9/26 ESPN Insider - Jim Jackson

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Veteran always adds scoring touch
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Friday, September 26
Updated: September 26
10:47 AM ET


Stephen Jackson may be worried. With training camps set to open any day now and the season officially beginning in a month, Dion Glover might be sweating it out as a fellow free agent who also plays shooting guard. And Dermarr Johnson is probably starring at the phone waiting for it to ring.

But not Jim Jackson.

In his last game of last season, which just so happened to be the seventh game of a conference semifinal series against the Dallas Mavericks and his Kings without their franchise player Chris Webber, Jackson scored 24 points on 10 of 12 shooting including a 3 for 3 clinic from long range.

A game earlier, he scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a Kings win that forced the final and deciding game in which his team was eliminated.

Of course, there were other games, too. Like the 23 points he scored in a win against the Spurs in December. Or the 21 points he scored against the Sonics in January. Or the 19 he hung on the Hornets in a loss in February.

He may have finished the season averaging a career-low in points, assists, steals, blocks and minutes but, of course, there were other seasons.

In 1995 with the Mavericks, Jackson averaged a career-high 25.7 points per game shooting a very respectable 47 percent from the field. In 1997 with the Nets, his scoring had dipped to 16 points a game but he registered what would have been career-highs in rebounding and assists had he played the entire season in New Jersey. But, of course, he was traded that season by the Mavs but not before averaging 1.2 steals per game which would have been a career high if he had finished that season in Dallas.

Since then, he's played for the Sixers, Warriors, Blazers, Hawks, Cavs, Heat and Kings in six seasons.


Jim Jackson has scored points at every stage of his career.
This, of course, is not the normal routine for a player who has scored 10,684 points in his 11-year career after being the No. 4 overall pick in the 1992 draft. Officially, he has been traded five times involving 24 other players not counting the three times he signed as a free agent.

But him worry ...

Last year, there were about 226,123 points scored during the regular season with each of the 29 teams averaging a shade over 95 points per game which is about 1.97 points per minute (forgetting all about overtimes for the moment), meaning that with five players on the court each one would have to score .39 points per minute to carry his own weight.

Heck, in 1995, Jackson averaged a hearty .66 points per minute which isn't too bad considering that this year's scoring champ, Tracy McGrady was right around .81 points per minute while his nearest competitor, Kobe Bryant, was at .72 and three-time scoring champ Allen Iverson was at .65.

Over his career, Jackson has averaged .46 points per minute played even when you count last year's .37 mark.

The point, though, is that he can score. As a starter, as a sub, as a guy averaging 40 minutes a game like he did for the Warriors in 1998 or a guy averaging 20 minutes a game like he did for the Kings last season, he can still score.

And NBA teams always need guys who can score.

Let's not forget that Jackson's teammate Bobby Jackson won the Sixthman of the Year Award last year while averaging .47 points per minute when coming off the bench while Jackson averaged .45 points per minute while coming off the bench in the playoffs.

Two years ago, Jackson waited until December 2 to sign with the Miami Heat and promptly became their third leading scorer behind Eddie Jones and Alonzo Mourning. Last year, he waited until November 30 to sign with the Sacramento Kings and quickly became the highest scoring player off the bench on the deepest team in the entire league that fully expected to win the NBA championship.

Shoot, it's only September 26.

What does Jackson have to worry about?