Golden State Warriors assistant coach Brian Scalabrine was reassigned to the team’s NBA Development League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, a team spokesman told the Oakland Tribune on Tuesday.
Yahoo Sports reported earlier Tuesday that Warriors head coach Mark Jackson ordered Scalabrine to be removed from the bench, but that the team did not want to part ways with Scalabrine.
“With any staff or any job, there’s going to be difference in philosophies,” Jackson told the Tribune. “At the end of the day, whoever’s in charge makes a decision, and that’s the way you go. And we’re united. Whether we’re right, wrong or indifferent, and I think that’s important.
“We are tied together. To me, that can’t be debated. But with any coach or organization, you’re going to have difference of opinions. But when you come out of the door, it’s united, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
The move comes with the Warriors (44-27) pushing toward a playoff berth.
Scalabrine was hired by Jackson last summer. According to Yahoo Sports, Jackson ran into similar difficulties last year with assistant coach Michael Malone. Before the current season, Malone left the organization to become the head coach of the Sacramento Kings.
Jackson denied a Yahoo Sports report that his bench has a dysfunctional working environment.
“I know dysfunction, and that could not be further from the truth,” he told the Tribune.
Scalabrine, 36, played in the NBA from 2002-12 with the New Jersey Nets, Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls.
