Warriors reminding us of what used to be—and could be again

And from out of the past come, yes, the Golden State Warriors, reminding us of what used to be and offering us a delightful possibility of what again could be.

Klay Thompson has moved on while Steph Curry and Draymond Green are competing with that ageless rascal Father Time as much as any opponent in uniform.

Still, there are the Warriors with the best record in the NBA.

On a Wednesday in Boston, where history has been made and titles won, the Warriors arguably played their best game of the season—brief as it has been—or any recent season since their championship years. With the sort of defense that is always emphasized by head coach Steve Kerr and responsible for their success in the glory years, the Warriors limited the high-scoring Celtics to 41 points in the first half and then managed a 118-112 victory.

That was only the second loss in nine games this fall for the league’s defending champions.

With the victory, Golden State supplanted the Celtics as the leader of the pack whatever that means with months to go. Yet, a 7-1 record with a 5-0 mark on the road is something worthy of mention. And so it is being mentioned.

Skeptics will say it is premature in November to become concerned of what eventually may result during June, months before the last game is played. However, a great beginning often leads to a great conclusion.

The San Francisco Giants were a disappointment. The San Francisco 49ers have struggled because of injuries. So maybe it’s up to the seven-time NBA champion Warriors, as the team logo brags, to bring the thrill back to the Bay Area once more.

Certainly,  Curry, who scored 27 points Wednesday—after a slow first half of 6 points—has achieved the rank of the region’s most recognizable and most enduring athletic figure.  

Curry will be 37 in March and missed a few games because of an ankle injury. Still, he throws up those jump shots with beautiful consistency.   

As you might imagine, Kerr was more than satisfied with the way the team played against the Celtics. 

“Everyone stepped up,” he said on the NBC Bay Area post-game show. “It was a total team effort.”

Meaning, people such as Draymond on defense, and Buddy Hield, who the Warriors acquired last summer in a deal with Philadelphia, on offense.

Also contributing significantly was Andrew Wiggins, who scored 16 points, and played meaningful defense.  

This Warriors’ progress may be unexpected but it certainly isn’t unappreciated.

The atmosphere at the Warriors’ home, Oracle Arena in San Francisco, is among the best in basketball. True, the fans are spoiled but that’s what happens when you are winning most of the time.   

The assumption is that they will be able to replicate at home what they have been able to accomplish on a very successful road swing. If that happens, the winter will be anything but cold.

Attles, 'the destroyer,' was a gentleman and a champion

Is it true that Wilt Chamberlain, who was quite a few inches taller and many pounds heavier, never wanted to get into a physical confrontation with Al Attles, the man nicknamed “The Destroyer”?   

It is true the night Wilt scored 100 points that Attles didn’t miss a shot, going 8 for 8 on field goal attempts and one for one on free throws. What also is true is that he surely missed a chance to make the headlines. Wilt was the reason.

Such thoughts entered the mind with the news Wednesday that Attles, 87, died at his home in Oakland. And so in a summer already sorrowful because of the passing of Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda, the Bay Area loses another sporting legend.

He was a Hall of Famer, as well as the backbone of the Warriors for more than 60 years as a player, coach, and executive. The fifth-round draft choice who became a first-class leader and always was an A-1 gentleman.

I had an assignment—and good fortune as I would reflect over the years—of covering the Warriors in the 1970s, a period of transition and some time with those losing seasons, Attles had become the accidental coach named by owner Franklin Mieuli to replace George Lee. The going was tough, criticism was prevalent. Attles understood it was all part of the job, a job he hadn’t sought.

Along the way, there are coaches and managers who have double standards, who treat writers and radio-TV people they know one way and those they don’t know perhaps the wrong way. Not Attles, according to someone who was a “cub reporter” when Al was in charge.

James Raia is now a freelance writer whose specialty is the auto industry. Maybe 35 years ago, Raia was a self-described “cub” reporter in the sports department of the Sacramento Bee, and with some trepidation was allowed to interview Attles for a feature.

“He gave me about an hour of his time,” Raia said of Attles, with whom Attles had never previously dealt. Raia still thinks about Attles’ courtesy that day, choosing that as an emphasis upon hearing of Attles’ death.

What we’ll also remember about Attles is his relentless determination and ability to unite and inspire the Warriors in the magical 1974-75 season to create a champion. From what in the NBA Finals the Baltimore Suns called the worst team ever to make it to the finals. 

That team, led by Rick Barry and Cliff Ray, included Jamal Wilkes, Jeff Mullins, Bill Bridges, Butch Beard and Charles Dudley, and swept the Washington Bullets.

That team also received an unexpected but not unneeded support from head coach Al Attles. When the Bullets’ Mike Riordan tried to provoke Barry into a fight that would have resulted in Barry’s ejection, Attles jumped onto the court and got into the battle.

The Destroyer had become the savior. Rest in peace, Al.

Curry has what was needed—a Steph-like game

Moments before he was to call the Olympic basketball semifinal,  Noah Eagle asked the viewers on NBC’s Peacock what basketball fans in general and Warriors fans in particular might be wondering. 

“When are we going to see a Steph Curry game?”

Of course, he meant one of those bravura performances when Steph is throwing in 3-pointers from everywhere, in this case using a pertinent reference, the Rhone to the Riviera. The Americans came back from 17 points down to defeat Serbia, 95-91, Thursday at Bercy Arena. 

Curry scored 36, and down the stretch he had plenty of help from two guys named Kevin Durant and LeBron James. Not a bad threesome. James recorded only the fourth triple-double in Olympic history with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Durant two huge baskets.

Now the issue is what happens: Is a repeat possible in the final Saturday against France, which although it may lack Serbia’s muscle and Nikola Jokic, will have the crowd—and the nation—on its side.

Can 50 million men be wrong? The United States can only hope so.  

Basketball was created by a Canadian, Dr James Naismith. Through the decades it’s been dominated by the U.S., which, since the sport became part of the Olympics in 1936 has taken gold 19 times of the 22 tournaments. There has been one silver (1972) when a referee cheated the U.S. in bizarre multiple-foul situations—and two bronzes.    

Yet it is all over the world. There are hoops in playgrounds, street corners, and farm fields all over the world. There are great players from Australia with Paddy Mills to Greece with Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The days since the U.S. Dream Team in 1984 with Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Patrick Ewing have shifted. That year the opponents would ask for autographs from the Americans.  Now they are just as likely to block a shot back into your face.

This 2024 U.S. was judged just slightly by the Dream Team.  In fact, some said America’s number two team this time was the number two team in the Olympics. A bit overstated. In Jokic, the Serbs had an NBA Most Valuable Player, and the last top two NBA draft picks, including Victor Wembanyama—who the U.S. will face in the final game—are from France. 

Because of the pace of the games until the semis, Curry, arguably the best shooter in history, had been relatively quiet. Thus the opening statement from the announcer, Eagle, whether Steph would finally break loose. He did. Curry made his presence felt early on, scoring 18 in the first half when no one else on the U.S. seemed able to get a basket. In the end, he finished with 36, hitting 9 of 18 from behind the arc. Reminded you of the golden days at Golden State.

“To come back the way we did, I’ve seen a lot of Team USA basketball, and that was special.” 

So was Steph.

He had what Noah Eagle, the game announcer said was needed—a Curry game.

The NBA logo, Jerry West, left his mark

That Jerry West left a mark on the NBA was more than a cliché. His silhouette, a depiction of him dribbling, became the inspiration for the logo of the league. Or if you choose, the Association.

Could there be a better affirmation of what he meant to the game in general and to the Los Angeles Lakers in particular?

Dribble. Shoot. Rebound. There was nothing West couldn’t do on the court. It was written he wasn’t so much a point guard as a guard who got points. 

West died Tuesday, it was announced. He was 86. He not only had the perfect game, but history will show that in the history of pro basketball, the relocation, the perfect name: West.

That’s where America was going. That’s where sports was going. The Giants and Dodgers moved to California in 1958. In 1962 the Philadelphia Warriors, with Wilt Chamberlain, would leave for San Francisco. The Minneapolis Lakers did it before the 1960 season. They had a star named Elgin Baylor. In the April 1960 draft, they grabbed Jerry West. 

Both were familiar to the Bay Area. Elgin took over the 1958 NCAA’s at the Cow Palace.  Another year in 1959, Cal defeated the Big O and Cincinnati in the semifinals, and West and West Virginia in the final 71-70.

 Exciting times for pro hoops, for a then-young sports writer. Jerry West was born in 1938; so was the Big O, Oscar Robertson. So was a kid journalist who was getting his feet wet and his bylines occasionally published in the late, not-so-great, Santa Monica Evening Outlook.

Jerry was a rookie, as was I. There was camaraderie. There was understanding. 

It was the first of numerous near-misses for Jerry. He once came back from a long road trip to score 60 points—  the 3-point basket had yet to be introduced. But in the playoffs, he was without luck. And the Lakers kept running and shooting into Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics. Disappointment after disappointment in LA. Eight trips to the finals without a win.      

Not until the marvelous Laker team that won 33 in a row in 1972 row did he at last reach the summit.

West was from Cheylan, W.V., a town not far from a burg named Cabin Creek. Thus did Baylor, obsessed with nicknames, labeled Jerry, “Zeek from Cabin Creek.”

The Warriors who would have loved to have West as a player — who wouldn’t —  were blessed with his advice when he went to work briefly as a consultant. But in time he was gone. Jerry worked on his golf game — as you might imagine — he was very efficient and kept busy in other ways.

A month ago, we lost Bill Walton. Now the great Jerry West. Sadness all around.

An NBA finals and no Warriors or Lakers?

You mean they’re holding the NBA finals and there’s no team called the Warriors or the Lakers? The next thing you’ll tell me is the U.S. beat Pakistan. In cricket.

Yes, I’m still paying attention to the NBA. It’s a way of life. The Celtics used to own the NBA. That was when they had a coach who smoked cigars, arrogantly it must be added, after all those victories. 

Boston has 17 NBA titles, and after Thursday night’s 107-99 rout of the incorrectly favored Dallas Mavericks in the opener of these finals most likely will make it 18.

The Lakers also have 17, which, when combined with the Celtics’ total perhaps makes the Warriors boast of seven in the heading of their promotional emails, a bit unnecessary. Then again Golden State has done more than anyone else in the last 10 years or so. 

That includes the current Celtics, of whom the “Pardon the Interruption” talk show co-host Tony Kornheiser a couple of days ago, referring to Boston’s supposed abundance of stars “If they could win, they’d be the Warriors.”

He meant the Warriors of 2015-22, the team that set a record for victories and spoiled the fans in Northern Cal. 

As we’re too aware, however, nothing stays the same. Teams keep searching for what they used to have, all the while understanding life has changed.

The Lakers, most notably are trying to reclaim their success, desperately again seeking a new coach. Wednesday ESPN said it was going to be J.J. Reddick. Thursday the would-be choice had been revised to Dan Hurley, who has led Connecticut to consecutive NCAA championships.

No question Hurley knows what he is doing, but as anyone understands there’s a difference between college, where the coach is the boss, and the pros, where the superstar calls the shots, which may be under the rim or beyond the 3-point arc.

The guy who makes the ultimate decisions for the Lakers is their icon — and arguably, the greatest. No matter what else, LeBron must be kept happy and healthy, in no particular order. Of course, LeBron is 39, and even in this new era of sports, that’s getting long in years.   

Steph Curry, around whom the Warriors are built is 36 and obviously showing the effects of his age and his length of service.  

Then maybe the Warriors or the Lakers will find a gem in the draft. But the way things usually go, the best end up being picked by the worst. Both the Warriors and Lakers are in the middle of mediocrity.

That doesn’t present the opportunity to choose players who can get you back to the NBA finals. that I comprehend. 

Just don’t ask how the US can defeat Pakistan in cricket.

Walton was one shot short of perfection

Jerry Norman was the lead assistant coach and chief recruiter under John Wooden, whose office door usually was open. One day, as the legend goes, Norman walked in and told Wooden he had seen one of the top players ever.

“But Jerry, we have Lew Alcindor,” said Wooden, referring to the man who had not yet changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Norman said, ”This guy could be better.”

Wooden said’ “Close the door.”

Maybe secrecy wasn’t required in recruiting Bill Walton to UCLA. He had grown up in the San Diego suburb of La Mesa, 120 miles south; as a kid he heard games on radio and had an older brother, Bruce, playing football at UCLA.

The story emerged with the announcement Monday that Walton, who met every expectation of basketball greatness and more, had died at age 71 after a long battle with cancer.

It may be an exaggeration to say Walton was one of a kind, but he definitely was unique, a star athlete — unquestionably one of the finest basketball players in history — who seemed as interested as those who watched the games as those who played them.

He was a person of his time, able to find a reason to open a discussion as well as find the open man. He took as much delight in passing the ball as shooting it.

Yes, as Walton, I’m a Bruin, but there are numerous reasons I grew to admire him — after first regretting I ever would have to deal with him as a journalist. 

He was never a difficult interview as Kareem in the Milwaukee days, but it was still tough. Walton would remain in the post-game shower seemingly until the water level dropped.

Maybe because he had a speech impediment and felt uncomfortable talking to people with microphones or notepads. But once he overcame that limitation, Walton was a gift. He would speak and talk about everything from defense on court to bike trips over the mountains. He was innately curious and became unhesitantly loquacious — as those who listened to his commentary for ESPN on college hoops would verify.

You wonder if the players of the 21st century, the ones who know him now for his observations, even have a clue how good, how efficient, how effective Walton was as a player. How he made 21 field goals in 22 attempts in an NCAA final, and how his Bruin teams won 88 games in a row, still a record.

As many big men, Walton was cursed with bone problems undergoing one surgical procedure on his feet after another. He wore sneakers out of necessity.  

He was a West Coast guy in philosophy as much as geography, and rued the dissolution of the Pac-12 Conference. 

Bill Walton was opinionated. Bill Walton was talented. That combination was enlightening and entertaining. And many NCAA tournaments ago, he was one basket short of perfection.

For the Warriors, draft workouts and new hope

The Warriors are conducting pre-draft workouts. Why not? You have to think of the future in sports, even when reality dictates it never will equal the past.

Another Steph Curry or Klay Thompson? They should be so lucky, and yes despite all the research and planning, luck plays a huge role.

A team has to be in the right place — meaning the bottom or close to it — at the right time. And then get the right break, picking high in the draft lottery or, going back in time, 1969, calling a coin flip correctly.

Which Phoenix that year did not. So Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — at the time, still known as Lew Alcindor — went to Milwaukee. The Suns ended up with No. 2, Neal Walk, who was not Abdul-Jabbar. Not even close.  

You have to have talent. But it must be the proper talent. The current Suns seemingly had a veritable all-star team on the roster. But they were swept in the first round of the playoffs. And 

11 days later, Thursday, head coach Frank Vogel lost his job, the modern-day equivalent of losing your head in ancient Rome.

Lucius Quinctius never should have sent in that lineup to face the Lions. Or, relating to the sport at hand, the Timberwolves.  

The 2020 NBA draft four summers ago, the one the Warriors owned the No. 2 pick, which turned out to be James Wiseman. The first choice was Anthony Edwards.

And so are sporting dynasties built or left unconstructed.

Edwards has done everything expected, leading Minnesota to two road victories over the defending league-champion Denver Nuggets. Wiseman offered potential, they tell us, and early on scored and rebounded the way a 7-footer should. For a while — a brief while.

Then came an injury. Whether Wiseman recovered is arguable, but the Warriors didn’t. They traded him to Detroit and in one of those convoluted transactions ended up with Gary Payton II, who was an integral part of an NBA title.

It’s probably unfair to label Wiseman as a bust. After all, he only had a short spell learning the game at Memphis before going pro.

The draft is what keeps the games competitive and the fan base believing. Nobody contemplates earning a high choice. That’s a definition the previous season was terrible — however, maybe a Victor Wembanyama is waiting up ahead.

Better to dream than regret.

Warriors season is gone; does Klay stay or go?

Klay Thompson was upset. Not because he had missed every one of his field goal attempts — and surely that contributed to his discontent. But about the question posed to him this morning after, the one about his future, which at that moment seemed the only proper question to be asked. 

Of course when you went 0-for-10, and your team, the proud and until now eminently successful Golden State Warriors, would fail to qualify for the playoffs — ending a streak at 13 straight seasons — the question may not have seemed so proper.

“You don’t want to talk about the season first?” Thompson said, answering a question with a question of his own. “You want to talk about the future?”

Indeed. 

It does little good to discuss what has happened, other than in certain instances as a bit of self-satisfaction. Once a game is finished, a season complete, unless you’re stepping away, the issue is what will happen.  

The Warriors were the NBA’s best. No more. Their roster has become a blend of memories and possibilities.

The embarrassment of Tuesday night's play-in game, with the Sacramento Kings defeating the Warriors 114-98, may have been less of a disappointment and more of a revelation. Yes, Steph Curry still has his wits and his 3-pointers, Draymond Green is a defensive whiz and team leader, and Klay’s offense is invaluable — as his lack of scoring against the Kings made only too clear.

But the Warriors were out-muscled and out-hustled, pushed around as much symbolically as physically. They basically never had a chance. Except to show how much they lack.

Sport more than anything else makes us aware of the passing of time. The cliche that nothing and no one lasts forever is all too apparent on our courts and fields, diamonds and gridirons. The pieces are out there, and sometimes they fit perfectly — for a while. But it can’t last.

Veteran fans understand. Organizations are always on the lookout, on the rebuild, drafting, and coaching, but there only was one Michael Jordan, and there only is one Steph Curry.

The New England Patriots defied the odds. They were contenders in the NFL for a decade. Then they were hopeless and Bill Belichick was a nowhere man.

Where Klay Thompson is going to be next season and beyond is the topic of notable consequence. Curry and Draymond are under contract. Thompson is a free agent. 

“I can’t see us playing without him,” said Steph.

What Klay and the Warriors’ management see is what will count. 

“I previously just said about the season we had and how much commitment it takes to play the games we did and give it our all,” said Thompson, “so I really haven’t thought about that deep into the future because I still need to process the year we had and it was one filled with ups and downs, but ultimately, we — I personally and our team did everything we could to try and win as many games as we possibly could.”

He was asked, about living in the future, what were some of the things?

“Good place to be.”

Will that good place still be with the Warriors?

For Warriors, awful end to great road swing

It was an awful game for the Warriors. A historically awful game. It took place Sunday at the end of what had been a successful and encouraging road trip. However, it surely made the trip seem worse—as if anything could be worse than being down 44 points at halftime to the despised Celtics at TD Garden in Boston.

Or for that matter anywhere. Yet it only was one game, which determines very little. Other than the indisputable fact the Celtics, with the 140-88 victory, are every bit as good as people say.

Then again, when the teams played at San Francisco's Chase Center in December, the Warriors won. Perhaps not as awesome as the Celtics did this game, that one a 132-126 victory in overtime. But this isn’t European soccer. They don’t count cumulative scores. And while this one was jarring emotionally, it didn’t mean any more or less than a one-point defeat.

More important and no less impressive was the victory at Toronto on Friday night after the Warriors spent Thursday night until around 9 am on Friday morning stuck on a jet because of airline problems.

No whining there, just winning.

That’s the mark of a focused team. You were reminded of the San Francisco 49ers of the 1980s. Ice, snow, the gloom of darkness? Who cares? Where’s the ball?  

This Sunday, too often the ball was in the hands of the Celtics and in short order in the basket. If the traveling hadn’t caught up with the Warriors, who were on an eight-game road win streak, Boston definitely had.

The Warriors, who were banged up Sunday, were also ineffective. Steph Curry, bothered by bursitis in his right knee, missed all nine of his 3-point attempts and finished with only 4 points.

Yes, awful historically and perhaps bewildering.

Although not to the point where Warriors coach Steve Kerr could allow it to linger, Kerr smartly took out Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green after the first half because it made sense—particularly in the case of Thompson who has a sore hamstring.

Kerr had what might be described as a typical coaching response to an atypical Warriors game. “You flush it down the toilet,” Kerr told Monty Poole at NBC Bay Area. “We had a great road trip, 3-1. We've had a million games. Boston was amazing. We weren't beating them today. So, we head home and get ready for Wednesday.”

When the Warriors face the Milwaukee Bucks at Chase, as the cliché goes—for a reason—no easy task, but most likely considerably easier than trying to stop the Celtics. A 44-point halftime lead? Wow.

“At least there wasn't a lot of wear,” Kerr said. “But it's different when you give a guy a day off. If he gets a day off, it's mentally refreshing as well. So, this was not a day off for Steph, although he probably could have used one. He's played so well and for so long this year. But hopefully, the next few days will get him recharged. Hopefully he'll go out and play golf or something and get away from it and come back Wednesday night ready.”

Warriors return, honor ‘Brate’ and get a win

The questionable became the memorable.

The Warriors provided an emphatic answer to how they might respond after a period when mourning replaced practice, depression replaced basketball. 

Their beloved assistant coach, Dejan Milanović, died after suffering a heart attack eight days ago. Two games were postponed, and head coach Steve Kerr was uncertain how his team would react when it returned to the court. He found out quickly enough Wednesday night. 

We found out. 

The Warriors’ week started fast and barely stopped, defeating the Atlanta Hawks, 134-112 at Chase Center before a crowd that came to honor the return and stayed to celebrate the victory.

Pre-game was both somber and gratifying, with some tears supplanted by many cheers. Both teams grouped as tributes were read. The  Sero-Croatian and U.S. national anthems were played over the public address system.

Warriors players and others in the building wore black T-shirts with “Brate” printed on the back—Serbo-Croatian for brother, and what the 36-year-old-old Milanović seemed to call everyone.

On the front of the shirts was the outline of a heart, enclosing the initials “DM”.

What the Warriors wrapped themselves around was the type of shooting and defense that had a hint of those championship seasons from decades past.

Steph Curry scored 25 points, Jonathan Kuminga 25—he was a perfect 11 for 11 from the floor—and Klay Thompson had 24. Draymond Green rebounded, defended and passed as he once did and still does. It was a reassuring triumph for a team uncertain of its future.

“It was tough going out there,” said Curry, referring to the gloom and uncertainty of the previous week. “We had to make decisions.”

Maybe both about returning to the game they felt compelled to put aside as they attempted to deal with the tragedy and the style of basketball. Suddenly their lives had changed. 

Curry was enthused by Kuminga’s improved play, “He’s so talented,” said Steph, a man who well knows talent.

When Curry hit his first field goal of the night, he pointed to the sky, well, the Chase Arena roof. It was a gesture of defiance as much as glee. Steph was back. The Warriors were back. 

Now let’s go play the game as aggressively and as well as possible. Brate, or “Deki,” wouldn’t accept anything else.

For Draymond, indefinitely is a long time

Indefinitely? That’s a long time. Maybe not as long as forever — which is a notch or two down the list — but long enough. Especially when your team seems very much to be running out of time.

The NBA responded to Draymond Greens’ punch — or episode if you like dancing around the issue — with a punch of its own.

A haymaker as they used to say on the Friday Night Fights, a knockout punch that knocked Green out of the opportunity to play basketball for well,  indefinitely.

And probably knocked his team, the now-bewitched Golden State Warriors, out of a chance to ever again win a championship.

The violation, a term that perhaps sounds more palatable than a blow to the face, came Tuesday night in yet another Warriors loss to the Phoenix Suns, this one 119-116.  

Green’s physical play is what helped make him an All-Star. And a pariah. Tuesday he went hard after the ball, smacked the Suns’ Jusuf Nurkic in the face, was called for a flagrant 2 foul and ejected.

Green has been there before, too many times including earlier this season when he was suspended five games for choking Rudy Gobert of the Timberwolves.

And running out of patience, NBA officials are intent on preventing Draymond — suspended four times in the last nine months, six times overall — from going there again.

In its news release Wednesday, the NBA alluded to Green’s “repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts.

Before he’s in a Warriors uniform again, Green must meet certain criteria specified by the NBA.  According to The Athletic, he will undergo counseling — remember the film, “Anger Management”? — that will include Green’s agent and representatives from the NBA and Warriors front office.

It has been the intensity and unhinged volatility that helped propel Green, now 33, to a $100 million contract while in the process of propelling the Warriors to four titles. But because he’s possibly lost a step while losing none of his determination, Draymond is more aggressive than allowed within the rules. He’s now compensating for what skill or speed has been lost by a recklessness that now has him on edge and off the court.

Draymond apologized for the way he pummeled Nurkic, who later was understandably irritated by Green’s battering ram maneuver, but Green didn’t complain. He knew well he had been illegally rough. Now, until pardoned by the league, whenever that comes, Draymond may be gone for a week or two.

Green has been more than a star defender and rebounder, through the years an emotional leader, ready to kick bottoms and kick the team into high gear.

His roles as defender and rebounder, and no less importantly willing accomplice to Steph Curry getting balls into the basket, are to be filled by youngsters Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis.

Immediately after the game, which left them with a 10-13 record, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said, “We need Draymond. He knows that.”

We all do, but it’s indefinite when they’ll have him again.

What’s to become of aging Warriors?

This is the way it works in sports. A team starts to win, and fans, the ones with perhaps less experience, believe that’s the way it always will be. They get spoiled. They get obnoxious even.  They get deceived.

But history is hovering. Nothing lasts forever, especially success.

Not very long ago the New England Patriots seemed unbeatable. Tom Brady was fantastic. Bill Belichick was a genius. 

And now? The Pats are awful. Critics are asking whether Belichick should be fired.

What some others are asking is what’s to become of the Golden State Warriors? Do they hang in for another season, shake off the inevitable scourge of time? Or do they decline almost before our very eyes — Draymond Green or no Draymond Green? 

Yes, Draymond soon is to be allowed back among the shooting and fouling of an NBA game. And presumably, the Warriors will never again be burdened by a dreaded six-game losing streak.

Still, this is the season of 2023-24, and the once-young guys who won four  NBA titles are older. You can’t go home again, and even going home appeared to be of little advantage during the recent stretch.

Pro sports in North America are designed to change the balance. Through the draft, the lesser teams are with wise choices and good fortune able to build themselves into better teams.

Which certainly is what the Warriors did, and oh yeah bringing in a free agent named Kevin Durant proved advantageous.

Who would have imagined Steph Curry would be the best long-range shooter in our lifetime? Or that Klay Thompson would pair up with Steph as one of the Splash Brothers? Or that Draymond, for all his faults, would be the guy who helped the pieces fit and no less played powerful defense?

Steve Kerr, the Warriors coach during their dominant years, was a player—and a fine one — on those Michael Jordan championship squads in the 1990s. Been there, and done that, so he understands the process and limitations.

Was it a year ago Kerr warned Warriors fans, that the team’s window to win was about to close? Last season the Dubs didn’t even get to the conference championship round.

The thinking — hoping? — of those in charge of the Warriors is that Chris Paul, 38, will be a more-than-capable addition to Curry, 35, Thompson, 33 and Green, 33. It’s possible if not probable.   

It’s all relative, certainly. Take it from someone (blush) who covered the Warriors in the ‘70s when they won 17 games and 22 games. The bad old days.

Those are gone forever. The issue, clouded a bit because of Draymond Green’s volatility and Klay Thomson’s shooting struggles, is whether the chance to win one last championship still remains.

Time is right for WNBA—and to remember Franklin Mieuli

This was good work from almost everyone concerned, especially the WNBA for inevitably awarding an expansion franchise to a community where both pro basketball and women’s sports are wildly popular.

Warriors’ owner Joe Lacob (and others involved) for assigning the name Golden State, readily identifiable now, although the nickname has yet to be decided.

One imagines that it will have some connection to “Warriors.” But that came with the formation of the team in Philadelphia in 1946, a time when we were unaware of political correctness. The reference was to native Americans—subsequently replaced by a character called Thunder now with the guys in Oklahoma City.

Philly became the San Francisco Warriors in 1962, and despite having the great Wilt Chamberlain, there were more empty seats than full ones.  Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, who ran a proverbial mom-and-pop operation, was struggling financially.

When in 1971 the San Diego Rockets moved to Houston, Mieuli arranged to play a part of the Warriors’ home schedule in San Diego. He needed a change to a more inclusive name. “I could have used California Warriors,” he would say, “but to me, California was the school in Berkeley.”

So Golden State became a mythical place, and now after all those championships, Golden State will remain.

The WNBA team will begin playing in 2025, after the Paris Olympics, perfect placement. As hoops fans know the WNBA schedule begins when the NBA schedule ends. And vice versa.

Tara VanDervrer obliquely deserves credit in all this. Her Stanford teams gave women’s basketball a place in Northern California’s overly busy sporting calendar among the Niners and Giants—and Warriors.

But so much is attributable to that electronic device that seems to control our lives, the television.

It was two years ago when ESPN (curse them, bless them) signed a contract to show us the WNBA. And if there’s one thing ESPN can do it’s promote its own products. Not more than a figurative minute has gone by the last few weeks without a mention of the WNBA and its stars.

Somebody must have been watching, and for good reason. Those girls can play.  

After the announcement at Chase Center, Warriors all-star Klay Thompson said now he would have something to occupy his summer, sailing his boat across the Bay from Marin to WNBA games in San Francisco.

The shame is one one-time Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, who died at 89 ln 2010, couldn’t be around with others like WNBA Commissioner Cathy Englebert, to announce that the league is coming to San Francisco—really to the Bay Area since the team will practice at the Warriors former facility in Oakland.   

It was back in 1969 before anyone even thought of women playing pro basketball, Mieuli and the Warriors used the 13th pick in that year’s NBA draft on an Iowa schoolgirl with a great shot, Denise Long Rife.

Now Denise is 72 and while she never got a chance to play in the league, she has earned the recognition and it has kept her in the news.

A few years later, in the early 1980s, the Women's Professional Basketball League arrived briefly. There was a San Francisco team, the appropriately named Pioneers, and they played at Civic Auditorium, as on occasion did the Warriors.

We’re told that in life and love, timing is everything. You can add interest in the WNBA. Just look at Klay Thompson.

Warriors’ GM Myers will depart

“The dominoes are starting to fall,” Tony Kornheiser said on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption. 

He was talking about the Warriors, specifically the departure of Bob Myers, the architect of those great Warriors teams. 

An overstatement. Myers is leaving. That was speculation weeks ago, now it’s a fact. So is the aging of the Warriors roster and new NBA salary limitations.

But this is not about the game of dominoes. 

Rather about the sport of basketball, where the concern is whether the shots fall — or if they don’t whether you’re able to grab the rebounds. Strong organizations — and with our championships in six seasons the Warriors are among the strongest — rely on more than a single individual, no matter how intuitive and capable he (or she) might be.

There’s an old French saying, everything passes, about our impermanence not about contributing an assist on a jump shot.

Bob Myers is a great story. Raised in the Bay Area, UCLA, player agent and then basketball operations president and GM of the Warriors, during the most successful era of their existence.

But he’s 48, a family man, and the GM position is all-consuming. Once you’re at the top — Myers twice was NBA executive of the year — there’s only one way to go.  And it’s not up.

Maybe it’s a little different, but when he was winning with the 49ers Bill Walsh said the usual NFL coach doesn’t last more than 10 years with a team. 

“Either you get fired for losing or the players stop listening to you if you’re winning.”

The late John Wooden, whose teams took all those NCAA titles at UCLA, insisted winning was tougher than losing. 

“No matter what we did,” said Wooden. “It wasn’t enough.” 

Now, for a time at least, Myers has had enough. 

"The bottom line is this job,” Myers said in an afternoon media conference. “The one I’m in, I would say this for any professional general manager or coach, requires complete engagement, complete effort, one-thousand percent.”

“If you can’t do it, then you shouldn't do it. That's the answer to the question of why. I can’t do that to our players, I can’t do that to Joe, Peter (owners Joe Lacob, Peter Guber), can’t do it to myself. And that’s the question I’ve been wrestling with.”

Myers can stop wrestling. He can step out of the ring.  

You just wonder how much he was affected by the punch Draymond Green — a Myers draftee threw at Jordan Poole — or if James Wiseman hadn’t been the team’s first pick in the draft a couple of seasons ago   

Myers had been with the Warriors for 12 years. As with any break-up, this won’t be easy. Myers teared up at what is apparently his farewell words to the media. He did a hell of a job — an unprecedented one.

Lakers’ AD is OK; are the Warriors?

An elbow to the head. A wobbly walk to the locker room. A statement of reassurance.

Anthony Davis, the Lakers beast in the middle when he wants to be, is fine. Which is more than you can say for the Warriors.

So much in so short a time. Some critical changes. Except one thing hasn’t changed. Well, make that two things haven’t changed. 

The Warriors haven’t won a game of this best-of-seven NBA Western Conference semifinal at Los Angeles, where Game 6 will be played Friday night. And unless they can figure out a way to do so, they’ll be finished.

Done. The former champions. And please don’t let the door or the painful reality hit you in the back.

From the Warriors’ side of the discussion, there are words of optimism, as is expected. But why? LeBron James is LeBron James, who well understands what to do when needed. And then there’s Davis, AD, whose injuries and time on the bench out of uniform earned him the mocking epithet, “street clothes,” but this series has tailored him a new reputation.

The Warriors had a very good chance to win Game 4 at L.A., but in the end, they could not. That’s what counts in sport, the final result, could-haves (the Warriors were up by seven heading into the fourth quarter) and should-haves mean zilch.  

The 6-foot-10 Davis has meant everything to the Lakers, scoring inside and keeping the Warriors from doing the same. And certainly, rebounding like mad.

He got hit in one of those go-for-the-ball scrambles under the basket with 7:43 remaining (and LA trailing).

On the TNT national broadcast, there was laughter — same old AD, getting hurt. On Thursday, in the L.A. Times, there were words of near-panic. 

”This is what the Lakers feared,” wrote the columnist Bill Plaschke. “This is what Lakers fans dreaded. And this is what the Golden State Warriors needed.”

Not exactly. What the Warriors need most of all is a road victory which seems improbable the way the Lakers are rolling — unbeaten at home in the post-season including a play-in game that got them in the playoffs. The Dubs had the home-court edge but that disappeared after they dropped the opening game.

After that, it’s been a difficult and so far worthless climb.

To make matters worse, Wiggins, who has played well (as a former #1 overall draft pick should be playing), may miss Game 6. On the injury report Thursday evening he was listed as questionable because of a left costal cartilage fracture.  

Should the Warriors pull off a miracle (is that too strong?), there will be a seventh game at Chase Center in San Francisco. 

Otherwise, they’ll be idle for a long time, next season.

Dickens should be writing Warriors’ tale

This should be authored by Charles Dickens. He wrote “Bleak House,” didn’t he? Or maybe “The Brothers Grimm, Sigh!” 

No laughter for the Warriors these days. Not much hope either.

Say the Warriors do somehow stop the Lakers in Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference Semifinals Wednesday night at Chase Center up there near Oracle Park, another location of sporting depression. 

That would do nothing but delay the ending of a fall-short season which will leave people wondering what happened to Klay Thompson’s once beautiful jump shot and why Jordan Poole decided to retire without telling anyone.

The Warriors, the defending champions, have lost four of their last six games, including the final two against the Sacramento Kings in the series they did win. Meanwhile, the Lakers, given up for dead (the last two letters of that word are Anthony Davis’ initials), haven’t lost a playoff game at home.

L.A. had a losing record in February and needed to win a play-in game even to get to the post-season. If you can make sense of all that maybe you can explain why in the final minute of the Warriors’ 104-101 defeat Monday night, Steph Curry could miss not one but two of those long bombs he invariably makes.

Steph did have a triple-double Monday collecting 31 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds. So if he’s not on the court then the Warriors are not in the game. But when you’re up by seven after three quarters, you’re not supposed to lose.    

The fine LA. Times columnist Bill Plaschke was one of the guest scribes Tuesday on ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” as he is not infrequently, and when asked what happened to the Warriors gave a provincial legitimate answer: “Give credit to the Lakers.”

The Warriors appeared to be the better team coming in, as well as the week, leading up to the playoffs they barely made. However, L.A. took charge in game one and despite a Warriors bounce-back in game two, they have outplayed the Rub-a-Dubs most of the way.

You expected LeBron James to play and score as he did and feared the suddenly intense Davis might do the same. But when a guy named Lonnie Walker, who had been benched, gets 17 points, you are likely to have a problem, and the Warriors did. 

Only 13 times in NBA history has a team won a seven-game series after trailing 3-1. In 2016 the Warriors beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals and then a few weeks later lost this same way to Cleveland and LeBron in the NBA Finals.

Steve Kerr also coached those Warriors teams.

 “You definitely draw on those experiences,” Kerr said. “Game to game everything changes, so just focus on the next one. The next game and then the momentum shifts in your favor.”

Kerr and the Warriors need a shift now, or the story for the Warriors will be bleak, grim and very unreadable.

Draymond has answer on how to beat Lakers

That was a quick answer from the Warriors’ irrepressible Draymond Green on how to defeat the Lakers after having been throttled by L.A.  

“Play better,” said Draymond, avoiding the essay response.

Next question: Against a Lakers team that is not only bigger, stronger, and suddenly realizing its awesome potential, how?

Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference semifinals is Monday night, and all the Dubs and their fans can wish is that it in no way resembles Game 3 on Saturday night, a 127-97 mismatch.

Yes, only one game, and with adjustments (the magic word in the postseason) and the Warriors only trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, the situation could very well flip. But that may depend as much on one player from the Lakers, the inconsistent Anthony Davis, as anyone on the Warriors.

And as a reminder, the Warriors, this season on the road have gyrated between bad and awful, an indication this isn’t the Golden State team of the recent past. 

The issue in the sport is being able to dictate the style and pace of play, something the Warriors accomplished in the second game when they ran, defended, and shot with wild abandon (whatever that may be). But you can’t run when you don’t have the ball, and the Lakers choose not to run even when they had it. 

For good reason. 

The track meet style the Warriors prefer becomes the deliberate basketball that the Lakers play so well with AD, who Friday night once more was the monster unleashed (25 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks), LeBron James (23 points), and one-time Warrior D’Angelo Russell (21 points).

The Warriors complained that early in the third quarter that, with the Lakers marching hither and yon to the free throw line, “the game stopped,” which is exactly how the Lakers liked it. That wasn’t the officials’ fault, it was the Warriors’ fault. They’ve always had reach-in foul problems. And with larger, more deliberate Lakers in their way, the Dubs on Saturday night were trying to get physical. 

The Lakers had 37 free throws Friday night and made 28. The Warriors were 12 of 17. Stopped? They could have held a picnic in the interim. Or let the players take a nap.

What the Warriors took was a figurative punch to the gut. Questioned what it was like when the foul calls (and Lakers free throws) were growing and growing, Draymond Green, once again a man of few words, said only, “It’s frustrating.”

Draymond, of course, has a history of drawing technical fouls for the things he says or does so in this case if brevity is not necessarily the soul of wit, it is a brilliant option to avoid getting charged with a T. 

It’s become apparent the 6-foot-10 Anthony Davis is the (sometimes tortured, frequently criticized) soul of the Lakers. When he isn’t injured or indolent, AD is overwhelming on offense, defense, and the glass.

If nothing else, and there is plenty else, he takes the opponents' attention away from LeBron, who even at age 38 is acknowledged still to be the best player in the sport.

You could say the Lakers have the Warriors on the run, but after getting stopped and pummeled in Game 3 that’s where the stagnant Warriors would prefer to be.

Warriors-Lakers: California here they come

This is as good as it gets for the not-so-late great state of California. Who cares if ESPN is fixated on listing events at Eastern Daylight Time?

Let's catch the last train to the Coast where oranges and redwoods grow and where the former Minneapolis Lakers and Philadelphia Warriors relocated with enviable success. 

Who imagined a few months ago when the Lakers were losing and the Warriors couldn’t win on the road that now in the lusty month of May they would be playing each other here in the NBA Western Conference semifinals, a playoff round as enticing as it should be entertaining.

LeBron and Steph, AD and Looney — and Klay, Draymond, and Wigs. Yes, basketball is the ultimate team sport, but it’s the individuals who make the shots and the difference.

To reprise that so-very-accurate Michael Jordan response when told there is no “I” in team, ”Yeah, but there is in win.”

There’s also an old journalistic idea that nothing is as dead as yesterday’s news. OK, but even moving forward past Sunday’s news, the Dubs stunningly overwhelmed the Kings, 120-100 at Sacramento, and Steph Curry set a Game 7 record with 50 points. In this case, yesterday’s news is going to live a long time.  

What we re-learned from both the Warriors and Lakers, who beat the Memphis Grizzlies, is that reputations as winners are well deserved.

LeBron James of the Lakers has scored more points than anyone in NBA history. Steph Curry is arguably the greatest shooter in NBA history. Two offensive stars ​​— yet in the end the results may depend on defense and rebounding. Or lack of it, which seemingly was why the Kings, after taking the first two games, lost four of the last five. They couldn’t stop Curry.

LA vs SF, initials representing the two cities founded by Spanish explorers. A rivalry of geography. And of pride.

For years and decades, NBA basketball out west belonged to the Lakers, to Wilt Chamberlain (although he did come out from Philly with the Warriors), Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and certainly Magic Johnson. Sixteen NBA titles, one fewer than the Celtics, to three for the Warriors, including one in 1975.  

Until Steve Kerr became the head coach of the Warriors, Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, and Draymond Green were on the roster. Then the Warriors added four more titles. It’s a quick turn-around for the Dubs, who must shift attention and style to face the Lakers, starting Tuesday night at Chase Center. 

“We’re excited to have the opportunity,” Kerr said about going against the Lakers. “I think the Lakers changed their team dramatically at the trade deadline. They made some brilliant moves and became an entirely different team.”

“Darvin (Lakers coach Darvin Ham) has done an incredible job guiding that team. They’re excellent defensively. They’ve got one of the all-time greats in LeBron. But a lot of talent across the roster. So it’s going to take a big effort to beat them, and we know how good they are.”

Just as the Lakers know how good the Warriors are.

Draymond: Man of thoughts, words — and actions

On that podcast hosted by the man-about-town, defensive wizard and too-often controversial Draymond Green, he forthrightly pointed out that most of us — meaning virtually everyone but the players — don’t understand the game of pro basketball.

No argument here. Only a note of appreciation for the fact Mr. Green not only understands but is able to put that understanding into effect.

A couple of days earlier, Friday to be specific, Draymond was paying a price as much for his reputation as for his (shall I say aggressive?) method of play, stomping on the chest of Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis.

And so in Game 3 of the first round, with Draymond viewing, the Warriors won. Then Sunday, with Draymond subbing — he played one second less than 31 minutes and chipped in with 12 points and 10 rebounds — the Warriors won again, but barely, 126-125.

The first two games were at Sacramento and the last two were at Chase Center in San Francisco. With three games remaining, at max, two on the Kings’ home floor, the Warriors’ dynasty — if four championships in six years are to be judged a dynasty in sports — crumbles but holds.

The Kings supposedly have the edge. What the Warriors have is the experience, the been-there-done-that feeling. They also have Steph Curry, who scored many of his 32 points Sunday when it seemed everything was going wrong offensively, and the bad boy-good thinker, Draymond Green.

Green is not quite the individual portrayed or at least imagined. On the court, it’s true that he goes hard and reckless, fiercely perhaps, but in interviews, he’s calm and reflective. Although he’s always determined to get the proper result, victory.

Coaches and athletes talk about winning cultures, about the old Yankees and newer Lakers. The Warriors over the last decade have established a winning culture. They’re one of the teams always mentioned on ESPN, one of the teams that have earned a place in history.  

Who knows what will happen in the final three (or two) games of this Warriors-Kings playoff series. But it has already been memorable. First Draymond gets suspended. Then in Game 4, which they also managed to win, in the final seconds the Dubs receive a technical foul for calling a timeout they didn’t have — like Michigan’s Chris Webber in the 1992 NCAA final.

Steph did that, but Kerr said he should be blamed for what might have been a costly bit of miscommunication but turned out to be trivial.

Curry reminded everybody of the objective.

“We talk a lot around here about doing whatever it takes to win, and everybody being flexible on what their role is,” Curry said. “It’s just being ready, no matter what the situation calls for, the versatility of our team.”    

Off the bench or in the starting lineup.

Win would get swagger back for Warriors

The Warriors say they are alright, and probably they are. A win Monday night over the Kings in Sacramento, and they’ve gained home-court advantage in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

They would also regain the swagger and belief a defending champion is supposed to put on display. 

But what if they lose, as they did on Saturday night? What if the Kings are the new Warriors, the way the Warriors a few years ago became the new Lakers? What if this is the season of change? What if this dynasty, like all dynasties, will end?

After all, the Kings had a better regular season record than the Warriors, the reason Sacramento has a possible four playoff games at Golden 1 Center, which for the Dubs is so close, roughly 90 miles away from Chase Center in San Francisco, but at the same time so far away.

Yes, it was loud Saturday night in Sacramento, but it’s always loud when a team that hasn’t been in the postseason in forever (well, 16 years) qualifies and is at home. That’s expected, but it’s also expected that a franchise that has multiple championships should not be affected.

Have you ever heard of Malik Monk? Before Saturday, that is. He’s averaging 11.7 points a game. He scored 32 and was 14 of 14 on free throws, taking advantage of a team that prides itself on defense but fouls all too frequently.

All that considered, the Warriors only lost, 126-123. And in a locker room more resigned than stunned, the reaction was almost a shrug. These things happen in the NBA, so let’s figure out why.   

"That first game is kind of a feeling-out process,” said the Warriors’ Steph Curry, “and we controlled the game for a good 32, 33 minutes. They went on a run at the end of the third, start of the fourth, and they got into it.”

Which wouldn’t have mattered if the Kings weren’t getting the ball into the basket, but they were. De’Aaron Fox getting 38 points formed a considerable 1-2 punch when adding Monk’s 32. 

What made the Warriors feel upbeat on a night of noise and defeat was the return of the missing Andrew Wiggins. He had been gone since February because of the mysterious family situation. He played 28 minutes, scored 17 points, and had a career playoff high of four blocked shots.

“We told him how happy we are to have him back,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who gave Wiggins a half hug as the player left the court.

Curry had 30 but couldn’t hit a jump shot with seconds left to play.

“All in all," said Kerr, “to come out here with a 10-point lead in the second half, have a chance to win late, I like where we are. I think we’re in a pretty good place.”

If not as good a place had they won.