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Originally Posted by In The Line For VIIs
Another thing they need: new uniforms
[h2]For the Warriors, It Was a Fitting Farewell to a Season Worth Forgetting[/h2]
Posted Apr 16, 2009 1:08PM By Matt Steinmetz (RSS feed)
Filed Under: Warriors, NBA Injuries
Before we turn our attention to the playoffs, let's talk about the way the season finished for the Golden State Warriors, a team that didn't make the postseason.
In case you haven't noticed, the Warriors are a long way removed from the "We Believe" team of two years ago. And they had a very fitting ending this week to a truly lousy season.
For Monday's home finale against the San Antonio Spurs, the Warriors dressed the league minimum eight players because of injuries. That was the case for every one of the Warriors' last half-dozen games or so.http://
In fact, they really had seven players available because banged-up Marco Belinelli, who dressed, wasn't going to play unless they had gotten down to four guys.
So, it was left to a group of first- and second-year players along with some gamer veterans like Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf to bring home the Warriors' train wreck of a 29-53 season.
They didn't do badly, either. Rookies Anthony Randolph and Anthony Morrow and former D-League call-ups C.J. Watson and Kelenna Azubuike played out the string with energy and a series of nice efforts.
They went into Utah last Saturday and won a game that had implications for the playoff-bound Jazz. Against the Spurs, however, at Oracle Arena, that group didn't fare so well. San Antonio got up 34 points in the third quarter, prompting moans and groans and even a smattering of boos from "the greatest fans in the NBA," according to the franchise.
Meanwhile, the team's high-paid core of Stephen Jackson, Monta Ellis and Corey Maggette were nowhere to be found. They obviously weren't on the court since each one had been shut down because of injury.
But they weren't on the bench or even in the arena. Simply put, they weren't there. Goodness grief, it was Fan Appreciation Night.
According to a team spokesman, each of the three players were given permission to skip the game, either because of a personal reason or something injury-related. Well, that was a questionable decision, at best, and it sent a bad message to the fans.
Not to mention to the players' teammates and Warriors' employees who were left to try to explain the absences to season-ticket holders and other inquirers. The most-asked question in the aftermath of the Spurs' 101-72 dismantling that night was this: "Where the hell were those guys?"
Bottom line is it came across as disrespectful to the fans.
It's tough to imagine Turiaf, playing with a bothersome knee, and Biedrins, who made a point of returning from injury for the final two weeks of the season, being pleased with the missing trio.
Interestingly, Jackson, Ellis and Maggette made it to Oracle Arena for last Friday's home game against the Houston Rockets. But the threesome didn't join their team on the bench until the second half and they were gone by the final buzzer.
It's worth pointing out that the Warriors paid those three players lots of money recently. Maggette received a five-year, $50 million contract in early July and Ellis a six-year, $66 million contract weeks later.
Jackson, a team captain, personally negotiated a three-year, $28 million extension with team president Robert Rowell early in the season. Though the move was widely criticized as unnecessary, Rowell maintained that it was a sound one because Jackson had proven himself to be a leader and franchise cornerstone.
It's also worth noting that accounts on the internet have Maggette in attendance at last Saturday's Paul Williams-Winky Wright fight in Las Vegas. That would have been the night the remaining Warriors were gutting out an impressive win in Utah.
For what it's worth, one guy who was on the bench was the injured Jamal Crawford, the class-act of a player whom the Warriors apparently don't want back. Coach Don Nelson has acknowledged that he met with Crawford weeks ago and told Crawford that if he didn't exercise his early termination option at season's end, the team would try to trade him.
The Warriors make a point to praise their fans at every opportunity, and rightfully so. The Warriors had another monster year at the gate -- averaging 19,000 per -- despite a win total that went from 48 to 29 and another non-playoff season, its 14th one in the past 15 season.
Say what you want, Warriors fans are loyal and they show up for their team. You wonder why for one night some Warriors players couldn't show up for the fans.
Originally Posted by franchise3
TK is a lame.
Word to Lazy, the only dude who probably agrees with me.
Originally Posted by KingJay718
Did Jessica Alba, or Snoop Dogg attend any games this season? Bandwagoners...
To me, the Warriors' uniforms were just fine. Since a change is in stone already, it would nice of them to go back to a updated version, of the blue/yellow uniforms.
Weird, I always thought most people hated TK. I could never take him seriously after hearing some theory of him trying to cause problems on hisown so he can break the story to ESPN in the same manner that Ric Bucher did with the Nellie/Webber thing. He's just doing all he can to try to guaranteehimself a steady readership. Its kinda sickening.Originally Posted by franchise3
TK is a lame.
Word to Lazy, the only dude who probably agrees with me.