Ray was born and raised in the Bay Area, and has been addicted to the local sports scene since Luis Polonia was roaming left field for the A's. You can always pick him out of a crowd by looking for the guy in Warriors gear. Ray is the Oakland Sports Examiner at Examiner.com, and his work can be found at:
http://www.examiner.com/x-12984-Oakland-Sports-Examiner
With the NBA offseason nearly underway, here’s a look at the three biggest issues the Warriors need to address this summer:
1. Point guard
Bill Walsh used to say that it was better to get rid of a player one year too early, rather than one year too late. Golden State, renowned for being a progressive organization, is way ahead of the curve on this one.
Oakland doesn’t get much publicity as a sports town, but the capital of the East Bay is one of the few cities in America to house a team in each of the three major sports (Take that, San Francisco! You too, hockey!). But faced with the prospect of losing two-thirds of its teams, Oakland is now in the middle of a sporting crisis.
Summer is nearly upon us, which means three things are about to heat up: the weather, the A’s, and trade rumors surrounding Oakland’s best player. This year, that player is Matt Holliday, who’s been an Athletic for a grand total of 57 games.
Despite being free of Colorado’s purple jerseys and dinosaur mascot, Holliday appears less than thrilled to be spending his contract year in Oakland. In his brief time here, he’s followed the basic formula of an old Clint Eastwood western:
In recent weeks, the Warriors have come under fire from the media and fans alike, after one of their employees admitted to posing as a season ticket holder on internet message boards. The team has been ridiculed not only for their duplicity, but for their inability to execute successfully
execute such a simple plan.
Rather than lampoon the team as so many others have done, I decided to seek some retribution. One afternoon last week, armed with nothing but a smile and a fake identity, I sought to give the team a taste of their own medicine. This is the tale of how I infiltrated the Warriors organization.
With the nation’s economy having shifted from “suck” to “blow”, many people have found themselves out of work, demoralized, and down on their luck. But don’t worry, citizens of the Bay Area. If you’re looking for a new career path, there are several prominent positions available with the local sports franchises. The following jobs are currently available and waiting for the right candidates:
Used to be, the two months between the Super Bowl and baseball’s opening day was the worst time of year. The Warriors were always dead and buried by February, so we in the Bay Area were forced to sit and wait for 60 days until the A’s and Giants returned and restored hope to our lives. The Warriors are the only good team in the neighborhood now, but that hasn’t stopped them from trying to inject some life into these two months anyway.
“Did you see the Warriors game last night?”
Used to be, if someone asked you that at work in the morning, it was followed by something like “Tracy McGrady dunked on six Warriors at once”, or “some of the fans ran onto the court and beat the Warriors in a pickup game”. But no more! Finally, regular-season Warriors games are now events for all the right reasons- most importantly, the team wins most of them. And they’re winning in style now, stealing the close games against good teams that they used to squander, and running teams in the bottom half of the standings right out of the gym.
13 years. That’s an eternity. 13 years ago, Greg Oden could barely grow a moustache. Edmund Dantes claims he spent 13 years on Chateu D’If, but he probably went crazy and rounded up after 11 ½. If you had a kid 13 years ago, it would already be asking for birth control or sneaking into your porn collection. I’m only 25, so for me, 13 years means I’ve spent over half my life supporting crap basketball- that’s almost too depressing for words. But now, after 13 years, it all seems worth it.
13 years. That’s how long it’s been since playoff basketball has been played in Oakland. But now that’s all about to change.
Tuesday was already shaping up to be a great day for the Bay Area. The A’s continued to pull away in the AL West, the Giants inched closer toward the NL Wild Card, the Raiders were enjoying their 4-0 preseason record, and the new Too Short album was set to hit stores. Fun for the whole family. And yet by 9 AM, all anyone could talk about was a 66-year-old man coming out of retirement (no, not Jeff George). After 12 brutal years, Don Nelson has finally returned as head coach of the Golden State Warriors, singlehandedly saving the team’s most disappointing offseason in years.
There are no handlebar moustaches to be found. No skin-tight plaid bellbottoms, either. And there’s no basket near the door for your keys. But the Oakland A’s are certainly doing their best to re-earn the nickname “The Swingin’ A’s”. By charging the mound against the Angels Tuesday, Jason Kendall scared away any remaining perceptions that the A’s are still the fun-loving, beer-chugging misfits they once were. Gone are the Lost Boys carrying out Jason Giambi’s never-grow-up credo; in their place is a group of veteran castaways who have taken control of the team, and instilled a fighter’s mentality. Given the way these A’s play, don’t be surprised if they end up in a few more scraps before the year’s over.