Q&A: Tim Kawakami [Bay Area News Group]: Rowell, Mullin, and Nellie- The Role of the Media (1/12/09)
by Atma Brother ONE on Jan 15, 2009 6:15 PM PST
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PrintIn our last segment Tim broke down the roles Rowell, Mullin, Nellie, and Riley each played in creating the current state of the Golden State Warriors.
Plenty of Points about Bay Area Sports
After the jump Tim talks about his interactions with Rowell, Mullin, and Nellie and assess if this plays a role in his evaluations of them.
Atma Brother #1 (Golden State of Mind): Don Nelson seems to have a lot critics in the local and national media who if not explicitly have not so subtly implied that he should be fired, isn't the right coach for a young roster (who is?), and has stabbed his buddy Chris Mullin the back. His positive coaching efforts and historic NBA resume are rarely even acknowledged.
Mullin seems to have a lot of fans in the media who rarely point out his failings or criticize his work, despite being the VP/ GM of this losing team for over 4 years now. He has a somewhat martyr front office status and gets respect for his tenure with the Warriors.
Robert Rowell gets the hilarious "BUY TICKETS! BUY TICKETS! BUY TICKETS!" mocking and doesn't seem to be regarded that highly by the local media. His ascension to President of the Warriors can be characterized as being incredibly curious given his credentials.
After a short moratorium beginning with the Mullin/ Mike Montgomery era, the media is back to exposing Chris Cohan's complete incompetence as the 15 year owner of the Golden State Warriors.
What role do you think (if any) these sentiments are fueled by how each of these individuals interact with members of the media (e.g. freezing them out, manipulating them, being nice or accommodating)? In other words does it ever get personal? Also, how do these individuals interact with the media currently given their recent characterizations?
Tim Kawakami: Tremendous question. I can say specifically, for myself, that Robert Rowell and I have never had cross words and he has generally been available when I've asked to speak to him. Yet I've been very, very, very critical of him. All personal? I don't think so. You make the call.
I have a pretty good relationship with Mullin and have (mostly) defended him over the years, especially now, yet I've seen and heard from him in recent months just about as rarely as everybody else: Almost not at all. Personal? Your call. Don't think so.
Nelson's another matter, since he's the coach and is league-mandated to speak regularly, which he does, with alternating levels of charm and crustiness. I've always liked talking to Don and he occasionally has liked talking to me, mostly because, I think, I ask him very specific basketball questions which he likes to answer--because he's the best techical NBA coach I've ever covered, including Phil Jackson.
But I've been extremely tough on Nelson recently. He hasn't loved it and has said so. Basically, that's the outline for me saying: At least personally, I can't say that personal issues have colored the coverage.
What has happened is that this thing has blown up among Nelson, Rowell, Mullin and Cohan. The media stuff is just a product of that, sorry to say. If I'm not trying to decide how it went wrong and who's mostly to blame, then I don't think I'm doing my job. In fact, if I'm not trying to make judgements on a 11-28 season, then I'm running away from my job.
You properly point out that Mullin has been in charge of the basketball decisions for four seasons, and partly was responsible for some of the things that have gone wrong this season, too.
I'd point out that Cohan has been in charge for 15 seasons, with Rowell by his side for most of them. Of those 15, only two were above .500. Mullin was the guy running the show for those two (and two losing seasons and part of this one), with Nelson's assistance, and Mullin was the guy who traded for Baron Davis.
If you're the guy in charge for the ONLY two successful seasons out of 15... I give more credence to the success than the two-plus seasons of non-success, since I think we can agree that non-success is the usual Cohan/Rowell result, if left to their own devices.
I'd also point out that Nelson has had this cycle before--decent success, good run, antsiness, politicking, absolute detonation--many times in his career, including HERE with Webber.
Is my criticism influenced by personal relationships? Maybe only because I know that, even privately, Mullin has never tried to dodge blame for the decisions that turned out wrong. I know that his moves have always had a logic to them, even when I disagreed with the logic.
And I know, publicly and privately, Rowell and Nelson have frequently ducked responsibility even for stuff they've clearly done and done all kinds of illogical stuff. I mean, is there a worse decision that giving Stephen Jackson that three-year extension? Everybody in the league was shaking their heads at that one. That was not Mullin.
If you're the guy who lands the best player in recent franchise history, hires the best coach, gets undermined by that coach, and accepts blame when it's fair... and the other major parties are doing all of the ugly stuff at a rapid rate... I'm going to blame the other guys--Rowell, Cohan and Nelson--who have a pattern and are following it.
**********
All of us at GSoM wanted to thank Tim for his always candid and thoughtful responses. Definitely make his blog Talking Points a regular visit. Whether you agree or disagree with his takes, Tim's a fun read and always knows how to get a good conversation going.
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Good question
Warriors, Stupidest franchise in the league.
Bad Rap on Tim
The apologists for Nellie bad rap Tim and accuse him of making his opinions the story or worse, creating stories like recently about Monta. But if you take the personalities out of it, the objective evidence is the franchise has simply sucked for all but the two previous years after Mullin passed the learning curve and got a clue. Once Rowell started making basketball decisions beginning with personally being responsible for Baron being with the Clippers, it has been nothing but downhill since then.
I just don’t understand why some fans disapprove of Tim and his reporting and blog. You can’t argue with the brutal facts of this disillusioning season under Rowell’s tacit VP control and Nelson’s inability to coach a young team. It is just infruiating because we were on the upswing and had great promise. But there is one thing Tim probably wouldn’t say but I will: Cohan, Rowell and Nelson don’t give a damn about the fans of Golden State. This is totally our fault because we are far too tolerant of mediocracy while stupidly being willing to buy tickets and merchandise no matter how badly the management and coaching is. And it is really, really bad. So I applaud Tim (and Ric Bucher) for simply telling the damn truth and that is we have a crappy, absence owner, the owner’s arrogant and egotistical surrogate who doesn’t know diddily about basketball, and no real VP in place other than Nellie’s “man” Riley, and a manipulative and pathalogical lying coach who has given up on our team this year. Yes, I’m pissed but mostly disappointed in what could have been.
CWebb is undoubtedly the answer but I forgot the question.
disagree w/ Mullin turning a corner, if he doesn’t hire Nellie, Fisher, Dunleavy & Murphy are likely still with the team. and Montgomery is still holding Baron, Monta and Andris back while playing half court and playing Foyle, Dun, and Murph alongside JR & Baron. Matt Barnes never gets a chance. and basically Mullin’s four seasons are losing ones. and since Monta/Dris probably don’t get the same minutes, we don’t know what we have and Cohan doesn’t want to head into luxury tax territory so they are both gone. we do likely have higher draft picks and probably don’t take MB. though Mullin looks like he was set on AR.
even according to a Mullin backer like TK, he’s the one who overpaid and threw mega money at Maggette and worked out the trade for Crawford. and who knows if he threw the money at Brand or Arenas. his draft history isn’t even better than St Jean’s. we just couldn’t keep Arenas b/c the way the rules were set up.
Nellie had no problem coaching young teams and rebuilding them before – his problem is he gets you from a to b, but (since his Bucks days) not from b to c. he hasn’t done a great job this season, but he isn’t ruining the team. this year was lost by Monta and no one else. as frustrating as it is to watch the team struggle, sucking badly is better then fighting Dallas and Utah for the 8th spot. provided Monta returns to form, they’ll be fine as long as 1 of 3 things happens – Randolph develops or Wright develops or they pick up a player in the ’09 draft.
a lot of owner’s are absent – Cohan is a typical middle of the pack owner, he spends money on the team, but when push comes to shove, he puts money ahead of the team. i don’t know whose been picking the GMs (team president?), but that’s been the downfall of this team. there are worse owners, Clips, Grizz, Sonics – er Thunder, Minny, NY… Cohan’s not much different than the owners of the Bobcats, Pacers, Hawks, Wizards, Jazz, etc etc etc. (those that spend, but won’t go past the tax).
TK’s problem is that he manufactures stories, a lot of his reporting is actually speculation. and as much as he says he isn’t biased, he’s an ardent Mullin supporter. so anyone against Mullin is going to get slanted in a negative way – which they may deserve, but an intelligent reader should always keep that in mind when drawing conclusions.
by the evil monkey on Jan 16, 2009 5:18 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Great Q&A
Tim has very strong opinions, but that is his job! He’s a columnist and doesn’t purport to be a reporter. He’s paid to have an entertaining, insightful opinion, and he does. He’s very well-written and thought-provoking so I don’t understand what people think is missing in his writing.
To me, it doesn’t matter whether he’s right or not. Sports are not reality anyway, they’re entertainment and so is Tim’s writing. I say keep it up!
The job of the journalist is to report the news
NOT TO BE THE NEWS! Tim K consistantly tries to put himself above the story and draw attention to himself and his blog. The story and inevitably the truth get slost in all his hyperbole.. He has become a tabloid journalist and that is unfortunate. It is possible to be critical of the team yet remain objective. Somewhere along the line Tim has lost his journalisitc integrity. At this point Matt Steinmentz is a more accurate source of the truth.
by dungeness crabdribble on Jan 16, 2009 7:48 AM PST reply actions
The sad part is...
There’s a reason tabloids exist. Their sensationalist stories perk the collective ears of the readers, earning subscriptions, impulse buys at the checkout counter, clicks, whatever. His response to this question seems to be fairly objective, although I’m hesitant to believe that he’s asking Nellie all these “very specific basketball questions” because all he ever talks about is how much Nellie hates Player X. Where are the articles about the plays the Warriors are trying to run in endgame? Where are the articles about why the youngin’s aren’t playing? If Nellie really was talking about specific basketball details, Kawakami isn’t exactly putting those in his articles. If you’re reading this Tim, I’d be interested to hear about Nellie’s “specific basketball answers”.
"No no Nene!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB5DxNl4EB0
by Dubs fan in Boston on Jan 16, 2009 9:22 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Great post...
I think you nailed the issue exactly. Tim K has found his place in the market, and unfortunately for those of us who are looking for something more substantive, his place is basically sports gossip.
Thing 2
Timmay!
I think the reason people, or at least myself think Kawakami is sort of a schmuck is because he’s an embellisher. He reminds me of the kid in Jr. High who makes a mountain out of a mole hill. He’s the kid that saw Johnny get pushed at break and by the end of the day Johnny got into a full out blood bath brawl. He’s the kid who said he saw Susie making out with Johnny when in fact they were just talking. Regardless of how bad my examples may be, Kawakami does all of his embellishing on the World Wide Web. He’s sort of a smut peddler or gossip columnist and does it all to promote himself all while looking like an invalid chump.
Yes the Dubs suck. Yes Rowell is an idiot. Yes Cohan is cheap, but at the end of the day Kawakami is just a blogger. To me a blogger has as much validity as say TMZ or Perez Hilton; you know those two ultra respectable sources of information.
agree on Tim
Whoever called him a journalist is missing the boat.
I would love to see the results of this technical backetball talk he mentions with Nellie. I dont remember ever reading a Kawakami piece that seemed more technical than gossipy.
by warriorsvictim on Jan 16, 2009 10:18 AM PST reply actions
Yep
That comment was likely more a “TK tooting his own horn” sort of thing than anything else.
"No no Nene!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB5DxNl4EB0
by Dubs fan in Boston on Jan 16, 2009 10:32 AM PST up reply actions
Does Pree still frequent this site?
I enjoy reading his stuff much more than Timmy K’s.
WARRIORS BASKETBALL!!! Patiently waiting for a title...I may be waiting for a long time...
Without opinion...
Sports writing, like most sports interviews are BORING. Coaches, players, owners, GM’s, nobody says anything factual, revealing, or interesting at all… Even the status of injuries can’t be trusted. Nellies about the only guy who comes close to saying it like is, or at least saying something interesting. So TK takes whats out there and makes some guesses as to whats going on in an interesting and compelling style… I don’t understand why people dislike that so much.
And if people are upset that the warriors have to respond to claims, they should be forced to say something about the state of the team. Someone steps up with some honest people would be more accepting. If these guys didn’t constantly say one thing and do another the writers would have less ammo…
TK takes whats out there and makes some guesses as to whats going on in an interesting and compelling style
His “guesses” are whatever will get people talking and clicking on his links. End of story. I don’t doubt that he’s smart, but if his response to seeing Randolph not get PT is “There’s a feud between Nelson and Randolph”, that’s sensational journalism and not the most logical answer (which happens to be: Randolph doesn’t know how to play within himself so Nellie can’t trust him to do what needs to be done on a given play). If he’s just letting Monta’s agent feed him “Double jeapordy” stories and running with it, he’s writing sensational journalism and letting Monta’s agent manipulate the press.
And if people are upset that the warriors have to respond to claims, they should be forced to say something about the state of the team.
If these “claims” are completely unfounded, the time and effort the organization spends refuting the claims is time and effort that could be much better spent elsewhere.
If these guys didn’t constantly say one thing and do another the writers would have less ammo
OMG!!! They change their ideas sometimes? They think a player is ready for PT but find out later in practice that they aren’t? They change their line ups to take advantage of the weaknesses and mitigate the strengths of opponents’ rosters? OMG!!!
"No no Nene!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB5DxNl4EB0
by Dubs fan in Boston on Jan 19, 2009 11:04 AM PST up reply actions
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