Re: Vescey's column - is Al blaming JO for the slow paced offense
The media in the Bay area loves this trade.
I'm expecting Dun and Murph to be ecstatic about coming to the Pacers.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/p...plate=printart
Article published - Jan 19, 2007
BOB PADECKY
What were the Pacers thinking?
By BOB PADECKY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Polaroids, they have to be somewhere. Chris Mullin must have pictures of someone working for the Indiana Pacers doing something embarrassing. Like an audition tape for "American Idol."
The Pacers couldn't have made that eight-player trade with the Warriors Wednesday straight-up, thinking they received value for value. Just couldn't. Either Mullin, the Warriors general manager, used hidden leverage or Indiana went utterly and completely stone-cold dumb. I believe in the hidden leverage theory because the great Larry Bird, of all people, is running the Pacers and no one has ever accused him of being a knucklehead.
Bird thinks Stephen Jackson drove him nuts? Larry, just wait until you look in the glassed-over eyes of Mike Dunleavy during a game and wonder where he is. Wait until Dunleavy becomes a magician and makes himself, all 6-foot-9 of him, disappear. Wait, Larry, until you try to instill aggression - something that came so natural to you - into Dunleavy and have him stare back at you like you aren't there.
For perspective, in the Bay Area only Giants reliever Armando Benitez receives the same kind of punishing treatment from the fans as Dunleavy did. The mere mention of either name at anytime, well, you would think they burnt down everyone's house.
Sure, Bird ended up hating the very breath the persnickety Jackson was taking. That, however, hardly begins to explain Bird acquiring two of the softest players in NBA history, Troy Murphy and Dunleavy. And for Mullin to sell Bird on those two guys - and the $79.8 million remaining on their contracts - it's one of the greatest trading coups in modern sports.
Honest. Like selling ice to an Eskimo, Mullin had no logical way to construct an argument in his favor, but somehow he did anyway.
Mully, I want $30,000 for a 1972 Ford Pinto that has 350,000 miles on it. Make the deal by the end of business today. Thank you.
It almost didn't matter if Mullin received anyone in return. Simple addition by subtraction would have worked fine here, those two players for a box of rocks works for me. Murphy, and especially Dunleavy, were an emotional drag on the Warriors. No future there, only catcalls. The Warriors were improved immediately by their exit and - hold on to your ticket stubs - Golden State now is viewed as pro-active.
Conversation now feels upbeat about the team. It should. The Warriors have immediately - I hate to use that word again but that's the emotional surge the trade has generated - become tougher. Forward Al Harrington is not afraid of his own shadow, can score and likes to run. At 26, he's a keeper. Jackson, at 28, is the same way but, no, the moralists scream, Jackson is the ethical ruination of the Warriors, the devil come to Oakland to destroy it and blah, blah, blah.
Jackson did jump in the stands in Auburn Hills and he did shoot off his gun in public and he did get into a screaming match with his coach and so he's not a finalist for Cub Scout of the Year. And if he just burps in public - Don Nelson will keep him on a short leash - Jackson will be out of Oakland faster than you can say "Latrell Sprewell." If a player averages 17.6 points a season as Jackson has done for the last three years, an NBA team will take him. After all, Sprewell worked for another two teams and for another seven years in the league - and that was after he choked a coach and was suspended for 68 games.
Nelson, however, commands respect, and high-strung players who normally abused the system fall into line. Baron Davis was supposed to take down the Warriors with his bad attitude and was working on it when Mike Montgomery was coach. But Davis has been cream pie since Nelson became coach.
Jackson is of very little risk, unless he takes out his gun during a game and jumps into the stands after screaming at Nellie.
The trade was a stroke of brilliance. The Warriors are fun to talk about again. This doesn't make them playoff-ready, but now at least we can see the possibility. They don't appear stuck, inert, lifeless. And oh yes, Mullin saved his job for the moment if for no other reason that this: He beat Larry Bird one-on-one. Now, that doesn't happen every day.
The media in the Bay area loves this trade.
I'm expecting Dun and Murph to be ecstatic about coming to the Pacers.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/p...plate=printart
Article published - Jan 19, 2007
BOB PADECKY
What were the Pacers thinking?
By BOB PADECKY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The Polaroids, they have to be somewhere. Chris Mullin must have pictures of someone working for the Indiana Pacers doing something embarrassing. Like an audition tape for "American Idol."
The Pacers couldn't have made that eight-player trade with the Warriors Wednesday straight-up, thinking they received value for value. Just couldn't. Either Mullin, the Warriors general manager, used hidden leverage or Indiana went utterly and completely stone-cold dumb. I believe in the hidden leverage theory because the great Larry Bird, of all people, is running the Pacers and no one has ever accused him of being a knucklehead.
Bird thinks Stephen Jackson drove him nuts? Larry, just wait until you look in the glassed-over eyes of Mike Dunleavy during a game and wonder where he is. Wait until Dunleavy becomes a magician and makes himself, all 6-foot-9 of him, disappear. Wait, Larry, until you try to instill aggression - something that came so natural to you - into Dunleavy and have him stare back at you like you aren't there.
For perspective, in the Bay Area only Giants reliever Armando Benitez receives the same kind of punishing treatment from the fans as Dunleavy did. The mere mention of either name at anytime, well, you would think they burnt down everyone's house.
Sure, Bird ended up hating the very breath the persnickety Jackson was taking. That, however, hardly begins to explain Bird acquiring two of the softest players in NBA history, Troy Murphy and Dunleavy. And for Mullin to sell Bird on those two guys - and the $79.8 million remaining on their contracts - it's one of the greatest trading coups in modern sports.
Honest. Like selling ice to an Eskimo, Mullin had no logical way to construct an argument in his favor, but somehow he did anyway.
Mully, I want $30,000 for a 1972 Ford Pinto that has 350,000 miles on it. Make the deal by the end of business today. Thank you.
It almost didn't matter if Mullin received anyone in return. Simple addition by subtraction would have worked fine here, those two players for a box of rocks works for me. Murphy, and especially Dunleavy, were an emotional drag on the Warriors. No future there, only catcalls. The Warriors were improved immediately by their exit and - hold on to your ticket stubs - Golden State now is viewed as pro-active.
Conversation now feels upbeat about the team. It should. The Warriors have immediately - I hate to use that word again but that's the emotional surge the trade has generated - become tougher. Forward Al Harrington is not afraid of his own shadow, can score and likes to run. At 26, he's a keeper. Jackson, at 28, is the same way but, no, the moralists scream, Jackson is the ethical ruination of the Warriors, the devil come to Oakland to destroy it and blah, blah, blah.
Jackson did jump in the stands in Auburn Hills and he did shoot off his gun in public and he did get into a screaming match with his coach and so he's not a finalist for Cub Scout of the Year. And if he just burps in public - Don Nelson will keep him on a short leash - Jackson will be out of Oakland faster than you can say "Latrell Sprewell." If a player averages 17.6 points a season as Jackson has done for the last three years, an NBA team will take him. After all, Sprewell worked for another two teams and for another seven years in the league - and that was after he choked a coach and was suspended for 68 games.
Nelson, however, commands respect, and high-strung players who normally abused the system fall into line. Baron Davis was supposed to take down the Warriors with his bad attitude and was working on it when Mike Montgomery was coach. But Davis has been cream pie since Nelson became coach.
Jackson is of very little risk, unless he takes out his gun during a game and jumps into the stands after screaming at Nellie.
The trade was a stroke of brilliance. The Warriors are fun to talk about again. This doesn't make them playoff-ready, but now at least we can see the possibility. They don't appear stuck, inert, lifeless. And oh yes, Mullin saved his job for the moment if for no other reason that this: He beat Larry Bird one-on-one. Now, that doesn't happen every day.
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