As Reggie Jackson sat at the podium addressing reporters at the Oklahoma City Thunder media day, some soft chatter could be heard in the hallway outside of the interview room. Nothing too loud, just some casual conversation, but enough for one reporter to ask the speakers to stop. It was getting hard to hear.

It wouldn’t have been a problem for any other player, but Jackson talks in a low, sleepy monotone. You could forget he’s speaking sometimes, even if he was right in front of you. Which is a shame, because what he has to say is usually worth hearing. He’s candid. He’s honest. He’s insightful.

That was certainly the case on Monday. With an opening at shooting guard following the summer departure of Thabo Sefolosha, Jackson declared that he wants to start. Badly.

“I want it,” he said. “I feel strong about it. I want to be the starter.”

Jackson is entering his fourth season, which makes him eligible for a contract extension. If both he and the Thunder can’t agree to a new deal by the Oct. 31 deadline, they will, general manager Sam Presti said last week, table the talks and resume next summer, with Jackson then a restricted free agent. Trading him hasn’t been “considered,” according Presti.

The Thunder, of course, have been down this road before. Three days before the 2011-12 season, the reigning Western Conference champs traded James Harden to Houston, giving a young franchise and its fan base a crash course on the business end of professional basketball. In many ways, the deal still lingers over their six years in Oklahoma.

Jackson is a different player. Sure, both he and Harden rose to prominence in the same electrifying sixth-man role, but Harden was a more accomplished player (21.1 PER vs. 15.4 in their third seasons) with a better pedigree (Harden was drafted No. 3 overall, Jackson No. 24) and a higher price tag (he received the max soon after landing in Houston).

But they do have one big thing in common: Both guys want to be starters.

“What I have always grown up just believing, I want a majority of my time to be spent playing against other starters,” Jackson said. “Growing up I felt it was a cop-out. I want to play against the best, I want to play against Chris Paul, I want to play against Kyrie Irving, I want to be mentioned on the highest of levels.”

Jackson has actually done plenty of that. He checked Paul in much of the Thunder’s second-round playoff series win over the Los Angeles Clippers. He guarded Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals. But those matchups are still billed as Russell Westbrook bouts. Westbrook vs. Paul. Westbrook vs. Parker.

Though he has said all the right things about his future with the Thunder -- that he loves Oklahoma City, that he prefers to stay, that he hopes something gets worked out -- what Jackson really wants is a spot on the marquee. But there are a few problems with that.

Officially, Jackson plays the same position as Westbrook. Playing the point guards together works really well -- OKC scored 116.8 points per 100 possessions and allowed 99.0 in 395 minutes with Jackson and Westbrook together -- but starting them together is a different story. Matchups usually dictate when Scott Brooks plays the duo side by side. It was Brooks’ curveball, something he could throw at opponents to knock them off balance. Starting them would take away that option.

It also limits Jackson’s opportunities to find his own rhythm running the second-unit show, not to mention reduces the overall depth of the roster and clogs the floor a bit for Westbrook, Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka. Jackson is a player who operates with the ball, not typically off it. Closing games, not starting them, is where he makes the most sense.

So, then, what’s the big deal about starting?

“I feel like there’s only three players every generation that make it out to the next class, a guy where you grew up watching him,” Jackson said. “I grew up watching [Michael] Jordan. If I have kids, Jordan is still going to be remembered. I just want to be great. Just want a chance to be great.”

It may be as simple as it’s a self-motivation tactic for Jackson. Maybe he’s the kind of guy who wakes up every morning, looks in the mirror and tells himself he’s good enough, he’s smart enough and doggone it, he should be a starter.

Or it could be that he knows he’ll never be satisfied in OKC, that he’ll always wonder if he could’ve carved out a spot on the NBA’s Mount Rushmore.

“A lot of guys can't or won't do these things because they don't see the value in it,” Nick Collison wrote for GQ a few years ago, on the art of surviving in the NBA as a role player. “Some people look at it as sacrificing your own game for the greater good. This is true to an extent, but you don't just play this way because you are a nice guy and you are willing to let other guys shine. You do it because you want to win, to be a part of a championship team, and you do it because you want to create value for yourself.”

Which kind of player is Jackson?

Harden made his choice three years ago, and because of it, a sense of trepidation lingers over Jackson’s negotiations among the Thunder's fan base. The wounds still haven’t healed.

But Presti isn’t one to talk out of both sides of his mouth. The Thunder are rigid when it comes to their core values; even in the face of heavy criticism following the Harden trade, they never wavered. No splurges in free agency, no panic trades, no overcompensating. Presti never said he wouldn’t trade Harden before the extension deadline, but that’s because no one thought it was possible and therefore never asked.

Instead, the team has relied on developing its own, which is partly what’s landed Jackson at the negotiation table today, with a big payday in front of him.

Will it come from the Thunder, or will another OKC sixth man be cashing a big check from another team yet again?