Ok, help me out folks.  They have changed the way they are doing League Pass Broadband this year.  They have a lot of improvements to the interface - the most important for me being you can now have an archive of all the games in the season, instead of just having the previous game available.  

They also now have two versions of LP now - the cheaper version (League Pass Choice), in which you pick 7 teams you can watch, and the more expensive version you get all of the available games.

I'm going for the cheaper package.  Since I live in New York, of course I get the Dubs, but now what are the other 6 teams to choose for maximum entertainment value?  I don't have to choose Knicks/Nets, since I'm in their viewing area. I'd like to get some games from every division.  My thoughts so far:

Pacific - Dubs - of course.

Northwest - Blazers (considering Nuggets or Thunder as well)

Southwest - Mavs? (Spurs kind of bore me, considering Hornets or Rockets)

Atlantic - Celtics (Although I'd like to see Marco with the Raps)

Central - The Lebrons

Southeast - Orlando

For my 7th team I'd probably pick one of those teams in parentheses above.

Good choices?  Or what would you pick and why?

ESPN has an interesting report up on who the fans think are the all time best NFL players for each particular franchise.  Since there is like nothing NBA going on right now (except for the Olympics of course) I thought I'd try to do the same for each NBA team.  This is of course just my opinion, some I'd think everyone would agree on, and some maybe you could argue with.  By the way, my criteria was that the player could be anyone in the Franchise's history, so for example anyone that played on the Rochester/Cincinatti Royals would be eligible for the Sacramento Kings.  Also, if a player was recognized as a great player, but played most of his career with another team, I tried not to put him on the team he only played one season for.  Anway, here are my results:

Golden State Warriors:  Rick Barry.  I considered Wilt, but I knew him better as a Sixer/Laker.  Mullin, Richmond and Hardaway I considered, but Barry brought the Bay a championship.  I'm hoping that in ten or fifteen years, there will be no argument that Monta will be the Warrior's all time best.

Los Angeles Clippers:  Bob McAdoo (Buffalo Braves).   

Los Angeles Lakers:  Magic Johnson.  Lot of great Lakers (pun intended), including Wilt, Jerry West, Kareem, Connie Hawkens, and of course Shaq and Kobe.  I'd still take Magic over all of them.

Phoenix Suns:  Steve Nash.

Sacramento Kings:  Big O - Oscar Robertson (Cincinatti Royals).  If you kept it to Sac-Town, I'd give it to either of our boys, Richmond or Webber (yes I'm a Homer).

Dallas Mavericks:  Dirk Nowitzki. 

Houston Rockets:  Hakeem Olajawon.  (Although Moses Malone is tough not to pick).

Memphis Grizzlies:  Pau Gasol?

New Orleans Hornets:  Chris Paul (already).

San Antonio Spurs:  Tim Duncan.  The Admiral gets an honorable mention.

Denver Nuggets:  Alex English.  Was gonna go with A.I., but he's better known as a Sixer, and did you know that Alex English scored more points than any other player in the decade of the 80's (unless I can't trust Wikipedia)? 

Minnesota Timberwolves:  Kevin Garnett.

Oklahoma City TBA's:  I'll go with Gary Payton over Ray Allen.

Portland Trailblazers:  Clyde Drexler.  But they have 4 guys on their team currently who could take this over.

Utah Jazz:  John Stockton (Pistol Pete was a favorite of mine though).

Boston Celtics:  Larry Bird.  Again, like with the Lakers, so many great players, and I'd like to give it to Oakland Star Bill Russell, but don't you have to go with the Legend?

New Jersey Nets:  I'm going with Jason Kidd.  (I like Oakland Point Guards).

New York Knicks:  Walt Frazier.

Philadelphia 76'ers:  Wilt Chamberlain.  Wilt only spent 3 seasons in Philly, but there was that little Championship against the '67 Warriors, and I had to put Wilt on this list, so sorry A.I., Barkley, and Dr. J.

Toronto Raptors:  Vince Carter or Chris Bosh?  I can't pick one.  Actually I will - Carter.

Chicago Bulls:  Bill Wennington.  Just kidding.  Michael Jordan.

Cleveland Cavaliers:  Lebron James.

Detroit Pistons:  Isiah Thomas. 

Indiana Pacers:  Reggie Miller.

Milwaukee Bucks:  Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabar).  Kareem is better known as a Laker, but he had great numbers with the Bucks, and I had to get him on the list.  So I've broken my own rule twice now, but thems the breaks.

Atlanta Hawks:  Bob Petit (Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks).  I was gonna put 'Nique here, but check those crazy-good career stats for Petit - 26.4 ppg, 16.2 rpg, 3.0 apg.  I know it was a different era, but daaayyymn.  He's a player I wish I could've seen play.

Charlotte Bobcats:  Because of my own stupid criteria, I'll pick Emeka Okafor over Jason Richardson.  But I'd rather have Richardson on my team.

Miami Heat:  Dwayne Wade.

Orlando Magic:  Shaquille O'Neal.

Washington Wizards:  Gilbert Arenas.

 

I'm a former East Bay kid trying to represent the Dub-Love here in New York City, and I have to admit, that in the past few years I've been coming to this site, I've been quite jealous when reading about the great times you guys have at the Oracle when you do the GSOM nights.  I have noticed that there are several of you like myself who are not in the Bay Area, but we seem to be pretty scattered.

Anyway, I was thinking maybe we could do some kind of "Unofficial GSOM Night" here on the East Coast and have some GSOM'ers meet up at one of the Dubs' road games.  I was thinking in particular the November 29th game at Madison Square Garden would be good, it's a Saturday night, plus it's against the Knicks so it would be a likely Warrior victory.

Would there be any interest in something like this at all?  There probably aren't enough of us to get group tickets, but it would be cool to represent and meet some of ya'll.  I would be into trying to organize something if there was any interest at all.  If there is no interest, that's ok, I'm still going to try to go that game and I'll represent all by my lonesome.

Intresting post from Marcus at Inside the Warriors. According to Marcus: 

* Believe it or not, I’ve heard twice now that the Warriors made a last-ditch effort to sign Baron. The day of the press conference where Baron annoucned his signing, I was told they called and said they would match. Baron rejected, obviously.

So it's possible an effort was made, despite the assumption that Mullin just let him walk.  However it sounds like part of our offer was incentive based, so the Clips still had the best offer.  As far as I'm concerned, this closes the book on Baron, and best wishes to him.  This does make Mullin and Nelson look a little better to me if this is true.

 

Just read the Clipper game recap over on ESPN.  Check out this quote from Elton Brand:

"I hope they make it," Brand said of the Warriors. "I've got a lot of friends over there, so I'm rooting for them. I wasn't rooting for them tonight. I was trying to get a win, but now our game is done with, and I hope they make it."
Hmm.  A lot of friends over there?  Maybe getting this guy isn't such a pipe dream after all?  Somebody with smarts tell me how we could get him.  Would he have to opt out, can the Clippers match any offers, would we have to sign and trade, would we have cap room if we also expected to sign Baron, Beans and Monta?  Could Brand be the missing piece to this team?

If anyone's up this morning, I just noticed that ESPN Sports Nation is having an online chat with Warriors Assistant Coach, Keith Smart.  The chat is at 9:30 (12:30 EST).  I have a doctors appointment so I can't participate - maybe someone can post some of the best parts here in this diary.  

Here are some questions I'd have for our boy Keith.

1. Are you ready/expecting to take over this team in 2009?  

2. How do you explain the perceived lack of effort on the defensive end in some games, especially big games during a playoff push. Is it just a matter of guys being tired?  What can you as a coach do during a game when this happens?

3. What do you think of Wright/Belinelli/Watson?  What will they need to work on in order to get playing time?

4. Do you still think about that championship game against Syracuse?  Can you have any moment bigger in your basketball life than hitting that game winning shot?

What would some other good questions be?  I hope some people see this and participate, but I know it's early over there (I'm in New York).  Thanks people!

EDITED: My bad - that chat is on Monday 4-7 so there is plenty of time!