You might have caught this online or in your local newspaper:
Word on the street is that Jason Richardson alone dropped half of the estimated $100,000 to put up the ad. JRich deserves mad props for the gesture towards Warriors Nation. You have to love the man for well, showing Warriors Nation some love. That's a lot of money for one person to spend. Although, it appears that many of the Warrior players did not know what they were signing, they all deserve some credit.
But this once again shows how bad Warriors (mis)management really is. Missing signatures on the apology letter are the clowns (owner Chris Cohan and team President Robert Rowell), Vice President Chris Mullin, and General Manager Rod Higgins, and Coach Montgomery. The Warrior players have their weaknesses, but for the most part they all played hard during the season and gave it all they had. The Warrior players (Jason in particular) have nothing to apologize for.
Mullin and Higgins constructed a flawed roster and created a salary mess that will be tough to get out of. Montgomery did as poor a job coaching as anyone not named Larry Brown in the NBA this season. However, these three were all set up for failure. None of them have ever had any legit NBA experience or success, yet they were given full control. The VP, GM, and Coach were definitely a major part of the problem this year, but they aren't responsible for the 12 years of losing. It would be nice to see them formally apologize like the players, but Mullin has gone on record in radio and other interviews thanking the fans. They're good guys and they're all trying.
The real apology should come from the clowns (Cohan and Rowell). They continue cashing checks and stealing dollars from some of the best fans in all of sports, while hiding behind the scenes and absolving themselves of any blame for a horrendous product. Cohan and Rowell (the ticket raisers) are the real problem. They are the ones who should be apologizing for being in charge of one of the worst franchises in all of sports (well, okay- as Hash noted when we were at a Warriors game, the Milwaukee Brewers are worse).
The most disturbing part has to be what one of the clowns said (from Inside Bay Area):
"That's kind of Jason's style," Rowell said. "As a captain of the team, he's representing all his guys. That's what a good leader does, pulls everyone up with them, and that's Jason. That's been Jason ever since he's been in a Warrior uniform."
Looks like someone doesn't practice what they preach. Sorry clowns- but it's even more important that an apology comes from you guys. JRich might be the leader of the team on the floor, but if your titles are owner and president- you're the actual leaders. Jason isn't the one who should be organizing an apology. Everything comes back to the top even if you work for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey.
I've always thought clowns were scary, but these clowns aren't scary... they just aren't classy. (zetaminor.com)
Do you think Cohan and Rowell should be the ones apologizing instead of the players?
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Also see: Update: J-Rich tweets about the Ad. It will be in this Thurs's AZ Republic Paper. (5/26/10)