Closer than you think
I know, I know, you're tired of KG rumors, but this one you have to read. It's more of an interesting story about how close the Warriors were to acquiring The Big Ticket. Guess who wrote it. Yup, our boy Tim Kawakami. He's got an amazing story, the stuff of legends. You have to check it out.
While the Warriors' Chris Mullin and T-Wolves' Kevin McHale scrambled to get this complicated deal done in the moments/minutes before Charlotte picked eighth, Charlotte never heard directly from either team who the pick should be, thus messing up everything, or so the tale goes.
Doh! Bad communication led to the Warriors not getting KG? Was it Cingular, Verizon, or Sprint? Land line not working? Get it fixed.
So what would the deal have been? Here's the speculation:
-Sent Richardson to Charlotte;
-Sent a whole bunch of stuff to Minnesota, including Al Harrington (probably), Monta Ellis (probably), future picks, and the rights to Al Thornton (selected with Charlotte's No. 8 overall pick);
-Added in a bunch of other salary-cap fillers here and there to make sure the money worked.
Do I buy the story he's telling? Overall, yes, I do believe the Warriors had a deal in place for KG, but the reasons it didn't go down are unknown. I just don't (maybe refuse) to buy that Mullin trades away his favorite Warrior, JRich, for a rookie he never worked out and a trade exception. How does that help Nellie or Baron elevate the team to the next level? I guarantee that Nellie does not care how good the Warriors will be in 3 years when Wright might blossom. He only cares about next season, so trading away JRich for 2 pieces that don't immediately help screams of a deal gone wrong. Maybe that's just me hoping Mullin isn't building for the future (again).
Read the rest of the article, even if you don't believe that any of this is true. It just makes for a great story. There are so many subplots, twists and piecing together of bits of information that it's like one giant puzzle Kawakami is stringing together. It's almost like one of those stories that you just can't make up. It's something that would hit the silver screen in Hollywood. KG almost a Warrior.
Do you believe the story?
Also check out the diary KG: post-draft preference still MIN? where JB dropped the link originally and members left some great comments about the rumor.