Stephen Jackson still believes, and he uses his Twitter account to show it. Along with faith-based inspiration was a video he posted last Monday.

In it he shoots jumpers in a gym, alone, along with this accompanying text:

“Grind don't stop. Perfection is a must. I will b ready. God ain't threw wit me yet.”

All good thoughts. But this week, with the NBA season tipping off, the question isn't whether God is through with him.

It's whether the league is.

Another team might eventually give Jackson a look. The Spurs aligned themselves with Josh Howard on Friday, after all, the day after they finished their preseason schedule.

Teams suffer injuries, and circumstances change. “I will be ready” is a smart stance to take, and appearances suggest Jackson is trying just that.

He often posted Instagram photos of his workouts during the Spurs' run to the Finals, and these continued through last week. One showed him sweating, another lifting weights.

Some supporters on his Twitter feed have commented the Spurs would have won the title with him. Others have asked him when he's going to sign with another team.

Jackson hasn't posted an explanation. Unlike Howard, who has had two major knee surgeries in three years, Jackson has never suffered a serious injury. He's fallen off, clearly, but he's not ancient at 35.

So why is he unsigned? This goes back to April when the Spurs released him six days before the regular season ended.

That itself is a billowing, red flag to other teams. Gregg Popovich understood Jackson as well as anyone. Yet the most-respected coach in the league had come to the conclusion his franchise was better off without Jackson than with him just days before the playoffs were to begin.

Why would another team think it knew better?

Jackson, ever believing in himself, never saw the impact of what he allowed to happened. In his head, he was simply standing up for what he, well, believed.

His disagreement with Popovich was over playing time; he famously said he could never admit Manu Ginobili and Danny Green were better. And his view was as resolute later.

“I was dominating in practice, I was working my butt off,” Jackson told reporters in June, “and it was just frustrating to me.”

If Jackson had been “dominating in practice,” Popovich not only would have kept him. He also would have played him.

But this is Jackson. The same confidence that made him bold on the court covered up the signs in front of him.

Maybe some teams encouraged him to feel that way. Jackson said an NBA team called him on the day the Spurs released him.

Or was he stretching the truth to sell himself? About a week after that comment, USA Today wrote the following:

“Jackson, who said three teams called on the day he was cut but wouldn't disclose which ones, is confident that he'll find a good fit for next season.”

One team had turned into three.

As the summer went on, three turned into none. An official with another team said last week he thinks Jackson's career is likely over, and here's a clue: No one has called the Spurs for background.

Another clue: Teams led by two coaches who were there when everything happened, Mike Budenholzer and Brett Brown, also have apparently passed.

Others around the NBA haven't heard his name mentioned, and maybe Jackson thought he needed to remind everyone he was available. He made several national media appearances last month.

Those hardly eased the concerns of potential employers, however. In one of the interviews Jackson explained, for example, why he needed to put his hands around the throat of Steve Francis at a club in September.

This is not the profile of a valuable veteran at the end of his career. This is not the mind of someone willing to accept a lesser role.

Perfection isn't a must, contrary to his Twitter post.

At this point in his career, adjusting is. It's about accepting a minimum contract, or maybe even an assignment to the D-League, as Howard is heading to now.

Belief is necessary. But so is reality.