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Written by ray
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Friday, 01 February 2008 |
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Used to be, the two months between the Super Bowl and baseball’s opening day was the worst time of year. The
Warriors were always dead and buried by February, so we in the Bay Area
were forced to sit and wait for 60 days until the A’s and Giants
returned and restored hope to our lives. The Warriors are
the only good team in the neighborhood now, but that hasn’t stopped
them from trying to inject some life into these two months anyway:
Chris
Webber, the man who breathed new life into this franchise, only to
quickly take that breath away (the opposite of Primatene Mist, as Young
Dro would say), is back. This isn’t just history. It’s bitter, bitter, ancient history (did I mention bitter?). This is like Harry Truman retiring to Japan.
And
with all due respect to Tom Brady, his supermodel girlfriend, his
ailing foot, his 18-0 record, his shirtless cologne ads, and his "I'm
gonna pretend to be coaching little kids so people will think I'm a
fantastic guy" ad campaign that seems so natural and un-forced and
worked so well for Kobe Bryant... Friday night's game at The Oracle is
now the biggest event of the weekend for Bay Area residents. A
regular-season game against the Charlotte Bobcats now doubles as the
biggest circus to hit town since Dallas limped away last April. The return of J-Rich and C-Webb on the same night? Ticket prices should be doubled for that game.
I’ll be there Friday night, and assuming Webber plays, I still don’t know whether to cheer him or boo him. I just know that it figures to be the strangest, most circus-like atmosphere of any Warriors game I’ve ever attended. Chris Webber is the only player the Warriors could have signed who could serve as a show-stopper. All of a sudden, it's no longer about Baron's beard or Jack's 3's or the rocket booster strapped to Monta's back. Once
Chris Webber steps onto the floor in Oakland, it's all about him, his
history with this franchise, and the blood feud he once waged against
his new coach. There’s a similarly stubborn power
struggle going on with Oakland's football team right now, which looks
like an appetizer compared to the havoc Webber and Don Nelson created
in their last go-round.
This almost feels more like a science experiment than a free agent signing. How can things get any more ridiculous than what we’ve gone through in just the past year and a half? It
was only 16 months ago that the Warriors were winning 30-plus games a
season, with Mike Montgomery coaching J-Rich, Dunleavy, Murphy, Foyle,
and Fisher. Now we have Don Nelson coaching Chris Webber, and there’s a very real chance the Warriors will win 50 games. I don't know who our GM is or what he's done with the real Chris Mullin, but these aren't our Warriors. These
are the Warriors we thought we remembered, the Warriors we were
starting to think we'd made up in our heads as a way to cope with all
the losing. Nelson and Webber are walking proof that there
actually was good basketball played in Oakland once upon a time, and we
really were around to see it.
In fact, Chris Webber is the reason I even started watching basketball in the first place. At
12 years old, I wasn’t a huge hoops fan, but at school I’d heard so
much about the Warriors’ new rookie that I figured I’d check out what
all the fuss was about. It didn’t
take long until I was hooked, and I’ve been a Warriors fan ever since. Really, Chris Webber is the reason I’m a Golden State Warriors fan… and yet I hate him with every fiber of my being. And prior to this season, it's been only natural to hate the person who turned you into a Warriors fan. Because before they turned you, you probably enjoyed your life. You probably smiled, laughed, enjoyed the occasional walk in the park. But then you started watching the Warriors, and the world turned into a bad vampire movie. You
couldn’t sleep, the sky turned black, and all you saw were 20-win
seasons, or Erick Dampier fumbling another errant pass from Mookie
Blaylock.
Wouldn’t you hate the person you held responsible for that?
Problem was, being a Warriors fan wasn’t always a curse. When Webber left, we still had a good team. C-Webb was still my favorite player though, mostly because we didn’t have a decade-plus of suck to pin on him. It hurt that he was playing for another team, but the man was also the reason I became an NBA fan. In fact, I was at Webber’s first game back in Oakland back in 1995, and I was there to cheer him. Apparently, I was the only one. The boos that night were deafening- if you stood on a tarmac and listened to a plane taking off, it <i>might</i> be in the neighborhood of the heat Webber took that night. It’s still the loudest I’ve ever heard the fans get at The Oracle, including last year’s playoffs. And when C-Webb got hurt and left the game early, the fans in Oakland cheered his exit. This isn't someone Warriors fans just mildly dislike, this is someone they hate, and have hated for a long time.
But if I didn’t blame Webber that night, why would it be his fault now? I didn’t begin to hate him until he started making the playoffs every year, while we sat at home. But he didn't draft Todd Fuller over Kobe, or trade Tim Hardaway for a bag of marbles. We got 3 first-round picks for Webber, and we had the #1 pick in
the draft just a year after he left. It wasn't his fault we were terrible, it was our own. Hell, the man’s never even played in a Finals, it's not like we let Wilt Chamberlain slip away (again). Of
course, that didn’t stop me from cheering every one of Webber’s painful
playoff losses, every nagging injury, every passing year and erosion of
his skills. Every time I listened to the Luniz’ first CD, a smile crossed my face when “Playa Hata” came on. Because even if Numskull didn't take Webber’s credit card, <i>someone</i> did, and that was enough for me. I even cheered Robert Horry's shot
in the 2002 playoffs, which is insane, given how evil those Lakers teams were. Webber was getting close to a championship without us, and watching him succeed while we failed became a reason to hate him.
But in the end, nothing worked out the way it was supposed to for anyone involved. We
missed out on the best Warriors team in the last 30 years, Webber lost
his chance at playing for a Hall of Fame coach with three All-Star
teammates in their prime, and Nellie never got his shot at coaching the
closest thing he’s ever had to a championship-caliber team. Really, everyone was left feeling disappointed, though we ended up getting the worst of it by far.
It’s hard to put this whole situation in perspective, mostly because reunions like this don’t come along very often. It’s
almost like an old rock band who decides to get back together again, a
decade after everyone realizes how stubborn and ass-like they were. And
in 5 years, when we’re watching the comeback of Guns N’ Roses (who have
a song called “14 years”, coincidentally), do you think people will
cheer Slash and boo Axl? Will they be bitter because they
had to go so long without a Gn’R record, having been forced to listen
to years of Nickelback and Smashmouth? Of course not. They'll be mostly happy, and a little sad, but not angry.
So why is this any different? Nellie
got a pass for his part in that whole mess, both because he spent more
time here in his first go-round and because he’s overseen the
renaissance we're currently enjoying. But why shouldn't Webber
get a pass, too? He
led us to one of the most exciting seasons we've ever had, definitely
the best Warriors season I've ever experienced in my lifetime. He's not coming back as a scout or a front-office suit, like so many other ex-Warriors. He's
coming back to help us on the floor, setting aside any old bitterness
and playing for the man he worked so hard to escape from. I can't believe I'm typing this even as I do it, but maybe it’s time for us to cheer Chris Webber. MAYBE.
But if you think about it, the entire time we sucked, all we wanted was a good basketball team. Well, we finally have that. And now, of all people, Chris Webber has volunteered to help make this team and its coach even better. Short of getting down on his knees and begging us to forgive him, what else could we really ask of him? The man doesn’t know Doc Brown, he can’t go back in time and undo anything. We
could be cruel and force him to wear his old 1994 uniform as a kind of
scarlet letter, refusing to treat him like some random schmoe we just
signed off the street. And really, we aren’t going to treat Chris Webber the same as any other mid-season rental. So why pretend? Because
whether you love him or hate him, “Webber 4” is a Warriors jersey every
Golden State fan has wanted to see again for a long time. Personally, I used to want the Warriors to retire the number 4 and hang it in the men's room. But
now I can’t think of a more exciting regular-season moment than Chris
Webber getting off the bench for the first time in Oakland. And
if that sounds bi-polar to you, you’re not far off; this signing is
threatening to turn a lot of Warriors fans into Harvey Dent.
Of course, it’s not like anyone is going to sympathize. Here were are, complaining about adding a Hall of Fame power forward with a little something left in his tank. For
a group of fans who've been enjoying the good life for nearly a year
straight, this is a sure way to deliver a reality check. As
fans, we've been getting just a little high and mighty lately, treating
bottom-feeders the way other team treated us not so long ago. We may have read too many of our own press clippings, deluding ourselves into thinking we'd somehow changed the league with our
craaaaaazy idea of all wearing the same T-shirt. We love this team to a fault, and we loved Webber the instant he arrived, which is why it hurt so much when he left.
And while it’s hard to even think about forgiving C-Webb, it’s even harder to dislike anything about these Warriors. At this point, I can’t even muster an angry word about Chris Cohan anymore. I
feel like Alex in “A Clockwork Orange”: I’m happy, but I almost miss my
old rage, my desire to harm anyone associated with this franchise. The anger has been around so long, it’s hard to bury at this point, like losing a pet. Part of me wants Webber to cheap-shot J-Rich Friday night, just so I'll have a reason to keep hating him. But now that 14 years have passed, if we boo him all over again, doesn't that just make us bitter and grumpy? If Webber and Nelson can forgive each other, why can't we?
To put in perspective just how long it’s been, consider this: Webber's the only player left from that ’93-’94 team who’s still in the league. Mullin
is our GM, Avery is coaching our Dallas Mavericks for us, Timmy
Hardaway's sitting at home silently rooting against Rudy Gay, Spree has
gone Howard Hughes and locked himself in his Milwaukee home, Seikaly is
a dirty old man dating 20-year-olds down in Miami Beach, and Jud
Buechler is recovering from yet another back surgery, the result of having to carry Michael Jordan to all those championships with the Bulls in the late-90’s.
It’s
been so long, in fact, that none of Webber’s current teammates were in
the NBA when he and Nelson divorced, and none of the guys from his
draft class are currently on an NBA roster. He's not the Chris Webber we want to remember, the one in the old barbershop commercial with Sprewell. He's
old and broken down, tired from all those failed attempts to reach the
mountaintop elsewhere, like Stallone returning to play Rocky or Rambo.
But there is something to be said for nostalgia. With
Chris Webber back in Oakland, and Jason Kidd trying to make his way
back to Dallas, and Shaq and Penny briefly reuniting, it feels like the
mid-90's NBA all over again. If this led to the return of
the NBA on NBC each Saturday, with Matt Goukas and Marv Albert calling
games again, then I'd be all for it. But that's not
happening, just like Payton-to-Kemp in Seattle's old high school gym is
forever confined to YouTube, and Dick Versace’s glowing white afro is
doomed to live on only in our memories. Sorry, Hannah Storm, but this is not your lucky day. Do not pass go, and do not collect $200.
Back
in Webber’s first and only season here, the Warriors featured Don
Nelson coaching a small-ball team with a dominant point guard, a
ticking time bomb of a swingman, and a rookie power forward acquired in
a draft-day trade who would’ve needed a map and a compass to track down
a public compliment from Nellie. Fast-forward fourteen years, and we’re right back where we started. Even Mullin's haircut is the same. And
it’s a bit ironic that Webber would end up back with Mullin, since I'm
pretty sure David Stern originally mandated they be broken up after
seeing how dominant they were together in NBA Jam: Tournament Edition. C-Webb was also my favorite player to use in
NBA Live 95 as a middle-schooler, and he’s now playing for a team that
employs my exact coaching strategy from that game: namely, to launch as
many 3’s as possible. And when we play Dallas, if Webber
decides to turn off the fouls and take full-speed running starts at
Devin Harris, I may just dust off my old number 4 jersey and forget the
past fourteen years even happened.
The
weirdest part of all this is may be the sick enjoyment I get just
thinking about Chris Webber returning to Sacramento in a Warriors
uniform. After years of wanting nothing more than to see C-Webb get
booed every time he returned to Oakland, only to have those boos
drowned out by cheers from visiting Kings fans, it would be fantastic
to watch Webber head back to Barnco Arena as invading Warriors fans
(who have taken over that place in the past year) cheer him on, rubbing
salt in the wounds of Sacramento fans. It
would serve as the perfect reminder that not only do we have a better
team than they do, but we're headed to the playoffs with the best
player in their franchise's history in tow. In fact, we
might have everything a Sacramento fan would want: Chris Webber, a
winning team, a rep as the league's best crowd, and female fans who
still have all their teeth. It’s been a long road, but everything in the NBA just feels right again.
The most relevant, and perhaps least interesting, question in this whole story is: why sign him? Why Chris Webber, at age 34? The obvious reason is so that we have someone to match up with Juwan Howard when we play Dallas. But there's more to it than that. This team, under Mullin and
Nelson’s leadership, goes big or goes home. It's the main reason this team is so fun to watch. Antoine
Walker's famous response when asked why he shot so many three-pointers
(“because they don’t have 4’s”) seems to be this team's motto, and it's
indicative of the franchise’s general mindset nowadays. If you're going to get beat, at least go down swinging for the fences. And signing Chris Webber, in this town, qualifies as a swing for the fences. We
could have just as easily re-signed D.J. Mbenga or Josh Powell to fill
our need for a big man, but Mbenga and Powell aren’t marquee names. We wanted someone who makes a splash, someone who can create enough emotion to carry this team through April, like the trade
for Jackson and Harrington did last year. And there is no basketball player who generates more emotion in the Bay Area, positive or negative, than Chris M.F. Webber.
There’s
really no way to sneak Chris Webber past us through the back door, but
this move couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. Our
team is playing winning ball, we’re still drunk from last year’s
playoff run, and it looks like this is the happiest we’ll be with this
franchise for the near future.
Warriors fans are used to
being upset, and other than Mickael Pietrus being within 5 feet of a
basketball, there really hasn’t been anything to get worked up about
this season. If we don’t cheer Chris Webber now, we never will.
Personally, I spent the past week in denial, thinking this could and would never happen. In
fact, I was hoping that it would never happen, because I didn’t want to
be in a position where I actually wanted to see C-Webb succeed. But whether we like it or
not, the villain wants to be a hero again. And
with apologies to the Dallas Mavericks and their number one seed,
that’s the biggest upset I’ve ever seen the Warriors pull off.
And don’t we love an upset?
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Written by Rasheed
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Thursday, 24 January 2008 |
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WW.NET along with The NATETRIX hooked up with former Golden State Warrior Jason Richardson to get his thoughts on his time as a Warrior, the big trade and other topics. Special Thanks to THE NATETRIX for setting up the Q&A.
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1. What is the biggest thing you miss about the Bay?
There are so many things I can say I miss about the Bay, but out of
everything I am going to have to say I miss the weather, the weather in
the Bay is always great no matter the month or season. I do also miss
the food in the Bay there are so many great restaurants.
2. Whats the biggest thing you miss about playing with the Warriors?
The fans, the fans in the Bay are so loyal to the organization thru
thin & thick and are just great die-hard BASKETBALL fans.
3. What were your top 3 moments as a Warrior?
There were so many great moments playing for the Warriors, my top 3
have to start off with upsetting Dallas in the playoffs last year that
was just a magical run and great to be a part of. Next would have to be
the 2003 Slam Dunk Contest that was a great dunk contest with Amare
Stoudemire, Richard Jefferson, Desmond Mason and me, also having
Michael Jordan as one of the judges, it couldn't get any better than
that! Especially winning on my last dunk and bringing the crowd off of
their seats with a dunk they had never seen before, it was special.
Lastly another top moment for me was playing in the All-Star Rookie
game with both Gilbert Arenas and Troy Murphy, all being on the same
team and playing in that game was special and an honor to represent the
Warriors at that time.
4. Since your ft% this year is better than last year, did you work on
your ball handling and free throw shooting over the offseason?
I definitely work on improving my game all the time and I definitely
dedicated time in improving my ball handling and free throw shooting. I
just realized that I was losing 4 to 5 points a game because I was
missing free throws by making those free throws it could help put me in
the top 10 in scoring and help my team win more games.
5. Excellent opportunity for you to make the all star team in the East,
what would it mean to finally make the all star team this year or next
year?
It would mean so much to finally make the all-star team. I think of
myself as an all-star player and to make it would mean that my hard
work in the summer paid off and the fans and other coaches are
recognizing my dedication and determination. It still may be a long
shot this year due to my slow start, but I will continue to work hard
and improve and hopefully make it next year.
6. If you were in Chris Mullin's shoes, would you have made the trade? Why or why not?
Putting myself in his shoes, yea I would have. The Warriors have Old
School (Monta), Goose (Andris), and BD up for new deals, and then you
have Stack Jack (Stephen Jackson) who plays my position and does the
same things as myself but is signed for less money. So with that, it
makes sense to make the trade for cap relief to have a chance to
re-sign those guys for the future and still have a guy that does the
same things I do on the court.
7. Besides a Win, what are you hoping to do in your first game against the Warriors?
In order to not put pressure on myself I don't look at this game as
revenge, I look at it as another game that we (The Bobcats) need to win
to push for a playoff spot. I want to play well and to the best of my
abilities like I do for every game.
8. You guys are only 3.5 games behind the 8th seed for the playoffs, do
you think you guys need to make another trade for a playoff push?
I don't think we need to make a trade to make a playoff push. The last
month or so we've been playing great ball considering the fact that we
played together for less than a year and now we just have to put it
together and become consistent to reach the playoffs, we have the
talent and the opportunity it's there for us to take.
9. With the way you're playing this season, do you consider yourself in 100%? Why or why not?
Yea I'm fully healthy this year, I got off to a bit of a slow start
this year for whatever reason and that's why my average is not as high
as I would like it to be or what fans are used to.
10. Have you played Air jordan on a one on one game yet? And who won and what was the score?
Yea I played knock out with MJ along with Gerald Wallace, Jeff McInnis,
and Raymond Felton, I think they might have shown it on SportsCenter.
Gerald actually won the game to 10, I was next with 9 and MJ had 5, but
SportsCenter made it look like he had 30. That's the treatment you get
when you are the greatest player to ever play the game.
11. As the king of pranks, have you pranked anyone on your new team?
Man any and everybody can get it. I pulled a few on my new teammates
and they were hilarious but they know not to mess with me. Ask Patrick
O'Bryant LOL.
12. How do you compare playing with Baron Davis the last few years to Gerald Wallace this season?
It's hard to compare the two because they are two different players and
play different positions. The one thing that they both have in common
is their love and passion for the game. They both hate losing and will
put their body through pain to go out there and will bring their team
to a victory.
13. Is there anything you want to say to your loyal fans in the Bay area?
Yea I'd like to thank you guys for all the love and support you have
shown me over the years I was in the Bay. Everything I did on the court
was because of your loyalty and support you had for the team even when
we were struggling. The Bay Area fans will always have a special place
in my heart. Thanks again take care and God Bless.
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Special Thanks to Jason Richardson and The NATETRIX.
Leave all comments in the Forum.
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Written by Rasheed
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Friday, 04 January 2008 |
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WW.NET hooked up with Janny Hu of
the San Francisco Chronicle to get her thoughts on the season thus far,
possible trades and other Warrior related items.
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WW.NET: Biggest surprise and
disappointment thus far in the season for the Warriors?
Hu: Biggest surprise is
how well Baron is holding up at his mega-minute pace -- not just because of his
injury history, but because of the pounding he consistently takes driving to
the basket and guarding bigger guys. There’s been at least a half-dozen times
he’s hit the floor and come up limping/grimacing, and I start thinking “Uh oh.”
And yet, he plays right on.
Biggest disappointment? Probably the
bench. Nellie thought he’d be two or three-deep at every position, but he’s
barely scratching out an eight-man rotation right now. It might not be the
smartest thing to overplay BD, Jack and Monta, but Matt Barnes and Mickael
Pietrus haven’t been at last year’s level and Kelenna Azubuike has been quiet
after a strong start. Injuries to Troy
Hudson and Austin Croshere don’t help, and Nellie’s already made the decision
to go with his vets, so forget about Wright and Belinelli for now.
WW.NET: What changes have you
seen in the way teams approach or prepare for a game vs. the Warriors?
Hu: As Avery Johnson
likes to say, the Warriors aren’t Cinderella’s anymore. Teams know they’re
legit, know their strengths and weaknesses. And opposing coaches almost always
mention the breakneck pace and the tough
matchup against BD.
WW.NET: Why didn't the Warriors pick up the option on
O'Bryant's contract? What downside could there have been?
Hu: The downside is
money. The offseason was all about clearing cap space for this summer. Every
key guy outside of Jack and Al are playing for contracts – and it’s going to
take a lot of money to rework BD’s deal and keep Andris and Monta, if that’s
the direction they decide to go.
WW.NET: O'bryant played his
best game vs. the Clippers and hasn't been given a legit opportunity since, what
is Nellie's reasoning behind that?
Hu: Nellie will say that
he sees the guys in practice every day and knows what they can and can’t do.
Whatever that is, its obvious POB isn’t going to play for Nellie, and so the
Warriors can either try to get something back in a trade, or simply have him
come off the books this summer.
WW.NET: Pietrus has struggled
thus far and seems to be making the same silly mistakes that have plagued him
his whole career i.e. silly fouls, no offensive repertoire, horrible shot
selection etc.., was he disappointed to come back to Golden State after he didn’t
get the big contract he was hoping for?
Hu: He was absolutely
disappointed. But he didn’t have any leverage given the market for restricted
free agents. The Warriors had no reason to offer more than the qualifier, and
they didn’t like any of the sign-and-trades presented. So here they are again
until the trading window expires on Feb. 21. If MP isn’t moved for something
the Warriors deem better before then, he’ll walk this summer and sign with
another team for part of their midlevel exception.
WW.NET: Do you envision the
Warriors using the Trade Exception to acquire a player?
Hu:
No, not unless it’s going to net them that coveted big man. Again,
they want cap space.
WW.NET: With Hudson's season
and career likely over, are they looking to bring in another guard ASAP to help
take the load off of Baron's back?
Hu: There have been talks,
but it also seems like the backup PG position is jinxed, doesn’t it? Keith
McLeod, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Troy Hudson – they all haven’t worked out for
various reasons, or maybe one big
reason, that BD is BD and there’ll be a big drop off no matter what. For now,
they can use Monta, Jack and Matt to spell him. Just don’t expect any trades
for vets with a decent salary or non-expiring contract.
WW.NET: Azubuike has been a
pleasant surprise this year, is he still getting acclimated to the NBA and the
Warriors because he seems passive at times when he should be more selfish and
aggressive.
Hu: Yes, but the
flipside is that he rarely takes bad shots. He’s as good a finisher as the
Warriors have, so it would be nice to see him attack the rim again like he did
early in the season. But like many a Warrior, it seems like he’s fallen into
shooting mostly 3’s.
WW.NET: Wright and Belinelli
have played sparingly at best, any plans to increase their minutes in the near
future?
Hu:
I just don’t see that happening. Nellie’s playing for wins, not to get
guys experience for the future. So as much as we’d like to see what Wright can
do with his length and Belinelli shoot his way out of a slump, they won’t get
the luxury minutes like rookies on bad teams do.
WW.NET: Will Baron make the
All-Star team? Wouldn’t be bad if he didn't make the team and got some rest as
well as extra motivation for the second half, right?
Hu: Just did a blog item
about this. If you look at West guards, Kobe and T-Mac are probably in as the
starters. Nash and Iverson are locks. So that leaves guys like Tony Parker,
Deron Williams, Chris Paul, BD and maybe even Brandon Roy fighting for 1 or 2
spots, possibly more depending on injuries.
I think BD is more deserving than
Parker or Williams right now, but I don’t like his chances against Paul -- not
with the game in New Orleans.
WW.NET: If you could make a
move or two to tweak the roster, what would it be?
Hu: Call me crazy, but
I’d love to see Ron Artest here. I just don’t think Sac would ever deal him to
the Warriors. So the more realistic “tweaks” might be adding a low-cost,
risk-free vet who can be used for a few minutes in areas of need, a la Ruben
Patterson or quasi-retired P.J. Brown or Chris
Webber. And yes, I’m kidding on the last one.
WW.NET: Any plans by Nellie to
rein in Jackson and his shot selection a little?
Hu: Good luck with that.
Jack has taken more shots than any 40-percent shooter I can remember, but
that’s his game. Nellie lets him do it because he needs Jack on the floor ...
and because of those nights when Jack suddenly heats up after missing
everything.
WW.NET: Will the Warriors make
the Playoffs?
Hu: They should. Look at
the record they’ve put together without actually playing very well. Avoiding
losing streaks, finding ways to win, grinding out games on the road – that’s
what playoff teams do.
Thanks to Janny Hu for taking time to sit down with
WW.NET.
Leave comments and
feedback in the forum.
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Written by Rasheed
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Tuesday, 01 January 2008 |
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WW.NET and Marc Spears take a quick trip around the league
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Most surprising team so far in the
NBA? Most disappointing team in the NBA?
The most surprising team has been the Atlanta Hawks. It's one thing to have
playoff potential and another thing to be living up to it. Don't be surprised
if the Hawks finally get back in the postseason. The most disappointing team
has been the Miami Heat. I knew it would take them a while to gel after Dwyane
Wade's injuries. Shaquille O'Neal isn't the dominant force he once was. And
acquiring Ricky Davis and Mark Blount just before the season is hard to adjust
to right after training camp. But I could've never imagined them being a
doormat and this terrible.
How does Isiah still have a job?
The Knicks are paying Isiah a lot of money so it seems like their owner
has decided to ride or die with him.
Many young players i.e. Deng, Igoudala, Gordon,
Biedrins, etc.. either passed on contract extensions or were not offered
extensions, are we seeing a change in philosophy from teams? Or are the players
making bad decisions by passing up big money extensions?
It's hard to say if they are making a mistake right now. How they play
this season and the free agent market will determine that outcome. But it seems
like NBA teams are being intent on being careful about just paying players on
potential and not performance."
Blazers, Contenders or Pretenders?
"The way the Blazers are playing now, I doubt that they will go in the
tank. I don't see them making the playoffs, but I don't see them having a top
five pick either."
Who wins Boston v Detroit in the Eastern Conference Finals?
The Pistons have more experience by far and a tough point guard to stop
in Chauncey Billups. But over a seven game series, I will take the Celtics'
defense and their hungry trio of stars. After losing to Cleveland in the
Eastern Conference Finals last season, it's hard for me to get on the Pistons
bandwagon."
Last month, you wrote a piece about KG and how he almost
went to Golden State, was it really that close? Which is the better threesome, KG/Baron/Jackson
or KG/Allen/Pierce?
From what I'm hearing, the Warriors probably could have pulled the
trigger on the deal even if Garnett didn't want to come. That being said, I'm
not sure you want to acquire an unhappy superstar. With all due respect to
Baron Davis, the Celtics star trio is much more intimidating."
How are the Warriors perceived by the rest of the NBA?
The Warriors playoff appearance definitely makes them
respected now. You can't talk bad about the Warriors any more. The fact that
Golden State starting playing much better after Jackson returned shows you how
important he is. Baron is still an All-Star caliber player and the heart and
soul of the team."
Which players are on
the trading block right now?
Jermaine O'Neal, Andre Miller, Mike Bibby, Jason Williams,
Pau Gasol, Kirk Hinrich, Eddy Curry, Damon Stoudemire, Lamar Odom, Jason Kidd
and Nene."
The West is stacked with great Guards, who do you think
makes the all-star team? Does Baron get in?
Man, it's going to be interesting to see who gets in. Steve Nash and Kobe
Bryant will get voted in by the fans. Then the long list of guards vying to get
in will include Davis, Tony Parker, Allen Iverson, Brandon Roy, Deron Williams,
Chris Paul, Tracy McGrady and Manu Ginobili. I probably missed somebody. Good
luck West coaches on picking the West All-Star reserve guards."
Good move or Bad move by the NBA in having
coaches/players wear mics ?
Bad move. I'm old school. Talk to them after the
game."
Thanks to Marc Spears of the Boston Globe.
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Written by ray
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Tuesday, 11 December 2007 |
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“Did you see the Warriors game last night?”
Used
to be, if someone asked you that at work in the morning, it was
followed by something like “Tracy McGrady dunked on six Warriors at
once”, or “some of the fans ran onto the court and beat the Warriors in
a pickup game”.
But no more! Finally, regular-season Warriors games are now events for all the right reasons- most importantly, the team wins most of them. And
they’re winning in style now, stealing the close games against good
teams that they used to squander, and running teams in the bottom half
of the standings right out of the gym.
After
years of polluting an otherwise untarnished Bay Area sports scene, the
Warriors are now consistently playing good, exciting basketball, and
you almost expect them to beat anyone they play. That doesn’t happen, of course, but there are no longer teams that show up on the schedule as an automatic Warriors forfeit. The
season is just over a month old, and the W’s have already played great
games with Dallas, Phoenix, Miami, Orlando, Houston, Sacramento, and
Washington. And the beatdown they put on the Knicks in
Madison Square Garden last month was one of those games you never
thought you'd see as a Warriors fan: getting cheered on the road, with
the opposing team’s fans openly rooting for a blowout so that their
coach would get the axe.
The Warriors are a big-league team now, finally called up from the basement to eat at the big people table. And being a big-league team manifests itself in a million different ways, all of which make the games more fun to watch. For instance, the Warriors should
be able to afford to pay some luxury tax money now that they can charge
higher prices for their seats every night, meaning half the team won’t
be lost to free agency this summer.
And
the team should also be able to spring for a decent earpiece for FSN’s
Matt Steinmetz, so that he actually hear himself talk and won’t have to
inadvertently yell at Bob and Jim every time he tries to tell them
something. A win-win, I believe that’s called.
One of the better perks that comes with being a big-time team is a good rivalry or two. Take the Dallas Mavericks, for instance. We own them. We know it, they know it, you know it. Nellie
is in Avery Johnson's head, to the point where he calls him in the
middle of the afternoon like he’s Jason Bourne to say "I wouldn't open
that file if I were you" and hangs up, just to mess with him. We've got a patent on sucking the life out of Dallas Mavericks basketball.
Unfortunately, there are also some rivals who own you. And right now, the Warriors are fully and completely owned by the Lakers. The Lakers have no more payments to make, they own us outright. They are the rich heiress, and we are their lapdog….. though it might even be worse than that. We're probably closer to being those dogs whose owners force them to wear sweaters and
pants. Phil
& Kobe dress us up in our cute little throwbacks and parade us
around the Staples Center just so they can be seen with us, like we're
their hip new accessory. If that’s not the
most frustrating thing in the world, it’s definitely right up there,
only behind BART not running past midnight on the weekends. And
the worst part is, it's not just Kobe who does it to us, it’s always
some scrubtastic bench player like Ronnie Turiaf or Smush Parker or the
ghost of Kurt Rambis. When my head hits the pillow every night, I pray & thank the gods
for 2 things:
1) That “Cheaters” still airs reruns during the writers' strike
2) That Mark Madsen isn't still a Laker. I just don’t think I could handle watching someone that goofy put up 20 and 10 on us
But
even when they’re losing to the Lakers, or missing 100 three-pointers
in a row, it’s nearly impossible to stay mad at this Warriors team. They’re like a trouble-making kid that you want to punish, but just can’t. They’ll do something wrong more often than you’d like, and they know it’s wrong when they do it- heck, they almost enjoy it. But just when you’re about to get upset with them, they win you back over. That
0-6 start to the season doesn’t even seem like it really happened
anymore, and the team seemed to jump straight from winless to picking
up where they left off last year. A big part of that seems to be how cohesive this team is, which is really just an excuse for me to use the word
“cohesive” – it’s fun to say, so I’m working on adding it to my “repertoire” (also fun).
These guys seem to genuinely enjoy being around one another, and as group, they’re collectively very feisty. In
fact, I’m pretty sure the only teams in history who could beat these
Warriors in a team fight are the ’94 Knicks and the ’96 X-Men.
This team seems almost like a family, and by all accounts, they do most everything together as a group. When Matt Barnes’ mom died a few weeks ago, everyone in the organization went to the funeral. That doesn’t happen in any company, let alone a sports team. It
was only a few years ago that Antawn Jamison of all people compared
leaving the Warriors to being released from prison, and earlier in 2007
we were all still booing Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy at home games. There’s
probably not one single reason for this franchise’s dramatic
turnaround, but there is a single face- and it belongs to Stephen
Jackson.
Stephen
Jackson becoming the most popular Warrior in a matter of months seems
about as likely as Will Smith taking a cab all the way from West Philly
to Bel Air, but somehow, here we are. Jack has reached the point where Warriors fans love him so much, we’d support just about anything he did. If
he missed ten shots in a row, then hit a 3-pointer from half court with
22 seconds left on the shot clock, we’d love him for having the stones
to take the shot and for not getting down on himself. His popularity has grown to the point that it’s almost strange if you meet a Warriors fan whose favorite player
isn’t Jack, like those kids who pick someone other than Michaelangelo as their favorite Ninja Turtle. Off
the top of my head, Jack is one of the most interesting people I can
think of right now, and yet somehow no one has commissioned a camera
crew to follow him around for a documentary. As a society, we can greenlight a sequel to "National Treasure", but we can't find an audience interested in Jack? This is why the terrorists hate America. And as Jim Barnett would say, "quite frankly Bob, they have a valid point on this one."
Ever since he arrived in Oakland, Jack has been pure excitement. Whether
it’s draining 3’s, or making a great pass out of the post in traffic,
or just generally causing mischief- like trying to deflect the ball
back into play from the scorer’s table in Seattle, or approaching a ref
after a disputed call and walking away with both men laughing, when
everyone in the building was expecting a minimum of at least one
technical foul. His shots are great to watch not just
because he always seems to hit them in big moments, but because he also
has one of the most awkward-looking jumpers in the league. When he shoots, Jack looks half like a geriatric old man, half like a lazy SOB. He doesn't bend his legs much, jumps maybe 2 inches off the ground, and launches an overhand heave that's almost Hardaway-esque. And
yet, he gets such great arc on his shot that when it hits, it's all
net; against all odds and rational explanation, Stephen Jackson’s jump
shot is the most beautiful thing you’ll see on a basketball court.
All
of this represents what amounts to a big Fordham University (FU, for
short) for Pacers fans, who reached their tipping point with Jack and had
to let him go, only to watch him immediately thrive with a Cinderella
playoff team, becoming everyone's new darling in the process. Warriors
fans can sympathize, having gone through the exact same thing with
Latrell Sprewell during his run to the Finals with the Knicks in the
late 90’s. The entire nation (or what seemed like the
entire nation, given how often that Knicks team was on TV) got caught
up in Sprewell-mania, and the Warriors and their fans were forgotten,
along with the actions that got Spree kicked off our team in the first
place. At the same time, the Sprewell experience is also what allows us to enjoy Jack that much more- we're never the
team that new players embrace.
Even
at the time of last year’s big trade with the Pacers, Al Harrington was
the unquestioned prize, while Jack was really more of a throw-in. We had to take Jack if we wanted Al, and there were whispers that Jackson’s contract might be bought out at some point. Now, Jack is the unquestioned glue of the team, the Warriors’ second-best player, and Baron's lieutenant and second-in-command. And while he seems to fits the roles perfectly,
it’s actually not hard at all to see how he wore out his welcome in Indy.
Those
early 3-pointers are a killer in a halfcourt system, and if Jack had
played for the Warriors under Mike Montgomery, we might have run him
out of town, too.
But
with this coach, in this system, on this team, Stephen Jackson is a
perfect fit- somehow, the rules change when you’re playing for a coach
who has to be told by the league that he can no longer bring cans of
beer to his post-game press conferences. Nowadays, Jack can’t take enough 3's- I'm always a little disappointed when he passes up
opportunities on the perimeter, like he's depriving us of something. Try finding a single Warriors fan who ever felt that way about Mike Dunleavy. It's
a double-standard, to be sure, but it's understandable- you love the
guys on your team when you're winning, and ever since Jack became a
Warrior, we've won. After all, Warriors fans are the same people who still give Barry Bonds standing ovations I don't even think Barry Bonds
likes Barry Bonds at this point, but we do (for being an area that
prides itself on being smarter than everyone else, we sure have a funny
way of showing it).
But
it’s not just Stephen Jackson - the whole team is playing well right
now, and most of them have actually gotten better since last season,
something I used to think was impossible if your name wasn’t Jason
Richardson. Monta’s jumper is Cash Money Records from
absolutely anywhere inside the 3-point line, Barnes couldn't miss a 3
from the corner if he tried, and Biedrins' shots hit the center of the
hoop so fast it looks like he’s throwing magnets. When Adonal Foyle
returned to the Oracle with Orlando last week, it occurred to me that
in the entire 15 years I’ve been a Warriors fan, the team hadn’t had a
single good center prior to Biedrins.
Biedrins
is our first big man who’s ever been able to do things like "catch
tough passes" or "score in traffic" or "do absolutely anything
athletic" or "not make the home fans want to cry". And yes, I'm making little quotations with my fingers as I write this.
Every
day during Foyle's reign of very polite terror, I used to wish we had a
center like Biedrins, and now we almost take him for granted. When Biedrins' agent goes to talk contract extension with Chris Mullin this summer, he really only needs to follow two steps:
1)
Slide an 8x10 photo across the table of Foyle wearing a huge full-body
1930's swimsuit, diving headfirst into his giant vault filled with cash
and coin à la Scrooge McDuck, courtesy of the insane contract extension
Mullin gave him 2 years ago;
2) Wait for Mullin to turn beet-red and sheepishly hand over a blank
check
And
speaking of players fighting for a contract extension, Baron Davis has
been playing possessed this season – a triple-double threat every
night, Baron’s in best shape he's ever been in as a Warrior, though
you'd never know it because his beard will always make him look like a
chubby little walrus.
And
he even argues less with the refs this year, which seems to be a
team-wide effort to make the other team pay for bad calls rather than
whining and collecting T’s. Of course, there are still a
few times each night when you can catch Baron or Al or Jack snap their
head around after a no-call and give the refs a Reverse Care Bear Stare
before they sprint down to the other end and immediately foul their man
as soon as he touches the ball. But the ref-fighting is nowhere near
the level of last year’s playoffs (we were in
last year’s playoffs! Hooray for surpassing low expectations!), and
Jack even has fun with it now, defending his T's as part of the 5
technicals he promised he'd receive this year. The man has given himself a strict quota, and he's adhering to it. That’s growth, holmes.
The
W’s also have a nice garbage-time lineup this year, a highly underrated
quality in a good team that makes the team’s wins that much more
enjoyable. In particular, I like having Patrick O’Bryant
& Brandan Wright out there at the same time, mostly because they're
so similar- Nelson hates both of them and wishes he could trade them
for a 6’7” point forward like Paul Pressey (even now), so they're
always out there busting their butts, running point center and trying
touch the ball at all costs. In fact, they’ll usually
both chase the ball around like little kids playing bumblebee soccer,
and it’s pretty entertaining since they're both 6'10", 105 pounds. I also kinda like the fact that I can’t immediately tell them apart on the court, like we have twin rookie big men or
something. It’s the one Stanford legacy I’m grateful Monty left behind.
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