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Recap: Warriors 121, SEATTLE SuperSonics 126- Too Hot for TV! That's That.

By Atma Brother ONE

Well it's a good thing the season finale wasn't televised. Only this unclutch Warriors squad (3-6 in the final month of the season) could lose to the worst team in the Wild Wild West on the last game of the season at home on Fan Appreciation Night.

Final Preview/ Open Thread of 2k7-2k8

Capt

Nellie's too old and accomplished to be wasting his time with this sorry front office and cheap owner and so are we.

via d.yimg.com

Final Box Score of 2k7-2k8

Thank god it was all MEANINGLESS. Make a meaningful jump!

Game Notes

In this week's Counting W's segment on The W Column for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area here's what I wrote about this game:

There's no reason at all why the Warriors should drop this one to the worst team in the West at home in front of the We Believers on the last day of the season. None.

And here's what I wrote in the preview:

As for the actual game against the SEATTLE SuperSonics (S.O.S.), well it's completely meaningless. Monta Ellis could go 1 for 20 and it means nothing. Marco Belinelli could duplicate his fool's gold summer league game and go off for 37 points again. It still means nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Um, so yeah this game was completely MEANINGLESS. Don't get me wrong I had a great time out at the game and I rooting on the Dubs as if it was Game 6 of the Shock the World series, but at the end of the night it was MEANINGLESS. I'm sure the passionate GSoMers who were at the Roaracle can toss in some more game notes in the comments about this MEANINGLESS game, but just for fun here's a few of my game notes:
  • Kevin Durant is going to be a superstar. Man this guy looked smooth. Imagine Brandan Wright with silky smooth handles, a sweet jumper, and more fire. All-Star in 2-3 seasons guaranteed.
  • Jeff Green is going to be very, very good. He was absolutely killing the nonexistent Warriors D in the first half. His handles looked pretty good and he exploded to the rim several times. His behind the back pass in the low post was CWebb-esque.
  • Marco Belinelli's a nice shooter when he sets his feat and gets a good look. Too bad he has the worst shot selection I've ever seen since Antoine Walker and doesn't have a clue on defense. Fantasy Junkie caught Belinelli trying to crash for an offensive rebound from the top of the key when he was the last line of defense. He looked utterly lost on a backdoor cut from his man too. I can't say I understand why the crowd goes nuts every time he comes in the game. It's just disrespectful to a guy like Kelenna Azubuike who worked hard for his minutes this season, outplayed Belinelli since the Summer League (but got next to no attention), and beat him for a backup spot all season long. Where's the love for Kaz?
  • The Warriors D tonight, like most of the season, was similar to their 2008 Playoff run. Nonexistent. I know the game was MEANINGLESS, but their defensive effort was just atrocious. Let's just say the Warriors "big 3" of Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, and Stephen Jackson didn't win any votes for Defensive Player of the Year tonight.
  • Andris Biedrins walked away with a nice gaudy stat line, but there's two things I'll remember from this game all offseason. When a Sonic wingman was driving to the hole (unguarded of course) Biedrins tried to slide underneath him late and take a charge which was rightfully whistled for a blocking foul. Biedrins had a nice look at the basket and instead of forcefully dunking over a smaller Sonic, elected to fade away and miss an easy 2 inches away from the bucket. Like the rest of this team in the final stretch. Soft.
  • Patrick O'Bryant and Brandan Wright looked sharp in those suits!
  • Props to the crowd tonight. They were loud and really into it. I was pleasantly surprised. The entire arena stood up for the last 2 minutes of the game rooting on the Dubs. That's luv.

S.O.S.

Here's my take on the Sonics and Seattle situation. You have a passionate hoops fan base that's getting played. The city already used public money to renovate the stadium in the mid 90's. Now some greedy billionaire owners are complaining that the taxpayers won't shell out their own hard earned dollars to help them build more corporate (read: less than casual fans) targeted luxury boxes so they can get richer. You know there are more important things in this world than continuing to line up billionaire's pockets with more green like improving public school education, public transportation, pollution, and other other public services. Disgusting. Capitalism and fan exploitation at it's worst. Let's hope Warriors owner Chris Cohan is at least classy enough not to go that route in a few years.

By the way Howard Schultz- nice little publicity stunt. Too bad you're probably going to lose the case and your efforts seem just a little bit disingenuous seeing as how you sold the team to a group of Oklahoma City investors in the first place.

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Some far superior insights from around the web:

There's plenty of more good stuff out there on S.O.S., so please drop links in the FanShots or in the comments section of this post. This is a big deal and if this goes down it could easily happen to any NBA fan community. No one is safe.

To get the offseason rolling I'm going to drop the first edition of what should be a semi-regular segment titled the Golden 5. Post any requests for the segment in the comments. A few of the topics in consideration:

  • Biggest Offseason Questions
  • Reasons to Look Forward to Draft Day 2008
  • Warriors Front Office Blunders of 2007-2008
But here's the Golden 5 numero uno...
**********

Golden 5: 2k7-2k8 Golden State Warriors were Unstoppable Baby!

1) Point's a Plenty!
A lot of critics will point to the Warriors lack of a credible and consistent low post scorer as the chief reason why they're gone fishing earlier than we and the NBA Ratings committee would have liked. I'll point them to the Warriors league leading 1 10.9 ppg this season. More often than not scoring was not a problem for this team. Nellie had a very flawed roster put up tremendous scoring outbursts nightly. It was just a pleasure to watch whether it was Boom Dizzle dazzling us with his stepback "what is he thinkin-- YESSSSSSSSSSS!" treys, Monta gliding to the rim and just floating in the air for what often seemed like an eternity, or Stack Jack shot putting another clutch trey in the 4th.

Defense- well, that's another story for another time.


2) Hell Froze Over
I still cannot get over the fact that Chris Webber came back 14 years after the breakup to reunite with Coach Don Nelson and retire as a Warrior this past season. Here's what I wrote on the day he retired:

As an editorial note, I have to say I really loved the drama and excitement of covering the Chris Webber and Don Nelson short, but wildly entertaining reunion tour on the Golden State Warriors 14 years after the breakup and start of the drought (see The Dirty Dozen: 1 | 2 | 3). Part of me now feels complete. The curse is over. I'm just waiting for Chris Cohan to sell the team now. Two words: Larry Ellison. He put the Oracle in Roaracle.

3) 1 Luv, 1 Dub in the Community
In this day and age of sports media sensationalism unfortunately all we ever see in the headlines is the negative stuff. It's like the mainstream media and b-rate independent blogs get a kick out of celebrating other people's struggles, misfortunes, and dysfunctionality. I'd just like to highlight a few of the many wonderful things this cast of Warriors did this season off the court:
That's a lot to be proud of. Please drop more in the comments. Spread the good word.


4) Counting Big W's
Don't ever forget these wins:

5) GSoM in Full Effect
This show rose to new heights this past season and a lot of times I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Rolling nearly 1000 deep to a Warriors game? Sporting the flyest threads at the Roaracle in unison? Messing around and getting a triple double on the real deal hardwood? We've come a long way my friends.

There's no other online hoops spot like GSoM. None.

**********

As Snoop and Kels would say THAT'S THAT. It's an odd ending to what was mostly a fun season but overall still a HUGE disappointment. When the Warriors ended last year with a Game 5 loss in the playoffs to the Jazz, both Fantasy Junkie and I wrote headlines proclaiming "This is just the beginning."

Sadly we couldn't have been anymore wrong. But I guess that's what happens when you follow a season that was sparked with a brilliant trade that the mastermind Nellie shaped into the improbable fastest starting 5 ever assembled (Baron, Monta, J-Rich, Stephen, and Al- you know the t-shirt!) with a cheap move that turned out to be a complete disaster in year 1 and deprived us all of a thrilling spring of We Believe 2.0 in the Bay.

Almost a year later we're back to where we started with this team. Back in the lottery and with even more dismal prospects of returning to the promised land (meaning 1st round of the playoffs) next year and beyond. The West is only going to get tougher next season with what should be improved teams like the TrailBlazers (the biggity biggity O), the Clips (Thornton + Brand + Kaman = Nice), and the Kings (they should be healthier and who knows? Artest might actually stay). If there's one thing that this season proved, it's that this current front office mindset and roster just isn't going to get it done. Major changes need to be made or else we could be looking at a team that's just fighting to make the 9th or 10th spot in the loaded Western Conference when it's all said and done in April 2009.

The future ain't looking so bright.

Thank god we still got jokes.

I want to dedicate this honor to my potnas in the GSoM Crew. Big ups to Fantasy Junkie (Justin), Hash (Ashish), DJ Fuzzy Logic (Brian), Yaobuttaming (Owen), Tony.psd (Anthony), R Dizzle (Ram), and Adam. This past Warriors season left a lot to be desired in terms of front office competence. Cohan, Rowell, and crew pulling a cheap bait and switch on the Warriors fan base (forcing thousands to buy season tickets to watch a playoff team last spring, then cutting costs in the offseason and refusing to spend for a Western Conference Playoff product this year) and pricing out many longtime loyal Warriors fans with next season's ticket price hike ain't so hot either. But there's no doubt about it. My boys made this entire season one big great time out! The amount of dedication, passion, and energy they pour into this friend-based effort 24-7-365 is just remarkable. For me they make it like that old CMY slogan:
Success is not in the trophy won, but in the race run.

Signing off on 2k7-2k8!

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