I spent a few minutes chatting with a few members of the Golden State Warrior coaching staff last night during the pregame in Oakland and then took a step back and looked at how the NBA looks after its own. It seems like once you're in the club, you can call a friend when you are going through tough times. That being said, all of them are very capable basketball men.
Keith Smart, he of the game winning shot for Indiana in the 1988 NCAA Final against Syracuse, was actually someone I played against the year before he went off to play for Bob Knight. Smart, now Don Nelson's "defensive coordinator", was a member of the National Junior College All-Star squad that took part in a tournament in Colorado Springs that a club team I played for happened to be taking part in.
It was a talented squad with the likes of future NBAers such as Tom Tolbert, Dean Garrett, and Mitch Richmond also on the team. The other two assistants are Stephen Silas, son of former NBA coach Paul Silas, a former teammate of Nelson's and Larry Harris, the one time General Manager of the Milwaukee Bucks, is the son of Del Harris former head coach of a number of NBA teams and current assistant coach in Chicago. The younger Harris was thrown a lifeline after losing his management position in Milwaukee, the same way Scott Layden, former GM in New York Knicks, landed on his feet in Utah after being sacked by the Knicks.
The members of the coaching staff are all anticipating the return of Monta Ellis, who is said to be about a month away. Ellis, the explosive backcourt scorer has recently started to get back on the court for workouts following a moped accident that put him on the shelf this summer just after he signed a long term contract extension.
Let's hope that there is someone in the NBA ready to throw current Warriors GM Chris Mullin a life preserver as it looks like he will be shown the door in Oakland. Mullin has lost his power base and all indications point to him being released at the end of his current contract in Golden State. Too bad because he has done a good job drafting young players trying to rebuild the club after Baron Davis got away. Now some will say that never should have happened but that's the business. I guess the same can be said for what Mullin is now enduring.
It was another great crowd at Oracle Arena last night. Chatting with Doug Smith post game we noted that the Warrior faithful had many of the same characteristics the fans in Portland had as they were loud and supportive of their team. It didn't matter that things were not going well for the squad this season; the Warrior fans just love their team. Exhibit A: Golden State builds a big lead and as Toronto starts to make a sustained run, reeling them in, the fans starting cheering to try and encourage the home town hoopsters to crank it up once again. They did it on their own, no scoreboard prompting, just knowledgeable fans expressing the "c'mon fellas, let's pick it up and remember what got us this lead" type cheer. All it took was one bucket and the place goes crazy and they are back into the game with the home team feeding off the energy. It sure sounded like Jose Calderon was dropping a hint for the Toronto fans to do the same kind of thing in his post game chat with the media. The Raptors are in need of wins over the next three games at home against upper echelon teams.
A day after his former teammate Stephen Jackson told the media that Baron Davis wants to come back to play in Oakland for the Warriors, "B-Diddy" is denying he uttered those words and seems to be trying to clarify "Captain Jack's" remarks.
