Warriors dump assistant coach over ‘mistake’

OAKLAND — Warriors coach Mark Jackson continues to reassure there is no dysfunction within the organization. But Saturday, another reason to question what is going on behind closed doors reared its head.

General Manager Bob Myers privately addressed a small group of reporters at the team’s practice facility saying assistant coach Darren Erman had been relieved of his duties due to a violation of company policy.

The policy violated — along with any details of what led to Erman’s firing — weren’t made available.

Myers said the situation was severe enough to warrant conversations with team lawyers and HR in the days leading up to Saturday’s announcement:

“We were unaware, and when made aware we were forced to act … The decision was made last night. With something like this it needed to be discussed with general counsel and HR, as we would with any employee. So we took a couple days to go through the proper channels.”

When asked if the situation was of a criminal nature, Myers again said he couldn’t go into the specifics of what had happened:

“I’m not really at liberty to discuss the specifics of what was violated, just to say that it was an organizational policy.”

Erman’s firing alone would be a shock just two weeks before the end of the NBA season, especially for a team fighting to stay in playoff position for a consecutive year.

But the news comes just 12 days after Jackson made the decision to reassign assistant coach Brian Scalabrine to the Warriors D-League affiliate because of a difference in philosophies.

Myers said the reassignment of Scalabrine and the firing of Erman are different situations entirely:

“I can say this is unrelated. Different entirely.”

Jackson said the situation with Erman was unfortunate but that he stood behind the Warriors decision:

“Obviously he made a mistake. It was a company decision, and the right decision. I appreciate all he did, and we move on.”

While Jackson seemed stoic and unmoved after the reassigning of Scalabrine, whatever “mistake” Erman made, was a little harder of pill for Jackson to swallow:

“It’s tough. Just tough. I’m pulling for him.  We move forward. But I’m certainly pulling for him to get back on the road that he was on.”

Erman, 37, was in his third season with the Warriors after spending four years with the Boston Celtics.

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