Original Post @ Sports History Now

<Sometime in the near future>

Robert Rowell, former President of the Golden State Warriors organization, pursues a job opportunity in the still tough economic climate after Joseph Lacob decided to terminate his employment in the summer of 2010.  He was able to secure an interview with Wright & Mata, LLC, a medium-sized accounting firm based in Houston, Texas.

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Original Post @ Free Darko (Jay Caspian Kang)

Posted here with permission and by request from author

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Original Post @ Sports History Now (please click/subscribe/comment)

Jeremy Lin signed with the Golden State Warriors today for a reported two-year deal being the fourth Asian American player in NBA history.

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Original Post @ Sports History Now (please click)

We all sit here with bated breath, clinging onto every Tweet by the likes of Marcus Thompson, Tim Kawakami, and Matt Steinmetz, looking for that instant confirmation that the hope that’s been the underlying life-support for all fans will finally been realized.

Yet, as of yesterday morning’s BREAKING NEWS that the Golden State Warriors would announce their new owner, we were thereafter left with a huge void of silence.  And as it turned out, no announcement was made and our underpaid, overly criticized, and overworked beat writers waddled back home with empty notepads and hundreds of "WTF" Tweets from their loyal followers.

The news may come today.  It may not.  Either way, this gives me time to respond to comments I’ve been reading on fan forums.  The one that once new ownership arrives, they need to clean house.  From the head coach to the general manager to the president to the TV announcer…everyone must go!

I don’t think that cleaning house is the first thing the new owner should do.  I believe there will be a transition period, whether it’s during the finalization of the sale or after, but there are a few people the new owner should keep.  We have to consider that the main product - the players - are real people.  They need to feel comfortable and they need to trust the people that manage them.

It’s possible that the new ownership would instill trust right away but we don’t know that.  What we do know is that most of the players know the current coaching staff and general manager.  They are the ones that work with them on a daily basis and they are the ones that put the group together with a purpose.

That isn’t to dismiss that Larry Riley said he isn’t constructing the team for Don Nelson since this is Don Nelson’s last year of his $12M contract.  But from all the comments we hear from the players, they expect to play in an "up-tempo" system.  We don’t need to speculate what that means.  It means they expect Don Nelson to coach the team.  It means that the players like playing high-octane offense with little regard to defense, although they would never admit to the latter.

Besides that, I feel that Larry Riley has done a decent job.  I feel the current players genuinely look forward to playing for Don Nelson and that Don Nelson wants to retire from coaching with a bang.  I feel that the current team, with a few more tweaks, can make some noise in the upcoming season.  Because of all that, I feel that it would be wrong to completely clean-house with new management and new coaches.

I agree that eventually the house does need to be cleaned, but not immediately.  I think that new ownership would be smart enough to acknowledge the good (and the bad) that has happened recently.  When big banks takeover little banks, they don’t fully clean house right away.  They inherit the good and the bad and need current staff to help with the transition and eventually everyone is gone or in new positions.  What the Warriors have now is more on the good side.  Players are not clashing with Don Nelson; when things are good for Don Nelson, teams seem to win.  And Larry Riley is making some bold moves to help the team win now with little regard to his future employment.  You have to admire that.

They deserve to stick around for a little while longer, even in a reduced role.  I think the players would like that rather than seeing a ruthless ownership tell them everything up to this point has been wrong.

MDB's post helped me put this thought together, so thank you for your post.

Remember when the Celtics landed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen?  Their stats went down and the Celtics won a championship because they deferred to each other and had confidence in each other.  Now, the Warriors obviously do not have the talent level the Celtics had back then or have currently, but there's something to be learned here.

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Hello everybody, this be my first FanPost.  These are my thoughts on Stephen Jackson and Don Nelson (from here on out "Nellie") and why Stephen Jackson should have nothing against Nellie.  I'm not an "insider" so I'm not privy to any information other than what's available to us via media, so my thoughts are based on that premise.  I have been hearing and reading a lot criticisms of Nellie stemming from the recent Stephen Jackson debacle, but feel there is no real basis to these criticisms other than giving fans a chance to complain about the Most Interesting Man in the NBA.

I just read Rusty Simmon's blog on SF Gate: Warriors fire back at Jack

It was paraphrasing much of Nellie's session on Warriors Weekly on KNBR saying he still loves Stephen Jackson and doesn't understand why he could be so unhappy being paid 9M a year.  In typical Nellie fashion, he's taking the logical route (i.e. money) as the reason why Stephen Jackson should basically STFU and play.

"When you love somebody, you don't fall out of love," Nelson said. "If you have problems, you try to find a way to deal with the problems. I don't fall out of love with people. I understand that people get divorced and everything else, but, if you have affection for people, I think it lasts a lifetime. I feel that way about Jack. I really do feel that way about him. I thought I helped his life. At least that's what I tried to do. I thought we were fairly close, and he doesn't feel that way now. That's OK. He doesn't have to like me. I can like him. All he has to do is play for me, do what I tell him to do, play hard and play to win. We'll get along fine."

As much as we criticize Nellie for obscuring the underlying issue(s), among other things, he does have his moments of telling it like it is.  There's no denying when he says things like this that he's being sincere.  He's bringing all the Stephen Jackson issues to the forefront: the money he's being paid, his emotional issues, his desire to be on a winning team, etc.  He's not hiding anything here.

I've been a Nellie fan most of the time he's been with the team (for both stints), but I'm not always a supporter of his methods.  I certainly try not to be a Nellie apologist, but I do think he is the Most Interesting Man in the NBA.  Let's face it, he's been very successful in the league, in pretty much all capacities.  He's also been very unsuccessful and he's burned a lot of bridges.  But, like most successful businessmen (if we're measuring success by paycheck), that's inevitable.  He's cashed in on his opportunities, often times at the expense of others.  Again, what successful businessman doesn't do this?  Nellie walks the fine line of business, coaching, and ethics very roughly. 

While most would shrivel up and die in this toxic environment, Nellie thrives in it.  Yes, I think he is partly responsible for the dysfunction; I think Stephen Jackson quickly learned from Nellie that in this franchise, you need to "get yours" and get out (or stay and laugh at the Man all while skipping to the bank).  So in essence, Stephen Jackson should thank Nellie for that valuable life lesson.  Sucks for the fans, but you can't possibly pin the contract on Nellie; we all know that the contract ultimately gets traced back to Rowell - what idiot would do this?  Sometimes I think that Rowell has more psychological issues than Stephen Jackson.

Again, Nellie is partly responsible for the dysfunction and but I do not think he is the root of any real problems the Warriors are facing, and more specifically, he is not the root of the Stephen Jackson issue.  I think all the criticisms for Nellie are merely just a reflection of the problems.  When the Warriors had their run in 07, all the players were doing well and thus, Nellie was doing well.  It's not like he needs dysfunction to function.  He does quite well in a healthy environment.  It just so happens he does quite well in an unhealthy environment as well, albeit only for himself.

We can talk about player development, like Adrian Woj does here:

In a lot of ways, Nelson set him up to fail. This way, it would be easy for Nelson to shirk his own responsibilities of lording over this young team. From Brandan Wright to Marco Belinelli, it’s fair to wonder: Where’s the player development come under Nellie? What young guys are getting better?

And we can talk about personnel moves, but all of these are inconsequential in the big picture.  Nellie is merely a reflection of what's wrong with the Warriors, just as Stephen Jackson is; while we shouldn't excuse their negative actions, we also shouldn't be wasting our time thinking of solutions to fix them as once they're fixed, another problem will take their place in no time. 

In a weak attempt to try to circle back to my main premise: Why Stephen Jackson should have nothing against Nellie, I will conclude by saying, Stephen Jackson should have nothing against Nellie unless otherwise proven.  What happened to the "Billy" that called into Warriors Roundtable last Feb when he asked coach, "what do you think of Stephen Jackson?  He's looking like Magic Johnson out there?"

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/arti.asp?newsid=29018

I don't blame him. It's still early, but I've been saying that all season. It doesn't look like he will get his chance here. Sad thing is, he seems to really like the Bay Area, the people, the culture. I was listening to his interview with Tim Roye last night on KNBR and he says all the right things and has the right attitude, but you can't blame the guy for being frustrated.

I really hate it when a team drafts a player but that player never gets his chance. This season is probably the most I've seen this happening. I mean, we drafted Todd Fuller and that guy got more PT than Belli. We drafted Clifford Rozier and that guy got more PT than Belli.

To me, this whole Bellinelli thing was a big tease. He got all this PT and success in Summer League but that didn't translate to anything during the regular season. Supposedly he was promised a chance to play, but that's not panning out so well. I'm not going to blame Nellie fully on this. The front office loaded the Warriors with 2 guards this season, so it's like too much for Nellie to handle. He loves wing players but apparently when he gets like 10 of them, conventional wisdom (ha...) gets thrown out the window. In this case, conventional wisdom says to play the guy you drafted in the first round who has shown flashes of brilliance.

I told myself I wouldn't rant about Bellinelli anymore, but I think the guy has something. Something more than CJ Watson, more than Azubuike, more than DeMarcus Nelson, and more than Anthony Morrow. Yet, those guys have gotten more opportunities.