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)
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