Kawakami: Nellie chose power, money over friendship, longevity

AlleyOop · Dec 14, 2008

This is old, but I never saw it up here, and it's still very, very relevant.

Don Nelson had a choice to make last summer: Either stand with his friend Chris Mullin to keep the Warriors stable, or undermine Mullin and grab the power, to heck with stability and everything else.

Naturally, Nelson chose the power (and $12 million) and the heck-with-everything option.

So here comes the messiness...

It was predictable. It was just Nellie Being Nellie — cunning and strategic and creative and not at all conducive to long, faithful friendships and evergreen tenures.

The inevitable result is this fractured but still fairly talented Warriors team, often playing like the sum of its warts.

Monday, the Warriors extended their losing streak to seven games by losing to the Miami Heat at Oracle Arena.

But there will surely be future Nelson disruptions and quixotic Nellie-Being-Nellie coaching behavior and possibly, if history repeats, a Nelson fade and strange departure. And lawsuits, of course.

Meanwhile, in a chase for immediate gratification, the Warriors have committed so much long-term money to Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Andris Biedrins, Monta Ellis and Jamal Crawford that this franchise is already a non-factor in the epic free-agent class of 2010.

The coach is signed through 2010-2011, too. No getting out of that one.

It didn't have to be like this, of course. At first, when Mullin hired Nelson by persuading owner Chris Cohan to forget and forgive the Warriors' tortured past with Nelson, they were the best coach-executive tandem the Warriors have had in decades.

Good things happened. Mullin has made his share of mistakes, of course, but with Nelson helping him out, this team had savvy and guts.

But Nelson turned the tables — now, for some reason, Mullin is suspect in the eyes of ownership — which means the Warriors are totally dependent on the 68-year-old coach. That is never a steady situation, as the Mavericks, Knicks and, yes, the Warriors discovered previously.

The latest shaky sign: Nelson recently declared that this team wasn't good enough to compete for a playoff spot, and Monday he continued to elaborate on that point.

"If you look at our team last year, we were really good," Nelson said before the game. "We didn't make the playoffs last year — we won 48 games.

"This team isn't nearly as good as that one. How would we expect to make the playoffs with this team when we didn't make it last year? And we had a lot of veteran players on the team. To me, it's just common sense. That's why I said it."

Nelson talked about rebuilding. About the long haul. But Jackson and Maggette are middle-aged players and who knows about Monta Ellis' comeback. So the Warriors probably will be rebuilding again in three years.

On one hand, it's hard to fully blame Nelson. This is definitely a flawed roster, at least until Ellis comes back fully healthy and Anthony Randolph and Brandan Wright step into significant roles.

Nelson didn't lose Baron Davis or cause Robert Rowell to turn on Mullin; Nelson merely facilitated it by stepping into the power void.

He didn't demand a new contract or seek Mullin's ouster.

But without the Warriors' weaknesses and Rowell's insecurities, Nelson would've never accumulated this kind of influence, and it comes off wrong when he starts to complain about the team's immediate prospects.

He's the one who has stubbornly stuck with Small Ball — and Maggette launching wild jumpers from the power-forward position — for long odd stretches this season.

He's the one who won't play Wright or Randolph for significant minutes, either because he doesn't trust them or because he's worried they might succeed and force him to play a more regular lineup.

He's the one who has installed his right-hand man, Larry Riley, as the presumptive general manager.

Without Nelson on hand, Rowell probably never would have dared to take on Mullin publicly, which was the move that has caused all the franchise reverberations.

Nelson went for instability. He heightened the drama. He showed no loyalty to Mullin. He took the $12 million, and, eventually, he'll probably run.

There was a little mini-example of that Saturday, when Nelson left the court with more than 10 seconds left, at the end of the Warriors' humiliation in New York.

"The game was over and we weren't going to foul, because we were down 12, I think, or 13, and we were going to let the clock run out," Nelson said. "And if it bothers you, I won't do it again."

Maybe. At least that's what he told us. But you never know what Nelson is going to do. He always ends up leaving when you think he should stay, and staying when you think he should leave.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/warriorsheadlines/ci_11117097

Custodianrules2 · Dec 14, 2008

What is really going on here? I'm not sure if this article is legit news. Kawakami has this tendency to play the angle on a lot of his stories. It's either hype, drama, fear, whatever that gets him noticed.

CohanHater · Dec 15, 2008

I re-state my official position, "Tim K is a duechebag, Janny Hu is the only true voice to listen to when it comes to Warriors basketball" I will restate this every time a Kawakami article is posted here.

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Kawakami: Nellie chose power, money over friendship, longevity

AlleyOop JBB JustBBall Member

Custodianrules2 Cohan + Rowell = Suck

CohanHater JBB JustBBall Member

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Kawakami: Nellie chose power, money over friendship, longevity

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AlleyOop JBB JustBBall Member

Custodianrules2 Cohan + Rowell = Suck

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