Some folks might forget that long after former NBA journeyman Stephen Jackson was a key role player in the San Antonio Spurs’ run to the 2003 NBA title, he carved out a brief second stint with the team. He joined the Spurs partway through the 2011-12 regular season but was let go before the 2012-13 regular season ended.

The Spurs waived Jackson and signed former NBA wing Tracy McGrady soon thereafter, who was a shell of his former self at that stage of his career.

With McGrady in the fold and Jackson no longer with the team, the Spurs nearly won the 2013 NBA title, as they lost to the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. But Jackson recently indicated that those NBA Finals would’ve gone differently if he’d been on the floor.

“I was supposed to be on that team,” Jackson said of the Spurs squad that reached the 2013 NBA Finals. “That’s the team I was supposed to be on. I would’ve got that god damn rebound. In Game 6, I would’ve got that f—— rebound. Ray [Allen] damn sure wouldn’t have got it. If anybody would have — I mean, he wouldn’t have got the shot off or none of that. He wouldn’t have been involved because I take that s— personally when I play against him.”

Jackson is referring to a clutch 3-pointer that Allen made down the stretch of Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals between the Heat and Spurs.

With mere seconds left in regulation, the Spurs had the lead and seemingly were one stop away from winning the game and the series. After forward LeBron James missed a 3 to tie initially, big man Chris Bosh grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked the ball out to Allen, who buried a 3 to tie the game at 95 apiece.

From there, the Heat won Game 6 in overtime and then took the deciding Game 7 by seven points. To rub salt in the wound for Jackson, McGrady didn’t even get a chance to make a real impact for the Spurs during their run to the NBA Finals, considering he appeared in just six playoff games and didn’t score a single point.

The Spurs would go on to get their revenge against the Heat by beating them in the 2014 NBA Finals in a gentleman’s sweep, but Jackson wasn’t on that team, either. He played nine games for the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2013-14 regular season before he later decided to call it quits on an NBA career that spanned many years and saw him suit up for a whopping eight teams.