We gave you a few snippets earlier of a press conference the Golden State Warriors held, featuring Andrew Bogut and GM Bob Myers. Rusty Simmons followed up with more details, and folks: it ain't pretty.
"We don't want to fool anybody, anymore," Bogut said. "We don't want to keep creating a little bit of excitement of, 'Hey, Andrew might be playing Saturday. It might be Monday. He's back.'
"It's enough. It takes a toll on me personally and on the organization. ... It got to the point that we spoke this morning and I said, 'Let's make it an indefinite leave until I'm ready.' There's no point in throwing numbers out there."
So, there's one part of the story. No more speculation, no more estimates, no more being led on: he'll play when he's ready, and who the hell knows when that might be. I think a lot of us at Golden State of Mind had already accepted that glum reality, but it never feels good have your fears confirmed.
For the overly fearful, Bogut does offer this caveat:
"We've got five months left, six if we make the playoffs. I don't think it's going to be another six months. That would be a massive setback. I'm not going to say a month, two months or three months, but I definitely think I'll be back to play again this season."
Uh, actually, I don't know if that makes anybody feel better.
The article goes on to discus the audibled microfracture surgery we talked about earlier. The good news is that I don't think there's any clear evidence that the Warriors rushed Bogut back too soon and caused worse damage. The swelling is unpredictable and the ankle responds differently each day, it seems. Even if they'd never put him on the floor, sounds like there's a good chance he'd be in the same predicament.
The bad news? I mean, the other bad news? Read on.
"On any injury, I don't think there's any attempt at deception or omission," Myers said Wednesday. "We convey it how we think it's appropriate. As long as we're on the same page with the athlete per the rules, our focus is on the recovery time. ... I'd like to think we are transparent and always will be."
...
When Myers was asked about Bogut's microfracture surgery, he said, "In the overall procedure, the focus wasn't that. We always knew that this was something that may allow him to be ready for the opening of camp. ... There were a lot of components to the injury that made it be a situation that might take a little time, but knowing that element from the get-go didn't change any of expectations and don't to this day."
Bogut had a different take on whether the microfracture surgery added to the recovery time: "Of course, it did. One hundred percent. Without that procedure, I'm at eight weeks. With just a basic sewing of the tears, a cleanout and a score, it's generally six to eight weeks. That would have been July, but my procedure was obviously much more detailed than that.
Myers may "like to think" they're transparent. I like to think the Warriors Girls are going to walk into this room in 2 minutes with garbage bags full of cold hard cash. But both are complete fantasies. If Myers actually does think they've been transparent, then he's completely delusional.
Hey Bob: Andrew is sitting in the same room, debunking your crap. You might want to pay attention.
I've been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt up until now, but forget all that. Again, this isn't about allowing Bogut to play on opening day — he was cleared by doctors to do so, and Andrew himself seems to have been the driving force behind that decision. Of course I wish he hadn't — as I said earlier, someone should have stepped in and put the kibosh on that plan.
But if what Bogut says is true, that without the microfracture procedure he would have been out eight weeks? Well then, Myers and co: you haven't just been playing coy, obscuring the truth with halve-truths and semantics. You've just been lying. To the fans. To the media. To your paying season ticket holders and corporate sponsors. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that last group is what got you.
Here's what really pisses me off: that Bob Myers and Joe Lacob had the arrogance to believe they could keep this on the hush-hush. And then the next-tier arrogance to keep spinning away, even as Bogut blows up their construction in the very next interview.
And the absolute worst part: this press conference never would have even happened if Bogut hadn't let the microfractured cat out of the bag. No, you would have kept on lying. Kept creating false hopes. Kept selling tickets. All on the back of a fallacy of your own creation.
Transparent, Bob? Yeah, you guys are transparent all right. We're starting to see right through you.