Out with the old and in with the new

I’ve been on strike when it comes to the golden state warriors for the past few years. I am in the minority here, as usual, but I hate everything about Don Nelson. Hell, I hate him so much I won’t even call him Nelly b/c it just sounds so pathetic! I have been calling for his head for about two seasons and told anyone who would listen (that list has become shorter and shorter by the way) that until they fire that douche, I won’t watch a game in person, on TV or listen to them on the radio. I stuck to my guns and honestly only watched a bits and pieces of games over the past few seasons and saw the worst brand of basketball I’ve ever watched in my life. I blamed the ownership group and the head coach for taking this team from a miracle on the hardwood and creating a complete and total disaster! Well, I am happy to say that those days are now finally behind us.

The Warriors were recently sold for a ridiculous sum of $450 million to a young and energetic ownership group led by Joe Lacob, Managing Partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the world’s leading venture capital firm and Peter Guber, chairman of Mandalay Sports Entertainment. This was absolutely shocking news considering that the majority of sports talk show knuckleheads had us sold on the idea that Larry Ellison was the only man who could turn this team around and point them in the direction of basketball respectability. In the end, this was nothing short of a miracle because Joe Lacob and Peter Guber have a history of success in the Association and look to breathe life into a franchise that has the best fans in the entire league.

Entering the 2010-2011 NBA season, Warriors fans were introduced to a brand spanking new Warriors team. New ownership group, a new head coach, (who for the record was taught by Don Nelson so I was very skeptical) new jerseys, a new logo at half court. Let’s be honest. It felt like the new owners slapped a new coat of paint on a 78 pinto hatchback and wanted the fans to think they were riding in a shiny new Ferrari 458 Italia (Google it for pics b/c that ride is pimp) and everything was changing. I was more concerned with the play on the court than I was with the way the team looked when they walked in the gym. The Don Nelson school of defense, or shall I say lack there of, has created a very soft basketball team that just flat out doesn’t give a shit about playing a team brand of basketball and head coach Keith Smart was tasked with changing the image from within. It’s his responsibility to manage personalities, to get these players to be on the same page and to learn and grow as a unit. Some of these players are new and have no idea what it was like to play for Don Nelson, a guy who honestly approached the game with a “I don’t really give a shit” attitude and an aw shucks if we lost by 35 again attitude. On the other hand, some of these players played for Nelson for a few years and getting them to change their mind can’t be easy. Many of them have been playing with a “losing is part of the game” mentality, which can’t be easy to flush out. Keith Smart has a very complicated job in front of him and I believe he’s the right guy for this job. So far this season the players have his back, they are playing as a team, they have a toughness I haven’t seen in golden state in many years and coach Smart has something this team can’t live without. He has a court general in Stephen Curry, who at 22 is the best basketball player on this squad and clearly wants this to be his team. Keith Smart has been smart enough to allow the teams offense to run through Curry and that’s a great thing for this team. As Curry goes, so does this team and they will go as far as he can take them this season.

This team needs to find an identity early in the first 15-20 games of the season and once they find it, that’s who they need to be. I don’t care if their collective identity is playing with toughness, knocking heads around or if they play more of a finesse style of game. Whatever they decide, I want this basketball team to figure out who they are, stick with it all season and even through that inevitable tough stretch where they lose some games, stick with who they are. That’s an issue that has plagued this franchise for many years. Under Don Nelson they were simply a soft bunch of guys who limited their ability to win games by playing an individual-me-first style of game and that isn’t going to work anymore.

This is the start of a new season and a new era in Golden State Warriors basketball and I am willing, begrudgingly, to be patient and allow them to figure out whom they want to be. I am cautiously optimistic about this season based on their 6-2 start, which is the best start to a season since the 1994-95 season when they started 7-2.

By Hector Macho Camacho 11/11/10