ESPN article on Jax >>

[chillzatl]

You know what they say (whoever they are): They aren't impressed by big numbers on a bad team, especially not at this late date. They don't mean much, those kinds of numbers.

Really?

"I don't think I've ever been on a roll like this," Stephen Jackson counters. "Not even in high school.

"I think I'm writing my own check as long as I continue to play like this."

You know, he just might be right, no matter what anyone says. If Jackson continues to score like he has since the calendar flipped to March, he could well make second-half numbers meaningful, even after Chicago's Eddy Curry spent much of this season reminding us that they're usually not.

Stephen Jackson goes up for a basket against the Washington Wizards Friday at the MCI Center.

It has only been a few games, but they've been sufficiently spectacular to prompt the question: Can Jackson recoup this summer what he lost last summer? Once again, he's right. If Jack averages 34 points every four games for the rest of the season, you can be fairly certain someone will drive his salary much closer to the league average of $5 million.

He might do all right even if he slumps back into the 20s.

"That's what I'm hoping," Jackson said. "I'm not going to sit here and lie and say when it first happened that I didn't regret things. But when I signed with Atlanta, I promised myself that I'm going to make the best of it. It's working out to my favor now."

The regrets swamped Jackson in September and October, when he ranked as perhaps the biggest free-agent loser of the summer. He spurned a three-year deal worth some $10 million from the team he helped win a championship in June, then was forced to slink out of San Antonio when the Spurs made a trade to replace him with Hedo Turkoglu and Ron Mercer. When no other substantial offers came, Jackson found himself scrounging for a two-year deal from the Hawks worth just over $2 million -- with an option to return to free agency after this season.

It was instantly and widely concluded that Jackson had just made the mistake of his life -- in a life already littered with boners.

With the Spurs, and all the open looks Tim Duncan creates, Jackson could have been a game-breaker with his knuckleball threes. But take Jack out of the strict environment Spurs coach Gregg Popovich oversees and who knew what might happen to a guy prone to pouting who had already been discarded by Arizona because of insufficient test scores ... and by Phoenix, Vancouver, Chicago and New Jersey ... a guy who had made stops in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic before finally making it with the Nets ... a guy who then partied his way off Jersey's roster.

Suspicions that trouble would find Jackson again grew when he wound up with the Hawks, who didn't even harbor playoff hopes, much less championship aspirations. If playing in an empty, soul-less building wasn't enough of an indignity, Jackson found himself stripped of his only accomplished teammates when the Hawks shipped out Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Theo Ratliff and then -- after only one game -- Rasheed Wallace. In its current state, Atlanta can feel about as far away from the NBA as any outpost on the league map.

Because he's in Atlanta, chances are you haven't seen much of Jackson. I got my first up-close look at him Wednesday, after seeing him dozens of times with the Spurs, and couldn't miss the improvements in his game.

No question, it's easy to be swayed when a guy detonates for 31 points before halftime, even against the defenseless Mavs. The second half was just as telling. Dallas threw a box-and-one at him, the sort of face-guarding that inevitably would have drawn a flurry of forced shots or turnovers from the old Jack.

"Last year?" he said. "Yeah, I would have gotten frustrated. But I knew that team, and with the caliber of players they have, they weren't going to let me have another half that like."

This Jack didn't try to force things. He calmly settled for five points after halftime to finish with 36, as the Hawks -- who only have Jason Terry and Bob Sura to turn to these days when Jackson is blanketed -- held on for a one-point upset. The 36, mind you, was only Jackson's third highest total of the month, after 39 points against Seattle the night before, and 42 against Washington four days prior.

Although he has been victimizing some of the worst defenses in the league, it's evident that Jackson, at 25, is growing up and getting better. He did serve a one-game suspension in December for clashing with coach Terry Stotts, and it's not really known if he's pouting less because he's getting so many minutes and shots, but Jackson has expanded his offensive game. Early in the season, he settled too often for 3-point shots, open or not. Now he's getting to the basket -- and the free-throw line -- with greater frequency. He's coming off screens better, too, and adding those options has resulted in better 3-point looks.

"Coach (Stotts) told me I'm known as a 3-point shooter, so I've been trying to put the ball on the floor," Jackson said. "A lot of guys my size can shoot, but they can't really take guys off the dribble. I worked on my defense, too. I learned a lot from Bruce Bowen last year. I want to go out and show the world I can do a little bit of everything.

"It all started this summer when I didn't get the contract I wanted," Jackson continued. "A lot of people said I couldn't really play without Tim Duncan. But I got on my knees and prayed, and devoted myself to working on my game and proving people wrong.

"I've been doing that all my life. Byron Scott said I couldn't play on his team, and we beat them in the finals. I like proving people wrong. I think that's a gift that I have."

The Spurs have seen enough to wish they still had Jack at times, even with Turkoglu gradually settling in and Bowen and Manu Ginobili still anchoring the swing rotation. The champs miss his emotion, and -- given San Antonio's concerns about its perimeter shooting -- the triples that come in bunches. Popovich made Jackson serve a one-year internship on the Spurs' injured list before he let him play in real games, but Jack has sold Pop to the point that San Antonio explored reacquiring him before last month's trading deadline.

"I was told that, and I was willing to go back," Jackson said. "The only reason I didn't want to go back is that I didn't want to be in the same situation this summer that I was last summer. But I would love to go back there. Who would turn down another chance to play with Tim Duncan?"

The undesirable situation, as Jackson described it, was the waiting in limbo while the Spurs pursued their free-agent priorities. Now, though, Jackson believes the Spurs will be one of the teams pursuing him this summer.

"I'm a big believer in everything happens for a reason," Jackson said. "It's starting to work out in my favor."

No matter what they say.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here . Also, click here to send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS