In November of 2010, I wrote an article about the new owners of the Golden State Warriors, Joseph Lacob and Peter Guber. I extolled their virtues, and claimed that the people of Northern California would someday rejoice that they had beaten the odds to buy the team, one of the lamest in the NBA.
These men were not the bumbling, reclusive, penny-pinching Chris Cohan, nor the flamboyant, egotistical, win-at-all-cost billionaire Larry Ellison. They were solid businessmen, savvy in the ways of both sports and marketing. They had a plan, and would follow it in a sound manner until the team was a winning product and the entire area could bask in the respectability they brought throughout the nation.
Today came The Trade. I confess I’m neither an NBA expert nor Cassandra or Michael Nostradamus. But there can only be one logical conclusion: there is a curse upon the owners of the Golden State Warriors.
I listened to the press conference tonight as General Manager Larry Riley announced that the Warriors were sending guard Monta Ellis, center Ekpe Udoh, and the contract for center Kwame Brown to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for center Andrew Bogut and Stephen Jackson. As a mere fan, I was stunned. Where was the sense of this?
We’ve seen Stack Jack’s Act. He’s cleaned up his act a lot, but is still a volatile, unreliable personality and player. He’s a streak scorer; he defends a lot better than Ellis, but has nowhere near the scoring averages and creativity of the smaller man. Andrew Bogut is a fine fellow, an All-Star quality player—when he’s healthy. But that’s very questionable at the present, in spite of Riley’s assurances that they had consulted with 500 physicians and 27 astrologists. And both Udoh and Brown had the potential (aye, there’s the rub!) to develop into splendid centers.
So now the two keys to the team are Bogut and Stephen Curry, a splendid center/point guard combination that could be the cornerstone of a playoff team—if either one can stay healthy. They have one good foot and one good ankle between them, and no guarantee that either will play more than half a season ever again. That’s your cornerstone?
I say that’s desperation. Why couldn’t the Warriors wait until the next draft, when they might be in a position to draft a great future big man? Were they clearing space? They certainly weren’t dumping salary. So what’s up? What indeed will the future bring?
There were only two great predictors in history: Nostradamus and Cassandra. Unfortunately, almost everything they foretold was a total disaster. I can only hope that, in seeing doom and gloom for this trade engineered by the current owners, I will not fall into the same category.
Donmaker's Blog 