Sixers assistants Q&A: Bobby Jackson on relating to NBA players, and being challenged by Nick Nurse

The man with the glasses, and the sign, is still embedded in Bobby Jackson’s brain.

When asked recently about his memories of playing in Philly, Jackson immediately focused on the 76ers fan seated behind the visitors bench, who “would always have something smart to say” whenever Jackson visited throughout his 12-year NBA career as an opponent.

“And I’m like, ‘Who are you, bro?’” Jackson recalled. " … This guy was a fanatic 76ers fan. And that’s the thing about Philly. They love their sports. They love the 76ers. Coming into an environment, as an opposing team, they’re going to give you a lot of [expletive].

“But then, that’s a good thing to be on the other side. The fan base is phenomenal.”

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Jackson, 50, is now about a month into experiencing this city’s passion for his team, as one of the Sixers’ new assistant coaches. Jackson joined Nick Nurse’s staff following a two-year stint as the head coach of the G League’s Stockton Kings, along with experience on the player development staffs with the Sacramento Kings and Minnesota Timberwolves. Recently, Nurse shared that Jackson is responsible for spearheading the Sixers’ “special teams,” or situational work such as out-of-bounds plays, late-game sets, and zone offense and defense.

As part of an ongoing Q&A series with the Sixers’ assistant coaches, Jackson sat down to chat about why he went into coaching, how he uses his experience to relate to current players, and how Nurse has already challenged him in his new role.

(Note: This conversation occurred in late September, and has been lightly edited for length and clarity)

Q: How would you describe your first few months on the job?

A: The biggest thing for me, coming in, I’d been in Sacramento for 20-something years. Coming into a new environment, coming around a new coaching staff, getting adjusted with the Summer League and meeting everybody, understanding what Coach Nurse wants, I’m not going to lie, it was kind of tough. Because I didn’t know what to expect, right? I think Nick challenged me. That’s the great thing about him. He’s going to put you in position to be successful, and when he sees something that is not done the right way, he’ll tell you about it. That’s a good thing. I’m always open to learning and evolving as a coach. We’ve got a great coaching staff that’s here every day, willing to get better, learn, develop, critique, and hold each other accountable. That’s been the good thing about it. It’s been a really positive environment to come into.

Q: What’s an example of Nurse challenging you early on?

A: He’s been a coach for 10 years in Toronto, and he’s had a lot of success. It takes time for you to figure out what he wants and what I need to do to be successful, so I can take some stuff off his plate. Coming in, I was previously a head coach in the G League and had kind of done things my way. The eye-opener for me was him saying, ‘Hey, you’ve got to pick it up.’ And that’s good, I always want that side of coaching, where you don’t get too comfortable and he can coach me and give me the ideas that he wants. At the end of the day, it’s accountability. He’s huge on that, but also giving you the tools to be successful as a coach.

Q: What most appealed to you about the opportunity to join the Sixers’ staff?

A: Just growing as a coach. I reached out to [Nurse] a couple years ago, when I took the head-coaching job in Stockton, just to get his input. Because I follow coaching and I follow what success is and what he’s accomplished. Him coming through the G League, that was something that, for me, I thought would be intriguing, just to see his thought process. Being a G League coach and now an NBA coach was something that I wanted to do, so I thought it was kind of pivotal for me to reach out to Nick and [Memphis Grizzlies coach] Taylor Jenkins and get their perspective and direction that you would need to be a head coach in this league. I stayed in contact with him and kept that understanding of what it took to get here. I’d been an assistant and in player development for 14 years. It was just the right opportunity to come to the Sixers. It was tough to leave Sacramento, because I had been there for 20-something years. But I’m open to growing and developing and learning a new style of play, a new style of coaching. I think when you come in as a coach, you always want to impact the game in a more positive way. The decision to come here was super easy.

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Q: How would you describe your role on this specific staff?

A: The good thing about Nick is he challenges you in every aspect of the game, whether it’s defense, offense, special teams. You won’t just be labeled as a defensive coach. You won’t just be labeled as an offensive coach. You won’t be labeled as special teams. He wants you to be diverse in all areas, even though you have that title under your belt. You will be diverse and figure out how to be successful in those three areas of the game. And I believe in that myself. I’ve got to know how to run the defense. I’ve got to know how to run the offense. I’ve got to know how to do special teams. I know how to manage the game the right way. That’s the great thing about Nick. He’s open to giving you a lot of responsibilities, so you can become a head coach one day.

Q: How did being a head coach in the G League help prepare you for this job?

A: It helps you tremendously, as Coby Karl knows and Bryan Gates knows and Mike Longabardi knows and Nick knows. Having that experience to run your own teams, you’ve got to make quick decisions. You’ve got to put guys in great positions to win. You’ve got to build camaraderie. You’ve got to build accountability. And the overall thing is you want to build a team that’s going to go out on the floor to be successful to win. The G League does that. It challenges you in every aspect of the game, on and off the floor.

Q: With your vast playing experience, what is most different about today’s NBA? And what is most the same?

A: The speed of the game is way different. And we’re shooting way more threes. When I played in Sacramento, we felt like we were playing fast and we kind of set the trend with ball movement and cutting. Now, the game is kind of taking on more of that dynamic. There are smaller fours and fives [power forwards and centers]. The fours are definitely shooting threes, and now the fives are definitely shooting threes.

What is not different? Man, that’s a good question. Just the knowledge and the competitive spirit that you get from everybody once the season starts. That doesn’t change. Everybody’s trying to kick your butt. That it’s just that competitive environment that you see on a nightly basis. Because anybody can beat anybody on any given night, and that’s been that way for so many years.

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Q: How do you go about relaying your experiences to current players in a way that it will be received positively?

A: The biggest thing is just having a great relationship with the guys. No. 1, you’ve got to be able to communicate with them. I can’t come in and say, “Man, do this. Do this.” I’ve actually got to get to know them. And coaching is hard. Sometimes, you don’t want to say anything, but I always tell guys you’ve got to be challenged. You’ve got to coach the best players just like you coach the guys at the end of the bench. That’s just a part of the process. I think the knowledge and the experience that I’ve had, I hope they respect it. Sometimes, you’re going to get a little pull and take. But at the end of the day, it’s just allowing them to see the bigger picture.

I always say film never lies. Putting the film right in front of them and letting them see the positive and the negative stuff, because I think those two things go hand-in-hand. You can’t always be negative, negative, negative. I want to be positive, positive, positive as much as I can and not tear the guys down, even when they make a mistake. Because that’s part of the game. You’re going to make mistakes. What’s your reaction after you make the mistake? What’s your next-play speed? Are you going to make a mistake and be like, “Oh, man” and pout about it? If you do that, now I have ammunition to be like, “Hey, this is accountability.”

Q: What are your first steps in building those relationships with new players?

A: Just getting to know them. And sometimes, it’s not even about basketball. Because we’re around basketball all the time. Really getting to know them as an individual. Talking about your family. What are your hobbies? What do you love to do? Then you start to break down those walls and they start to trust you. It’s not always pound, pound, pound, pound, pound. “Oh, here he goes. All he wants to do is talk about basketball.” No, I want to get to know you. And I think, for me, that’s just who I am on a personal level. I want to get to know everybody in this gym. Not just the basketball players. The support staff. The assistant coaches. The PR team. That’s just me. And I think, when you do that, you kind of open up a great environment where you trust each other and you kind of figure out what everybody likes to do. You build a great friendship, and you build a great chemistry amongst the people that you work with.

Q: Did you always know you wanted to pursue coaching after your playing career?

A: Probably later in my career, I started to pay more attention to it. I started going to more coaches’ meetings. Started asking more questions and was more involved in the decision-making or what I thought was best for the team. Probably Year 8 or 9, I said this is where I wanted to be and this was the direction I wanted to take.

Q: What surprised you when you started going into those coaches’ meetings?

A: That was a shocker. As a player, you don’t have to worry about anything but just watching film. They’re doing the scouting report for you. All you had to do was play. So going into those meetings I was like, “Oh, this is a lot of work.” A lot of film watching. A lot of scouting reports. Preparation: offense, defense, special teams. Then, player development. You’ve got to make sure guys are getting their reps in and being skilled and making sure they’re doing their daily maintenance. They don’t know, as players, what we put into it. That was real shocking, the workload that you had to put into it. And I was all for it once I got in there.

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Q: Who would you like to shout out as your biggest coaching influences?

A: Rick Adelman gave me my first shot. I played for him for five years in Sacramento, and when I got done playing, he gave me an opportunity when he was in Minnesota. Then Keith Smart has been tremendous. Luke Walton has given me an opportunity. Those guys have really transcended the game for me. When I first started, I didn’t know what I was doing. Then I started developing my own coaching style, my own philosophy. And it takes you some time to figure out the direction that you want to go if you want to be a coach. You’ve got to figure out a lot. But I think going through that helped me develop my style of play, understanding and seeing the game in a different perspective. And it challenged me. I think that’s the good thing about coaching. You always can learn how to do creative, innovative ideas, whether it’s scouting reports, practices, film.

Q: How would you describe that philosophy, and how similar or different is that to what Nurse wants to instill with the Sixers?

A: I’m huge on effort, and I think that’s half the battle. Effort and toughness. And then defensive rebounding. Then all the other stuff kind of takes care of itself, for me. There’s a lot of other words I can use. Being disciplined. Chemistry. Being a great teammate. I think all those things come into play. Coming here with Nick, he has a style of play. I’ve always been a defensive-minded guy, and that’s who he is. That’s kind of the staple that he wants to represent — we’ve got to be a great defensive team if we want to win an NBA championship. Those things are kind of the same way, I think. These last two years that I’ve coached, I’ve kind of drifted to the offensive side of the ball. It happened the same way as a basketball player. I came in as a defender and then, later in my career, I made myself into an offensive player. It’s been good to dabble in defense, dabble in offense, dabble in special teams. Everybody has a different style on what they want it to look like and what they want to accomplish when they step on the floor. I think that’s the most intriguing thing about coaching. Everything is not always the same. You get different ideas and different perspectives when you go into another environment or atmosphere.

Q: You mentioned making sure you learn about what players enjoy off the court. What non-basketball things do you like to do to decompress?

A: If I can golf every day, that would be amazing. I’ve got five kids. I love spending time with them. I like eating at nice restaurants. I’m a simple guy. If I’ve got those three things, I’m cool.