelman and Pat Riley invited Jackson onto their teams. "Oh, yeah, I heard all about him," Van Gundy said. " 'Coach Killer.' 'Lockeroom lawyer.' But I go by what I see, not what I hear. I look at the way he played last year in a tough situation coming off the bench. And I knew he'd played in a similar system to ours in Miami. From what I could see, he was tough, smart and could shoot, all things we needed. And he's been terrific." Jackson got tagged as a malcontent right from the start. Before the league instituted a rookie salary scale, the unofficial means of determining value was to weigh the contract given to the previous year's pick and/or the deal signed by the pick above and below you in your draft class. When the Mavs refused to pay him the going rate for a No. 4 pick, he held out, playing only 28 games. Even before the holdout, he was accused of waving a gun at another driver in a road-rage incident. The charge was eventually thrown out of court, but the label had been affixed: Jackson was bad news. Then, when the trio of Jackson, Jason Kidd and Jamal Mashburn didn't live up to expectations and there was talk that a squabble over Toni Braxton between Kidd and Jackson contributed to their bad chemistry, the label turned into a tattoo. Even when he wasn't moving, his circumstances weren't exactly stable. Jackson spent 4? seasons in Dallas under four different head coaches before being shipped to New Jersey as part of a nine-player deal. That began an odyssey of playing for seven different teams in five seasons. Even if you're not speaking up when a neophyte head coach like Lon Kruger says something that doesn't jive with your experience, that kind of track record is enough to raise innuendo. "He's done a lot of losing," says Van Gundy, "but what Jim has is he goes about things in a winning fashion. He works hard. He prepares. He's unselfish. When a guy does that, I'm going to bet on his basketball character." It also would be a lot easier to believe he's a roundball Slim Shady if he hadn't proved himself the quintessential pro and team player the last three seasons for coaches or teams that demanded it. That role, as it turns out, always suited him more than being a straight-forward scoring two guard. But that was another label he acquired and, hey, what player is going to turn down the chance to take 20 to 25 shots a game?</div> Full Story
