Mark Jackson: 'This Just In, Steph Curry Is Not Michael Jordan'

Embattled Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson appears to be sick and tired of defending his All-Star point guard, Stephen Curry.

During a press conference, a reporter brought up the topic of Curry taking over (or, more accurately, not taking over) during Golden State's first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers, and Jackson took a moment to remind the world that Steph Curry is not, in fact, Michael Jordan:

"

This just in: Steph Curry is not Michael Jordan. He's not my Michael Jordan...he's not anyone's Michael Jordan. I love him to death; he's a heck of a basketball player. At the end of the day, Michael Jordan is 6'7", a freak athlete...

"

While Jackson did get one detail wrong—he was officially listed at 6'6", not 6'7", during his playing days, according to Basketball-Reference—Jackson was certainly correct in calling Jordan a "freak athlete."

In reality, there is no reason to compare Jordan and Curry, as the two are very different players. Jordan was a shooting guard; Curry is a point guard. Jordan was known as one of the greatest perimeter defenders of all time (1987-88 Defensive Player of the Year), while defense is perhaps the only hole in Curry's game at the moment.

Jordan was also not a particularly good three-point shooter—his 32.7 career three-point shooting percentage is more than 10 percent lower than Curry's career mark of 44.0 percent.

Of course, Jackson is less interested in true player-to-player comparisons and more interested in taking the pressure off Curry, who struggled a bit in a Game 5 loss to Los Angeles.

The point guard turned the ball over eight times against the Clippers' defensive pressure, and the perpetually upbeat Jackson tried to spin Curry's game in a positive light after the loss, much to the amusement of ESPN.com's Ethan Strauss:

For Curry, the key to staving off elimination in Game 6 isn't emulating His Airness, but in simply taking better care of the ball.