In 1975, the Golden State Warriors stunned the basketball world by sweeping the heavily-favored Washington Bullets in the NBA Finals. (As an aside, I wrote a more detailed post about the Warriors improbable championship run, here.)
More stunning, perhaps, was the way in which they claimed the title. The team’s roster had exactly one star player (scoring machine Rick Barry), one highly-regarded rookie (Keith Wilkes, who brought some degree of marquee glimmer from his stellar collegiate career at UCLA with him), and eight largely invisible but absolutely indispensable workhorse players who willingly distanced themselves from the spotlight for the betterment of the team. One of those players, guard Charles Johnson, was especially adept at staying in the shadows. Even his teammates regarded him as something of an enigma.
“CJ” was an intensely private person. Off the court, he shared the details of his life with very few. However, on the court, he was a relentless defender who could always be counted on to make plays. In that respect, he was a perfect fit for the Warriors championship squad in 1975 – quiet, tough, and dependable.
Though a modest scorer in the pros, he often managed to hit important shots. During the Warriors unlikely title run, he fittingly had his most productive year, averaging nearly 11 points and two steals a game. In the playoffs, he was even better, averaging over 12 points a contest. Defensively, he helped to neutralize Washington’s dangerous point guard, Kevin Porter, in the Finals.
If anything, Johnson’s ability to contribute most when he was needed most at the NBA level was merely an extension of the way he had always done things on the basketball court. His standout high school career had translated seamlessly to three years in the starting lineup at Cal, where he teamed with future NBA star Phil Chenier to give the Golden Bears a dynamic backcourt. All the while, he frustrated opponents with lock-down defense and timely points.
He was eventually reunited with Chenier after the Warriors traded him to Washington during the 1977-1978 season. The reunion proved successful as he helped the Bullets to the NBA title that year. Averaging over 20 minutes a game, Johnson was a key reserve, chipping in with eight points and a steal per contest. After the 1978-1979 season, he left the game, with nearly as little fanfare as when he had first entered it. Though, in a seven-year NBA career, the quiet guard with the big defensive game earned two championship rings.
Perhaps, that was precisely the way Johnson wanted things, a quiet exit with his accomplishments left to mark his place. Unfortunately, we will never know, because Charles Johnson left us this past weekend nearly as quietly as he had lived publicly. After an agonizing battle with cancer, which he preferred to fight in solitude, Johnson was gone at the age of 58.
If you hadn’t heard the news of his passing, you’re not alone.
When the sad news reached his former teammates, many of them hadn’t even known he was sick. Though deeply saddened, none were particularly surprised that he hadn’t told any of them about the severity of his illness. That was CJ’s way. He simply handled his business and didn’t want anyone else to be bothered by it.
So when the NBA Finals begin this week, take a moment to remember the quiet guard with the big defensive game and the two championship rings. Though he may not have wanted the attention in life, he has surely earned it in his passing. He was a true warrior, not because of a name on a jersey, but rather for the quiet strength with which lived his life and left it.
A frenetic, schizophrenic team like the 2006-2007 Golden State Warriors wasn’t going to bow out of the NBA playoffs gracefully. Their strange, equally exhilarating and maddening, brand of basketball simply wasn’t suited for a quiet exit. So, like any good rollercoaster ride, what goes up must come down, and it must come down with blinding speed.
The team that won 9 of its last 10 regular season games to make the playoffs (for the first time in 13 years, to boot) and brushed the playoff’s top seed aside in a shocking first-round upset finally disintegrated in Game 5 of their second-round series against Utah. They lost the game 100-87, the series four games to one, and most of their cool for the second time in as many games.
Sadly, the late-game theatrics in Game 5 seemed inevitable and were embarrassing. The “Great Stephen Jackson Meltdown”, which had been highly anticipated in the four previous games, finally happened. A flagrant foul against Jackson and subsequent technical brought a chaotic end to the 3rd period. Matt Barnes decided to whack Matt Harpering in the head on a drive to the basket and wrestle with Carlos Boozer after the 3rd period buzzer for good measure. Game 4 of the series was marred by similar nonsense. Jason Richardson’s WWF-style takedown of Mehmet Okur and a Baron Davis elbow to Derek Fisher’s gut were lowlights of the festivities.
And through it all, the Utah Jazz just continued to make plays while Golden State did not. With the exception of the Warriors’ big, blowout win in Game 3, all of the games in the series were close down the stretch. However, it was the Jazz who found different ways to win those games.
Carlos Boozer was absolutely dominant, scoring 24.2 points and pulling down 14 boards a game. In the pivotal Game 4, with the Warriors looking to even the series, Boozer took over the game with 34 points on 13-of-19 shooting (68.4%) and grabbed 12 rebounds to seal Utah’s 115-101 road win.
Although Derek Fisher got the most press for simply showing up for Game 2, his performances in Games 4 and 5 were far more effective basketball-wise. In those two games, both key wins for Utah, Fisher averaged 20.5 points on 61.9% shooting from the field. More importantly, he gave the Jazz a deadly perimeter threat, hitting 6-of-8 shots from 3-point range. In the series-clinching Game 5, he was especially dangerous, making 7-of-10 from the field and 4-of-5 from long distance.
In setting the tone for the series, second-year point guard Deron Williams was brilliant in Games 1 and 2. In the series opener, Williams outplayed everyone on the floor, pouring in 31 points and dishing out 8 assists. In Game 2, he fed his teammates to tune of 14 assists and added 17 points, including a clutch basket at the end of regulation that tied the game and sent it into overtime.
In that comeback Game 2 victory for Utah, Mehmet Okur was equally brilliant, scoring 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting (60%) and pulling down 18 boards. Even Andrei Kirilenko, who struggled badly in Utah’s first-round series against Houston, came up big in Game 5. “AK-47” scored 21 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, and made 3 steals. The undersized Warriors also had trouble dealing with Paul Millsap, who averaged over seven points and six rebounds coming off the Utah bench.
Meanwhile, Baron Davis was almost single-handedly keeping the Warriors in the series with his relentless style of play. Unfortunately for Golden State, Davis, who averaged 25.6 points, 7.6 assists and 4.2 steals a game in the series, didn’t get much help. With his Game 5 meltdown duly noted, Stephen Jackson never found his shooting touch, hitting on just 28% of his shots from the field and an even more abysmal 22% from 3-pont range. Jason Richardson, who had played well in the first three games of the series, disappeared in Games 4 and 5, averaging just 10 points a game on 33% shooting. And with Baron Davis doing all of the heavy lifting, Golden State did just enough to give themselves a chance in each game but never enough to convert those chances.
Credit the Warriors, though, for going so much further this season than most anyone (myself included) ever thought they would. Their dizzying, run-and-gun style of play brought some much needed life to the franchise and to the league in general. And for a team that has been largely invisible for the better part of the last decade-and-a-half, they certainly played in a way that could not be ignored.
Granted, there were moments of ugliness in their wild playoff run, but there were also moments of breathtaking, spectacular basketball. However, given the absolute fury with which they play, that dichotomy seems unavoidable. Controlled, that fury can be forceful and productive. Uncontrolled, it can turn reckless and damaging.
I am reminded of a line from rock great Pete Townshend. When asked about how he was different now from when he was a desperate young man, Townshend replied, “I’m desperate old #### now. But not boring. Never boring!”
Perhaps, that’s the way to best describe the 2006-2007 Golden State Warriors: a desperate basketball team, but not boring. Never boring.
As with any good rollercoaster ride, maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Ok, on “Seinfield”, George Costanza actually used the line on his smirking co-worker, Riley and not on one of the NBA’s most volatile players, but you get the idea.
Given his past legal troubles and his current string of on-court ejections, Warriors’ guard-forward Stephen Jackson is seen by most in less than glowing terms. However, even those who detest his mercurial personality have to admit that he’s a pretty good basketball player. And if there was any doubt about that, he erased it in Golden State’s playoff series-clinching 111-86 rout over Dallas last night.
Jackson was like a circus knife-thrower in Game 6, delivering dagger after dagger with scary precision. He hit 7 of his 8 attempts from 3-point range and finished with 33 points, and Dallas simply couldn’t match his game or his energy. When Baron Davis limped off the floor in the second period with the game still up for grabs, Jackson not only willingly stepped into the spotlight, he ran towards it. Because of his temperament, Jackson regularly plays with fire and can use it to burn others or be burned himself. Last night, he burned the Mavs, right out of the playoff picture.
However, ever since Jackson and Al Harrington came to the Warriors from Indiana via trade at mid-season, Golden State’s style of play has become decidedly edgy in nature. When it comes to team chemistry, they are as likely to produce a miracle vaccine as they are nitro glycerin. They can have a two-ejection, 13-point implosion as they did in Game 2 and come back two nights later and put down an 18-point beating in Game 3. They can fritter away a 9-point lead with three minutes to go in a potential series-clinching Game 5 and put the hammer down with a 25-point blowout 48 hours later. This volatile mix of playing styles and personalities simply creates pure energy on the floor for them, and that energy can either be constructively channeled into brilliant basketball or it can run amok like an accident at a nuclear power plant. And from game-to-game, you never know what you’re going to get – a thundering win or Chernobyl.
If Stephen Jackson provides the volatility, then point guard Baron Davis provides the intensity for the Warriors. Davis, less greyhound and more bulldog, uses that hard-headed approach to the game to its fullest extent. However, like Jackson, his flashes of brilliant play are tempered by fits of recklessness. In the series opener against the Mavs, Davis set the tone for Golden State and displayed fully his impressive range of talent, scoring 33 points, grabbing 14 rebounds, and dishing 8 assists. That one of the shortest players on the floor led the both teams in boards is telling. Davis simply outplayed and outhustled everyone else.
However, in Game 2, Davis only collected a single rebound, scored 13 points, and turned the ball over six times. As icing, he also got himself thrown out late in the 3rd quarter of a reasonably close game. But there is no questioning Davis’ heart and his unyielding determination. In Game 6, he hobbled off the floor early, only to return to bully the Mavs’ timid defense with 20 points and another double-digit rebounding effort.
In fact, most of the Warriors have this jagged level of performance to their game. Jason Richardson scored 30 points in Game 3 on 12-of-19 shooting, but averaged 17 points a game and shot under 48% for remainder of the series. Impressive second-year guard Monta Ellis averaged over 16 points a game during the regular season, but went for just over 8 points a contest against the Mavs (including a goose egg in Game 4). Center Andris Biedrins was a non-factor in four of the six games but came up big in Game 6 with 12 points, 12 boards, and 3 blocks.
However, the Warriors are relentless. They simply will not stop running or badgering on defense or firing three-pointers. And the most difficult thing for opponents to determine is where the next burst of energy is going to come from. In Game 6, reserve forward Matt Barnes went for 16 points and 11 rebounds, and the Mavs never know what hit them.
By comparison, Dallas played like someone dimming the house lights to conserve energy. They stepped back when the Warriors charged forward and allowed things to be taken rather than reaching for them themselves. Mavs’ star forward Dirk Nowitski only brought his A-game to Dallas’ Game 5 victory, scoring 30 points and tearing down 12 boards. In Game 6, he apparently left it in his luggage, shooting 2-for-13 from the floor and finishing with just 8 points.
Only Josh Howard seemed to consistently play with any urgency and was the only Mavs player to score at least 20 points in each game of the series. After getting shut out in Game 1, Jerry Stackhouse provided energy and points off the bench, and Devin Harris had his moments in 4 of the 6 games but disappeared in Games 3 and 4 (both Dallas losses).
In Game 6, the Mavs needed a full team effort, and they didn’t get it. Stackhouse and Howard were the only ones to show up, and the Warriors took advantage of the 5-on-2 mismatch, particularly in the second half. Nothing illustrates this point clearer than the difference in rebounds. The shorter Warriors outrebounded the Mavs 53-38 (16-10 on the offensive glass).
What’s next for the NBA’s newest “It” team? Though it’s impossible to predict which face this schizophrenic team will put on in the next round of the playoffs, one thing is for sure. Their games won’t be boring.
So, Houston, Utah, step right up. The NBA’s most exhilarating and unpredictable high-wire act is in town, and, despite what George Constanza would have you think, the Warriors’ most dangerous knife-thrower is still very much in stock.
In 1993, Chris Mullin was just past the halfway point of a stellar NBA career. At 30, he was chipping in 16.8 points a game and dealing just over five assists a contest for his team, the Golden State Warriors. And the Warriors were on a decent, if unspectacular, run during Mullin’s time with the team. The 1993-1994 season marked the 5th time in Mullin’s nine seasons with Golden State that they had reached the NBA playoffs.
Coach Don Nelson was also having a pretty good time of it. He’d been on the Warrior sidelines for six seasons and had led the team to four playoffs berths in that time. Before that, Nelson had coached the Milwaukee Bucks to eight straight playoff appearances. And 12 out of 14 isn’t a bad track record no matter how many teams reach the NBA postseason every year.
But there was trouble brewing in Oakland. Rookie forward Chris Webber and Nelson clashed repeatedly, and the players began to pick sides. When ownership backed Nelson and traded Webber after the team’s first round exit in the 1993-1994 playoffs, mutiny wasn’t very far off. Nelson quit halfway through the 1994-1995 season and the franchise, for all intensive purposes, disintegrated over the next dozen years.
However, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Mullin and Nelson are back with the team, and the Warriors are back in the playoffs for the first time since that 1993-1994 season before everything went you-know-where in you-know-what kind of a basket.
Though Mullin is no longer draining baseline jumpers for Golden State, as the team’s GM, he has finally put together a team capable of consistent, respectable basketball. Nelson, on the other hand, has undergone no such transformation. He’s still the same loose cannon, run-happy coach with a new set of players to whirl around his chessboard.
Though for much of the season, few likely could have seen Mullin and Nelson’s team playing for much else than a varying number of ping pong balls in the NBA lottery hopper (at the time, I thought bringing back Nelson was a huge mistake given the way he had left the team in tatters over a decade before, and, frankly, I expected another miserable season for the team because of it), because Nelson was trying to get the team to run while dragging three anchors down the floor with them. Two of those anchors, Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy, were also economic anchors – plodding players with fat contracts that were dragging any chance for an up-tempo style of offense into the mud.
So, Mullin got rid of Murphy and Dunleavy. In mid-January, the Warriors sent the two anchors, forward Ike Diogu, and guard Keith McLeod to Indiana for Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, Josh Powell, and Sarunas Jasikevisius.
The third anchor in the Warriors’ rotation, center Adonal Foyle, was already losing playing time to ever-improving Andris Biedrins. So, when Harrington and Jackson joined the team in lieu of their slower predecessors, Nelson’s fast-paced offense finally took off.
Fiery point guard Baron Davis led the way (20.1 points, 8.1 assists, and 2.1 steals per game) but often sabotaged his own brilliant play with reckless decision making. Second-year man Monta Ellis was, at times, equally brilliant (16.5 points per game on 47% shooting) and his growth as a player exceeded virtually everyone’s expectations. However, his inexperience led to some growing pains.
Likewise, second-year center Biedrins also showed ability and surprising agility for a big man (9.5 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game) but was also slowed by inconsistency. Fittingly, Jackson (16.8 points per game with Golden State) and Harrington (17.0 points per game with Golden State) brought big-time scoring ability but equally erratic play with them, and Jackson’s notoriously volatile personality made things even more interesting.
So, with Davis, Ellis, Jackson, Harrington, and Biedrins all on the floor for big minutes, the result was little more than controlled chaos. However, that’s just the way Don Nelson drew it up. Though chaotic, the speed and versatility of the Warriors’ starting five created exploitable mismatches that turned into points. Lots of them. The Warriors’ newfound up-tempo offense finished second in the NBA in points per game with 106.5.
However, star off-guard Jason Richardson missed 30 games with injuries and was not fully healthy for several more. And Richardson, an All-star quality player, had led the team in scoring the prior season, pouring in 23.2 points a game. So, when he finally returned fully healthy at the end of the season, the Warriors truly put on the afterburners.
Nelson swapped Richardson for Biedrins for the big minutes, the undersized Warriors got even smaller and faster, and the team roared down the stretch. They swept away the memories of Clifford Rozier, Todd Fuller, Danny Fortson, and Speedy Claxton and went 9-1 in the final 10 games with Jason Richardson returning to his 2005-2006 form, averaging 23 a game. And they needed every last one of those wins, clinching the 8th and final Western Conference playoff spot on the last day of the season.
So, for the first time sine the 1993-1994 season, the Warriors will play an 83rd game that actually counts. However, they will have to do so against Don Nelson’s former team, the Dallas Mavs, an imposing team with the NBA’s best record (67-15). Led by all-everything forward Dirk Nowitzki (24.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game), the Mavs are a scary blend of size and speed with multiple scoring threats. Besides Nowitzki, Josh Howard (18.9 points per game) and Jason Terry (16.7 points per game) can fill it up, and Jerry Stackhouse and Devin Harris are effective scorers off the bench.
However, Golden State swept the season series against Dallas. So, this is hardly a typical #1-8 NBA playoff mismatch. And with basketball’s most famous mad scientist running things from the Warriors’ bench, just as he did over a dozen years ago, who knows what will happen once he unveils his latest lineup creation on the floor this Sunday in Dallas.
So, even though my head tells me that Dallas will have their way in the series (i.e., who on Golden State matches up with Nowitzki and Howard?) and end it in 5, my heart tells me that the Warriors pull the stunner in 7. And I have to stick with the underdog on this one.
After 13 years, it’s just nice to be able to make an NBA playoff prediction again.
Perhaps, it is the sheer number of losses or the mind-numbing duration of the losing, but the Golden State Warriors are no longer capable of mustering any form of expectation. There is simply no more hope left in the well. So much bad basketball over such a long period of time will do that. So much so, in fact, that the Warriors have become elevator music in the NBA, the background noise that fills the space of the long season until the contenders get serious.
And they have a long way to go to change any of that. However, Step One in the right direction was supposed to happen last night.
It was all set up to be a good night for the franchise. Don Nelson was returning to the Golden State bench. The rival Lakers were limping into town sans Kobe Bryant (albeit they had stunned the highly-touted Phoenix Suns the night before). With Kobe, the Lakers still have some of the aura of West, Chamberlain, Magic, and Jabbar. Without him, they’re just a bunch of guys wearing familiar looking laundry. Even the Zen Master himself was missing from the Laker bench. With the Hall of Fame coach and the Hall of Fame player both on the outside looking in and a disrespected, hungry team desperate to make a statement on their home court, the ingredients were certainly there for the host Warriors to get the 2006-2007 NBA season started in style.
It didn’t happen, because Golden State couldn’t stop Ronny Turiaf. Turiaf, he of the career 1.9 ppg average, torched the Warriors for 23 points and 9 boards (all in the second half, by the way). He was everywhere and, by the 4th quarter, he was strutting up down and the court like the second coming of Willis Reed. For their part, the Warriors had no identity. There was talk that they would be relentless in running the floor this season, but the offense was ragged and inconsistent. The defense was non-existent (i.e., Ronny Turiaf ruling the paint for the entire second half). And Don Nelson already looked weary of it all. The result was an ugly 110-98 loss that lacked virtually everything that could be lacking in a home opener.
Of course, it’s only one game in an arduous 82-game season. However, what do the Warriors have to offer up to the NBA Playoff gods to end the professional hoops misery in the Bay Area?
Sure, Jason Richardson is a superstar caliber player, but Mike Dunleavy is not. While Baron Davis is an electrifying playmaker, Adonal Foyle is not. And therein lies Golden State’s problem. For every piece of the puzzle they have that can take them to the next level, they have a counterweight of mediocrity that will prevent them from getting there.
They also have the curse of potential waiting in the wings: Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins, Mickael Pietrus, and Ike Diogu, all talented but each is as raw as an uncooked porterhouse. If one or more of these young players suddenly makes the leap to stardom, it would certainly help. However, the fact that that would need to happen to push the team forward further illustrates the kind of sucker’s bets the team has resorted to.
Certainly, there is no fat lady singing for Golden State after just one game of the 2006-2007 NBA season, but the eerily familiar sound of elevator music is faintly playing in the background.
The Who once sang famously about meeting the new boss who was the same as the old boss. And today, in the Bay Area, that’s exactly what fans of the Golden State Warriors may have to do.
This morning the team dismissed head coach Mike Montgomery, who joins the seemingly unending line of successful college basketball coaches who could not continue that success in the NBA. Montgomery’s Stanford teams made 12 NCAA tournament appearances in 18 seasons. His Golden State Warriors’ teams, all two of them, made exactly zero post season appearances and finished with a decidedly tepid 68-96 record under his watch. Whatever Montgomery had in turning Stanford into a perennial Pac-10 powerhouse, he seemed to lose the second he crossed the Bay Bridge into Oakland.
So, with Montgomery out, the team is reportedly close to signing a new coach.
Meet the new coach. He’s the same coach that ran the team in 1995.
That’s right, Warrior fans, Nellie may be back.
Don Nelson, the last man to lead the Warriors to the NBA playoffs, an almost unimaginable 12-year drought, may well be pacing the sidelines for Golden State this upcoming season. And I must confess that I don’t know what to think of such an idea. Sure, Nellie’s had a pretty solid track record everywhere he’s been. And a coach with any sort of NBA playoff pedigree would be a welcomed sight in the Bay Area these days.
However, when Nelson left the team in December, 1995, he left the team in shambles. He ran off star forward Chris Webber, clashed with the new ownership group, and, ultimately, claimed job burnout when he walked out on the team in mid-season. They haven’t been the same ever since.
And he’s had a troubling tendency to repeat that pattern with other teams.
In Dallas, he again completed a highly successful run, but once again butted heads with ownership and once again left his team after the season had started. That Avery Johnson was able to pick up the pieces this past year and lead Dallas to within two games of an NBA title, somewhat obscures the fact that Don Nelson seemed to wear out yet another welcome.
So what does Nellie bring with him in 2006 that he didn’t have in 1995 when he could not get away from the Warriors fast enough? Moreover, how much of the baggage from 11 years ago will he be bringing back into the team’s locker room?
Whatever the case, the team must be hoping that a proven winner like Nellie can re-adjust the mindset at the Oakland Coliseum Arena and get the relatively inexperienced and unproven talent on the roster to learn how to win. Can he do it? I hope so, but I have this nagging su####ion that if the team is so willing to embrace the past they may well be doomed to repeat its more regrettable episodes.
And the name of The Who song about new bosses and old bosses? “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” That sounds like a mantra Warrior fans may well be repeating over and over again this season.
At fellow Fox Sports blogger Carolyn T's suggestion, I have compiled a list of previous posts here at "What in the Wide World of Sports is Going in Here?" that I thought you might find interesting.
The Beatles once wrote a song about the number “9”.
And for the Golden State Warriors, that song has probably been stuck in their heads for the past few weeks, as the number “9” may play an important role in the team’s future. For that matter, the numbers “12” and “31” also loom heavily for the franchise. Specifically, it has been 12 seasons since the Warriors last made the playoffs. And given the expanded field of playoff teams in the modern NBA, 12 years is an eternity to be no closer to the playoffs than the nearest television set.
It has also been 31 years since the franchise could last claim the title “NBA Champions.” (As an aside, I wrote a post about the magical championship run of the 1975 Warriors, here.) And there appears little hope that either of those droughts will end anytime soon with the help of the aforementioned number “9”, as in the 9th pick in tonight’s NBA draft.
The Warriors had the 9th pick in last year’s draft and selected 6’8” Forward Ike Diogu from Arizona State. While Diogu showed promise and a willingness to grapple in the paint, the team finished with exactly the same record in 2006 as they had in 2005, 34-48. Diogu will likely become a solid NBA player but is hardly the kind of game-changing star the team needs to make the leap from mediocrity to consistent playoff participant.
However, history does show at least the possibility of selecting a true star player with the 9th pick. Of the last 10 NBA Drafts, the following players have been chosen with the 9th pick:
1996 – Samaki Walker, F, Louisville – selected by Dallas
1997 – Tracy McGrady, F, Mt. Zion Christian Academy (HS) – selected by Toronto
1999 – Shawn Marion, F, UNLV – selected by Phoenix
2000 – Joel Przybilla, C, Minnesota – selected by Milwaukee
2001 – Rodney White, F, UNC-Charlotte – selected by Detroit
2002 – Amare Stoudemire, F, Cypress Creek (HS) – selected by Phoenix
2003 – Mike Sweetney, F, Georgetown – selected by New York
2004 – Andre Iguodala, G-F, Arizona – selected by Philadelphia
2005 – Ike Diogu, F, Arizona State – selected by Golden State
So, if history is any type of indicator for the Warriors first round selection tonight, they better pick a forward. If they choose a center, as their depth chart seems to be screaming for at the moment, they may well end up with Joel Przybilla, or some facsimile thereof.
Of course, at least a few pundits have them doing exactly that. Patrick O’Bryant? This guy admitted that he sees himself as a “project”! What these pundits may be missing is that the team already has 20 year old, 6’11’’ Andris Biedrins on the roster. While Biedrins has shown flashes of talent, he’s also as raw as an uncooked porterhouse. And the so-called “experts” think the Warriors need another big body on the wrong end of the learning curve?
Now, if a more polished center was available, that would be an entirely different story. Barring that and while it is doubtful that the next Tracy McGrady is waiting for them at #9 this year, a skilled forward still seems to be a better choice than a “cross-your-fingers, what-if” center.
Having said that, Rodney Carney (Memphis) or Cedric Simmons (NC State) seem like the most reasonable choices. And if Rudy #### (UConn) should somehow slip all the way to the 9th pick, the Warriors would be crazy to pass on him.
Ok, guys, you’re on the clock. Just don’t send Joel Przybilla our way.
Other Random NBA Draft Thoughts:
With all due respect to LSU’s Glen Davis, shouldn’t Adam Morrison be nicknamed “Big Baby”?
A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. Or, in this case, at least a catchy nickname.
Nearly all of the college seniors projected to go in the first round are being described as “NBA ready”, while nearly all of the underclassmen are variously labeled as “projects” or needing “development time.” Yet, no one wants to say that any of the underclassmen have made a mistake by declaring for the draft too early.
Is “long” the same as “tall”? And if it is, why don’t they just say “tall”?
Is it possible for a European player to draw comparisons to a non-European player?
For that matter, does every white player with a decent jump shot have to be labeled the “Next Larry Bird”? Couldn't he just as easily be the next Matt Harpring?
Alas, I disgress. Toronto, you are on the clock. Let the 2006 NBA Draft begin!
Near the end of the movie, "The Warriors", the film's villain begins this strange mantra-like chant taunting the heroes and namesakes of the picture, daring them to show themselves after a night on the run from a myriad of New York's biggest gangs.
"Warriors, come out to play-ee-ay! Warriors, come out to play-ee-ay!"
He repeats the chant over and over again, becoming increasingly louder and more shrill with each incantation. And for some strange reason, he has glass bottles looped around his fingers and begins clanging those bottles together incessantly.
"Warriors, come out to play-ee-ay! Warriors, come out to play-ee-ay!"
To their credit, the plucky little gang from Coney Island does come out to play, and they make their dramatic final stand in the sand.
Unfortunately, in NBA circles, the Warriors have not come out to play in a good long while. In fact, the last time the Golden State Warriors really did come out to play was 1975, and 1975 seems like forever ago.
"All in the Family" and "Sanford and Son" ruled the TV airwaves. "Jaws" was a box office hit. Bell bottoms were still cool. Big 'Fros were even cooler. And Rick Barry was raining jumpers from the rafters of the Oakland Coliseum like it was Singapore during monsoon season.
It was, as they say, literally raining buckets that season.
And there was no mistaking that the stringy-haired veteran forward from the University of Miami was the star of the team. He played 40 minutes a night, lit up the scoreboard for over 30 points per, and led the league in steals.
Barry also left no doubt as to who held the keys to the offense and who sat in the driver's seat most nights. Barry launched twice as many shots as any of teammates and did likewise from the free throw line with his trademark underhand technique. He also led the team in assists (at 6.2 a game). Suffice it to say when things happened to the Golden State Warriors in 1975, there was a pretty good chance that Rick Barry was right in the middle of it.
But the star's understudies had a fair amount to do with the team's success that season as well. The team's first round draft pick that year was a smooth scorer from UCLA who later changed his name and become a fixture with the rival LA Lakers. But in 1975, the rookie was still named Keith Wilkes and his silky baseline jumper would help to propel the only NBA team in Northern California to greatness.
A second rookie, guard Phil Smith, was a local kid (high school grad from the SF area and a college grad from the University of San Francisco), and he practically had to will himself onto the roster. In so doing, Smith brought intensity to his role off the bench and became a tough defender who could also produce quick points.
Butch Beard and Charles Johnson were a pair of quick, pesky guards who both averaged double-digits in points and both produced better than a steal per game. Jeff Mullins was an 11-year NBA veteran swingman who at one time could be counted on for over 20 points a night. In 1975, he was in the twilight o####reat career but could still produce points off the bench and offer solid all-around play all over the floor.
And the man at the head of the ship was Al Attles, arguably the baddest man to roam an NBA sideline. Attles was a tough kid from New Jersey and earned the nickname “The Destroyer” during an 11-year NBA career that saw as many floorburns as points. He was a tenacious defender and carried that tough-minded approach into his coaching career.
Attles’ primary instrument for defensive intimidation and force was Clifford Ray. At 6’9”, Ray was undersized at center, but his ferocious attitude in the paint was the great equalizer. In just over 30 minutes per game, Ray gobbled up 10.6 rebounds a contest. Power forward Derrick Dickey also shared in doing the team’s grunt work, making defense and rebounding priorities.
And to keep the defense fresh and the intensity level up, Attles utilized nearly every player on the bench, regularly working a 10-man rotation. Though it took time for the team to acclimate itself to this quick-change style, they were ultimately able to adapt and finished the regular season a solid but unspectacular 48-34.
In the playoffs, the Warriors truly hit their stride. They brushed aside Fred Brown, Spencer Haywood, and the Seattle Supersonics in the opening round. They were pushed to seven games by Bob Love, Chet Walker, and the Chicago Bulls but pulled out a thrilling 4-point win in the series clincher.
In the NBA finals, The Big E, Elvin Hayes, and the great Wes Unseld were waiting. Most experts predicted that the Washington Bullets of Messrs. Hayes and Unseld would take the title and that the magic of Golden State’s Cinderella sneakers would finally wear off.
A funny thing happened on the way to Washington’s championship coronation. The Warriors had simply refused to take off those magic sneakers.
Phil Smith came off the bench in Game 1 and unloaded for 31 points. The Warriors won by six. Games 2 and 3 were played in the Cow Palace (and the place looked just about like it sounds), because the team’s regular season home, the Oakland Coliseum, had booked the Ice Capades never imagining that the local basketball would make it that far in the playoffs. Nonetheless, Rick Barry took over both games scoring 36 and 38 points, respectively. The Warriors took Game 2 by a single point and Game 3 by eight.
Up 3-0, the team relied on its trademark defense to fuel a furious rally in Game 4. Butch Beard provided the spark down the stretch and the Warriors won the game and the NBA title with a single-point victory, 96-95.
Since that final buzzer of Game 4, the franchise has, unfortunately, slipped right off the basketball map. The 1980’s were ushered in by the trade of Robert Parish and the #3 pick in the 1980 NBA Draft for the top selection, Joe Barry Carroll. Parish and that #3 pick, which turned out to be a skinny forward from the University of Minnesota named Kevin McHale, won three NBA titles together as members of the Boston Celtics, with each player leading a Hall of Fame career. And Joe Barry? No NBA titles, no Hall of Fame career, and no love from a fan base that demanded a level of greatness that he just didn’t have.
There have been brief (re: very brief) respites from the misery. The early 1990’s brought Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway, and Mitch Richmond together and the wild frenetic offense of “Run TMC.” But management broke up the trio before they ever really got going, deciding that Richmond was somehow a lesser player than Billy Owens. Latrell Sprewell and Chris Webber brought promise in the mid-1990’s, but Webber had a well-publicized rift with coach Don Nelson and Sprewell decided to choke Nelson’s successor PJ Carlesimo. So, that was pretty much the end of that.
Since then, the team has been a non-factor. This past season, they failed to reach the playoffs for the 12th straight time and are saddled with the unenviable 9th pick in this year's NBA draft. They have a couple of star players, Jason Richardson and Baron Davis, but precious little else that offers much hope for the future.
And somewhere there's a little guy with bottles on his fingers mocking them to come out and play.
Unfortunately, I don't think they'll be up to the challenge anytime soon.
Nooch is a lifelong sports fan who believes that Indianapolis ended up with a slightly better QB than San Diego in the 1998 NFL Draft, the Golden State Warriors may not make the NBA playoffs again in his lifetime (how was I supposed to know that Chris Mullin would make a coaching hire and a mid-season trade that would basically save the franchise?), and that Mike Ivie's pinch-hit, game winning grand slam for the Giants against the Dodgers in 1978 may have been the greatest moment in baseball history.
