Blame It On The Boogie

Don't blame it on the sunshine
Don't blame it on the moonlight
Don't blame it on good times
Blame it on the boogie.

Tim Kawakami wrote in his blog today that Monta Ellis might be close to telling the Warriors to either love him, or leave him alone.

If he feels his recovery is coming along, Ellis could say by mid-December: Either void my deal or trade me, your choice, because I’m never playing for a franchise that would do this to me after I admitted my mistake and was ready to accept singular punishment.

That Ellis judgement is a very live possibility.

And there are teams that would take Ellis, if his deal was voided (basically, a release) or if the Warriors shopped him for trade.

I understand why the Warriors would feel like they were lied to. Well, because they were lied to. I understand that contracts have clauses and you're not supposed to do things that you are forbidden to do in your contract. That's all gravy. But 22 year old people make mistakes. Where's the forgiveness? Because the fans have already forgiven Monta. Why haven't the Warriors? And at what point do they push too hard and alienate him from the team?

What's frustrating from a Warriors fan perspective is that the franchise was back. We believed right? Even though they didn't make the playoffs last year, they had an excellent season for Warriors standards. We wanted them to resign Baron. If they couldn't resign Baron, we thought someone like Elton Brand could be good. Our eyes twinkled slightly at Josh Smith. We settled for Corey Maggette, knowing that we'd get Monta and Andris back. And now, you're telling us that we might not get Monta back and if we do, there's a possibility that he's going to be unhappy. It's far too reminiscent of Chris Webber, Latrell Sprewell, Joe Smith, and Gilbert Arenas. I thought we were moving forward, not backward.

So I came to this conclusion. Let's work together. Let's stop doing things that set the franchise back.

Warriors' brass, don't blame it on Monta.

Monta, don't blame it on the Warriors' brass.

Make up. Live happily ever after. You need each other. If you need someone to blame it on.

Do like Michael said. Blame it on the boogie.

Chris Webber’s First Game Back

I know what’s exciting for GS Warriors fans who are looking forward to Chris Webber’s return. It will be that no look pass or that trail dunk or maybe that rebound and snarl. But for me? I just want to see Webber go at it with Joe Smith in the battle of former highly touted Warriors rookies who lasted on the team 3 years or less.

Let’s just say that Joe Smith played like a former number one pick and Webber played like someone who hadn’t picked up a ball in a long time.

The Warriors played terribly for the about the first 20 minutes of the first half. But in the last 4 minutes of the half, they played brilliantly. I’ve definitely been keeping up with them this season but have only watched them on TV a handful of times. The one thing that stands out is Monta Ellis’ confidence. There were two plays where he took the ball right to the hole and dunked, where last year I’m not sure he doesn’t either pull up for a short jumper or pass. Maybe last year’s failures in the playoffs helped in his growing up. With the exception of Baron Davis, he looked like the best player on the court. The Bulls played without Kirk Heinrich, Ben Gordon, and Luol Deng and played above their heads, some in part due to the lack of Warriors defense. In the second half, the game was more stable, but the same things that plagued the Warriors in the first half (terrible at stopping penetration and not getting into defensive position), killed them in the second. They even had the lead for a short time, but played lazy on both ends and couldn’t come back. 

Superstar In The Making

As for Webber? He looked like a guy who hadn’t played in a long time. He looked achy. He looked like a guy who doesn’t want to run or jump. On offense, he can still pass from the post and get a blocked shot when you need it on defense. But the Warriors play so rag tag that Don Nelson is going to have to take Webber out when they need to change it up. And they always seem to need to change it up. Webber was a non-factor and I wonder how many times he’s going to be just that this year.

There was one telling play for Warriors fans that didn’t even mean anything in the game. Early in the first quarter, Joe Smith took a fade away sideline jumper that missed, but went to the free throw line because he was fouled by Webber. There were a lot of hopes and dreams involved in that play that seemingly went down the toilet when Webber forced his trade and when Smith turned out to be softer than toilet tissue.

In the end, the Bulls looked like the rested team, even though they were playing the second game on a back to back. Chris Duhon tried to be Michael Jordan and the Warriors didn’t do anything to stop him. The Warriors played defense like it didn’t matter. They had every chance to win it too. Every time they penetrated, it resulted in a great look or a layup chance. But for some reason, they wanted to shoot 25 footers all night. They’re going to give me a heart attack before this season is over.