golden-state-warriors
The Warriors missed the playoffs this year, so Baron Davis is seriously jonzing for some competition right now. And we mean he is REALLY desperate. Hey, its tough going from embarrassing the No. 1 seed one year to sitting on your couch the next.
Word on the street is that BD just put out an open invitation to anyone who thinks they can hang with him in an armpit-farting competition. Get your game straight.
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[YardBarker.com]: Can You Beat Me In A Stare Off!!!
1. There will be no Charles Barkley “midget” talk this postseason
The Denver Nuggets are in the playoffs and they have the Suns to thank. Phoenix recovered from a horrible third quarter in which they gave up 38 points to the Warriors to pull away to a 122-116 victory and put away any glimmer of hope Golden State had of making the postseason. Amare Stoudemire was stout down the stretch, scoring 11 of his 28 in the final period while Steve Nash came up one board shy of posting a triple-double with 13 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds. The Diesel continues to gain steam as the season winds down and Shaquille O’Neal recorded another double-double with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Golden State certainly didn’t go down without a fight, erasing a 17-point lead to tie the game at 112-112 on a Stephen Jackson trey with three minutes remaining. Even though the futures of Denver and Golden State became crystal clear, the Suns are still in a murky chase for home-court advantage in the first round. The Suns are tied with Houston and Utah for the conference’s fourth best record at 54-27, but they currently sit in sixth place via tiebreakers.
2. Spurs finish strong against Sacramento
The Spurs survived a major scare on Monday against Sacramento, keeping their hopes of obtaining the top seed in the West on life support…for now. Trailing by six points with just over six minutes remaining in the game, San Antonio put together a 14-5 run that included some huge plays by Tony Parker and Michael Finley to escape Sactown with a 101-98 victory. Parker finished with a game-high 32 points and dished out 11 assists while Finley and Tim Duncan each scored 19. Without Manu Ginobili in the lineup for the third consecutive game, Fabricio Oberto picked up the slack, posting 17 points and eight rebounds. Ginobili’s absence also left the Spurs impotent on the bench with just nine points coming outside the starters. However, Brent Barry made his first appearance since becoming a Spur for a second time, missing all three of his shots and picking up a personal foul in four minutes of play.
3. The beast is released
On Monday, Michael Beasley finally made it official and threw his name into the NBA Draft. Just briefly after Beasley took to the podium, a shrill squeal of delight came from the greater Miami area.
“It’s time to take my game to the next level,” Beasley said as his family and several teammates looked on. “I think I proved myself over the course of the season. I just think it’s time for new challenges.”
He spent the weekend debating whether he should stay or go, talking with family, friends and coaches about the NBA. It wasn’t until Monday morning, just hours before his self-imposed deadline, that Beasley made his final decision.
“I kind of made my mind up, then went back to being undecided, made my mind up, then went back to being undecided,” said Beasley, who signed with agent Joe Bell. “Today was when my decision stuck.”
Monday’s Player of the Day: Ramon Sessions vs. Chicago 44 min, 20 pts (FG: 7-12, FT: 6-7), 8 reb, 24 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk
Tuesday’s Game to Watch: Sacramento (38-43) @ Los Angeles Lakers (56-25)
Everything comes down to one final game for the Lakers. When Los Angeles takes to the court tonight, it will be its last opportunity to grab a crucial victory and extend its lead in the Western Conference playoff race. It will also be Kobe Bryant’s last opportunity to make a statement for regular season MVP. But it won’t be easy for the purple and gold; after all, they’re going up against a gritty Sacramento squad that gave San Antonio all they could handle on Monday night. Oh, and considering it is THE final game of the season for the Kings, they’ll be playing for pride as well.
Buzzer Beater: It appeared that Philadelphia defeated Cleveland, but before the teams could make it to the locker rooms, the referees assessed a foul to 76ers center Samuel Dalembert with 0.2 seconds on the clock and gave Devin Brown a pair of free throws with the Cavs trailing by one point. Brown sank them both and Cleveland wound up with a 91-90 victory and sealed up the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Needless to say, the Sixers were not happy as the loss combined with a Toronto win over Miami dropped them to seventh.
1. Chicago shocker
Chris Webber made his return to Golden State on Thursday evening, but the beleaguered Bulls somehow managed to ruin his second debut. It was Chris Duhon, not Webber, who stole the show, scoring a career-high 34 points, lifting the Bulls to 114-108 road victory. Duhon’s previous season-high was just 13 points. Joe Smith was smoking hot as well, finishing with 27 points on 7-of-11 field goals while making it to the charity stripe a whopping 14 times (13-14 FT). Webber started the game for the Warriors, but found himself on the bench for most of the contest. In 13 minutes of action, C-Webb was rustier than Madonna’s nether regions, totaling four points and two assists. Luckily, Golden State has plenty of offense. Stephen Jackson (19 pts), Al Harrington (20 pts), Baron Davis (22 pts, 8 ast) and Monta Ellis (25 pts) all scored at least 19 to keep the game close until the final minutes. Andris Biedrins was all over the glass for Golden State, collecting 18 rebounds to go with 12 points in the loss.
2. Rockets are immune to the Cavs
Tracy McGrady was sick all day long on Thursday, spending time in the hospital before showing up the Rockets/Cavaliers game just in time to change and hit the court. But it didn’t long for McGrady to transfer his nausea over to LeBron James. Houston took the game over in the third quarter, outscoring the Cavs 32-20, and never looked back as they cruised to an easy 92-77 win. McGrady was awful in the game, scoring eight points on 3-of-11 shooting, but Yao Ming had his back, finishing with 22 points and 12 boards. James had yet another MVPesque game with 32 points, seven rebounds and six assists, but it didn’t matter as the Cavs slipped in the standings. Toronto is now just half a game behind Cleveland in the East.
3. Steve Francis done for the year
In today’s “not a surprise to anyone” news, Steve Francis will undergo season-ending surgery to fix his bum knee. And, of course, he says he’ll be back next year. We say, why? The last time this guy was any good he was on the Orlando Magic’s roster. That’s a long time ago! Since rejoining the Rockets, Francis has played in only 10 games, the last being on Dec. 15. We’d like to see Francis get back to his glory days with the Rockets because he used to be something special, but the odds are he’ll never even be a glimmer of his old self ever again. Then again, we could have told you that two years ago, which is exactly our point.
Thursday’s Player of the Day: LeBron James @ Houston 41 min, 32 pts (FG: 12-23, 3FG: 2-5, FT: 6-11), 7 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk
Friday’s Game to Watch: Los Angeles Lakers (31-17) @ Orlando (32-19)
The Lakers are starting to scare some teams out west now that Pau Gasol is on the roster and Andrew Bynum is rounding out into legit starting center shape. Steve Kerr can say all he wants about the landscape of the conference, but we feel certain the Suns acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal was at least partially a tit-for-tat with the Lakers. But we all know Shaq isn’t the most dominant center in the league anymore and tonight Los Angeles will get an up close look with the man-child filling his shoes. Dwight Howard is averaging 21.8 points and 14.6 boards on the season, but his team is rather mundane in the Magic Kingdom (13-9). Luckily, Orlando has Hedo Turkoglu who is known for bailing them out in a bind.
Buzzer Beater: Shaq is one of the funniest guys in the league. Normally, he slays people with his humor and yesterday at his press conference was no exception. That is, until he laid out his clever idea for a marketing campaign. Apparently, it’s not just his play that is in decline.
Ever wonder what the best basketball players in the world are doing when timeout gets called? You might think that they’re focused on the Xs and Os being diagramed, but you’d be wrong. Apparently, they do the Soulja Boy; whatever that is.
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[The Big Lead]: Baron Davis, Quite the Comic
We know that pro athletes are notorious for using their bodies as canvases. So, it’s really not all that surprising to hear that Stephen Jackson of the Golden State Warriors got a new tattoo over the summer. However, it is pretty shocking to hear what Jackson decided to get.
Yes, this is the same Stephen Jackson who will miss the Warriors’ first seven games under NBA suspension for pleading guilty to a felony charge of criminal recklessness after firing an awfully similar gun into the air at an Indianapolis strip club.
“I pray I never have to use it again,” Jackson said in explanation.
Jackson’s incredible audacity under the tattoo needle is stunning even to his teammates, who seem to be in a frantic competition to cover their entire bodies in ink.
“I can’t believe that one,” said Al Harrington, who redecorated his arms and back. “I thought I was crazy.”
But Jackson’s fearlessness is exactly why the Warriors love him — and basketball’s favorite playoff underdogs need a big season from the swingman now that Jason Richardson has departed along with the Warriors’ element of surprise.
“We’re going to have a full season together, and all the nonsense is behind me,” said Jackson, perhaps also referring to his unfinished full back tattoo of the jack of diamonds — with himself as the jack. “All my probation stuff is behind me. I don’t have to worry about flying back and forth to court this year, so it’s all positive. I’m ready to roll.
Wow, praying hands with a gun for a guy guilty on gun charges. We’re with Al on this one; you’re looney man. At least the ink on his back is pretty accurate. Jackson is definitely a jack-something; we just didn’t have jack of diamonds in mind.
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[The Canadian Press]: With suspension looming, Golden State’s Stephen Jackson is back
There’s still time to jump on the ever expanding Warriors bandwagon folks. Their second round series begins tonight against the Utah Jazz. Don’t be ashamed, folks, the Warriors barely register in NBA rivalries and nobody actually hates the Warriors so it’s ok to front run with the boys from the city of Golden State. You can join notable bandwagoners as Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson and Snoop Dogg! We’re gonna give Jessica Alba a pass as she can do no wrong and her boyfriend went to high school with Baron Davis. Game 1 is in Utah so expect no celebrities to show up but Game 3 will be chock full of em. We wouldn’t be surprised if Jack Nicholson showed up.
In other news…
[Seattle PI]: The unwritten rules of sports — in writing
[YouTube]: Nerf Dunk Contest… some people have way too much time
[The Age]: Eight-year-old gets hole in one. Damn kids.
[Our Book of Scrap]:Royals Fans Loves Them Some Bagels
[WBRS Sports]: Brady is a Chump
[Steroid Nation]: Florida: Home of dirty elections and clean high school athletes
And finally, don’t forget to register for the 2007 World Egg Throwing Federation Championships.
By now, you’ve heard about Charles Barkley saying he hates the Bay Area. We’re pretty sure it’s just the Chuckster being the Chuckster but that didn’t prevent some hurt feelings and some retribution from Warriors fans. Even Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, and Matt Barnes fought back by making fun of Charles’ Fave 5 commercial. According to Stephen Jackson, Barkley’s real Fave 5 is “McDonalds, Dominos, Burger King. It was Subway, but he pushed them out for Cinnabon. And Krispy Kreme.”
San Francisco Chronicle writer CW Nevius invited his readers to submit some photoshopped pics of Barkley in the Bay Area. There are some clever ones and we’ve posted a few of our favorites below. Still, with all the design geeks in the Bay Area, we think they can do better than the current offerings.
In 1997: Latrell Sprewell of the Golden State Warriors was suspended for one year by the NBA for assaulting his coach, PJ Carlesimo. During a practice, Carlesimo supposedly criticized Sprewell’s passing, and after Carlesimo confronted him, Sprewell choked his head coach until he was pulled off by teammates. He later came back to practice and took a swing at Carlesimo. Not only was Sprewell suspended, but he was cut by the Warriors and his contract of four years, $32 million (that he had just signed in the offseason) was terminated. The suspension would later be reduced to 68 games (remember, he had a family to feed). Sprewell would not play a game (due to the lockout the following year) until he became a member of the New York Knicks in February of 1999. (nba.com/player file/Sprewell)
In 1968: Due to a lack of offense in Major League Baseball, the Rules Committee lowered the pitcher’s mound from 15 inches to 10 inches and the strike zone was modified from shoulders-to-knees to armpits-to-knees. In the “Year of the Pitcher,” the league batting average dipped to a paltry .236, runs scored per game were just 3.4, only three players drove in more than 100 runs, Bob Gibson of the Cardinals had a 1.12 ERA, Denny McLain won 30 games for the Tigers, and Don Drysdale of Los Angeles set a record by pitching 58.2 consecutive scoreless innings. The following year–aided by expansion, as well–saw the overall batting average increase by 20 points and scoring increased by 20 percent. (baseball-almanac.com, The Baseball Encyclopedia).
In 1956: Wilt Chamberlain made his college basketball debut for the University of Kansas as a sophomore (the rules at the time prohibited freshman from playing on the varsity). If you thought Greg Oden, the Ohio State phenom, was impressive in his debut on Saturday (14 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists), get a load of Wilt‘s numbers. He scored 52 points and grabbed 31 rebounds in a win over Northwestern. He would go on to average 30 points and 20 rebounds in his career at Kansas, and he led the Jayhawks to the 1957 NCAA title game. He also won the high jump at the Big Seven (the conference which precluded the Big 8 and Big 12) Track and Field Championships. No word on how far along the number of women (of the 20,000) the “Big Dipper”’s odometer was at this time. (www.kuconnection.org)
Not to be outdone by their Bay Area neighbors the Raiders, the Warriors today announced that Mike Montgomery will leave the team and Don Nelson will take over sometime this week. The last time the Warriors made the playoffs (1994), Don Nelson was their coach. Maybe Chris Mullin is going to suit back up.
In other news…
[The Jets Blog]: Mangini Announces Pennington as the Starter
[Bfloblog]: JP Losman named Bills starter
[Out Route]: Joe Horn is a great guy
[MSNBC]: Authorities confirm Pavano car crash
[Press Telegram]: Matt Leinart has impregnated someone
[Cincinnati Enquirer]: Carson Palmer just shot up 100 spots on the fantasy draft board
What is going on with the Bay Area and racial insensitivity. First, the San Francisco 49ers had an in-house training video that featured racist jokes. Then 20 SFPD officers were suspended for a racist video that made fun of, well, basically everyone. Now, the PR manager for the Golden State Warriors, Eric Govan, has been fired for sending out an email titled “Ghetto Prom”.
The email contained photos of black people in formal attire and commentary. He didn’t just violate Warriors policy by sending it to other employees or friends, oh no, he sent it a distribution list that included newspaper reporters, columnists, editors, and television and radio stations. Now, we’ve all sent out emails we didn’t mean to send out, but can you imagine the dread you must feel when you realize you just basically wrecked your career?
I’m trying to track down his actual email but for now you can check out the photos he was commenting on here.
