Mark Jackson had ‘foolish’ regret about Kobe Bryant, claimed Indiana Pacers should have won 2000 NBA Finals

Mark Jackson says Kobe Bryant ‘single-handedly’ won the 2000 NBA Finals

In the 2000 NBA Finals, the Lakers quickly took a 2-0 lead. The Pacers bounced back with a solid Game 3 win.

The turning point of the series was when the Pacers suffered a two-point OT defeat in Game 4. Jackson, who was a member of the 2000 Pacers, opened up on losing that series in a 2021 interview with Shannon Sharpe.

“We should’ve won. We won Game 3 and we lost Game 4 in OT. Shaq fouled out and the late great Kobe Bryant single-handedly took over the game in the fourth quarter and overtime,” Jackson recalled, speaking previously on Club Shay Shay.

He added: “We did everything we could. I remember saying to Reggie Miller, because he hit a couple shots, ‘Let me get him.’

“I’m just foolish thinking I could do something.

“But I’m not thinking I’m gonna stop him, I’m thinking I’m gonna hammer him one good time and send a message and get him out of his rhythm.”

For context, the Mamba dropped 28 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists in Game 4. He emerged as a leader for the team after O’Neal fouled out.

Mark Jackson: ‘We were a perfect matchup’

Winning the 2000 NBA Championship was the first step for the Lakers ultimately completing a three-peat.

Evidently, it was tough to stop the Purple and Gold in their tracks, but Jackson still believes that the Pacers were a ‘perfect’ matchup against the Kobe-Shaq Lakers.

“I hammer him, nice. Basket, and-one, he’s at the line. I’m like ‘Reggie, you got him, it ain’t working,'” Jackson continued.

“But we were good enough because we had the depth at the power forward position, we had a center that was a weapon that could take advantage of Shaquille O’Neal’s flaws.

“So we were a perfect matchup,” he concluded.

Despite having these weapons at their disposal, the Pacers could only win one more game in the series as the Lakers wrapped up the series in Game 6.