The Warriors have a number of free agents, and it was always going to be tough to bring everyone back. It’s surprising, though, that Golden State has already lost one of its most decorated employees, given that it’s still mid-June.
The Warriors have already lost 1 Hall of Famer
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But Jerry West has decided to leave the Warriors for a similar consulting job with the L.A. Clippers, reports Jack McCallum at SI. That makes West the second member of the Warriors’ front office to leave this summer: Assistant GM Travis Schlenk had previously decamped to Atlanta to take a job as GM of the Hawks.
As McCallum notes, The Logo did not have decision-making power in Golden State. Bob Myers runs the front office, and is extraordinarily capable. But West was an important voice whose impeccable record commanded respect. He’ll be a boon to Los Angeles ... if the Clippers don’t lose Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and J.J. Redick before West has a chance to establish himself.
While West won’t serve as a decision-maker for the Clippers, it’s fascinating to see him line up across town from Magic Johnson, the Lakers’ new personnel boss and the centerpiece of the Showtime teams West created. L.A. is mighty interesting these days.
Tim Kawakami on how Jerry West changed the Warriors.
Look: This Foot Locker ad about what fathers mean to some of the top NBA draft prospects is absolutely phenomenal. Maybe you’ve seen tweets or headlines about how Lonzo Ball makes fun of his dad in the new Foot Locker ad. You’ve got to see it, though. Glorious. I’m back on Team Lonzo.
David Roth raises the specter of Lonzo actually being funny.
Why Charlotte Wilder can’t blame Kevin Durant for joining the Warriors.
Excellent Ramona Shelburne piece on the Warriors learning to own their identity.
Chris Herring on how the team that can beat the Warriors isn’t out there ... yet.
Longtime Spurs watcher Mike Monroe is highly skeptical of the Chris Paul to San Antonio murmurs.
Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman likens the Warriors’ championship to a trophy wife for Kevin Durant. This is wrong on so many levels.
There is a biopic about Stephon Marbury’s stardom in China. It stars Stephon Marbury as Stephon Marbury. Here is the trailer.
In today’s episode of This Is So Unnecessary, David Stern declared that he’s “done more for people of color than Bryant Gumbel has.” This goes back to an infamous quote Gumbel made on Real Sports in the run-up to the 2011 NBA lockout comparing Stern to a plantation overseer. Stern is famously acerbic and pulls no punches. But this is so unnecessary. “I disagreed then and I disagree now with Gumbel’s assessment. Under my stewardship and thanks to our amazing players, we raised the average annual salary of NBA players to $6 million and expanded the league from less than 300 players to 450. My record speaks for itself.” Boom. You’re done, without any controversy. It’s that easy.
Woj reports that LeBron plans to join the Lakers or Clippers in 2018. If people are overly skeptical, it’s because LeBron traditionally plays his cards extremely close to the vest and his free agency is more than a year away.
Some more draft intrigue! Jonathan Isaac isn’t working out for teams picking later than No. 4. Does that mean he has a promise from the Suns, or that his camp wants to signal to the league that he’s a top-4 prospect?
Beautiful piece from Chris Ballard on Steve Kerr, who enjoyed the Warriors’ championship more than anyone.
The hero who had Klay Thompson sign a toaster has been invted to Thursday’s championship parade.
And finally: Shout out to Kelly Dwyer, who revealed he has been let go by Yahoo! after running Ball Don’t Lie seemingly forever. Dwyer was at SI.com when basketball blogs were first budding in the mid-2000s, and no one at a major publication did more to expand visibility of new writers and make connections between traditional and new media. He was (and is) also a fricking incredible writer and observer of the game. He linked me when no one knew who I was, and said some incredibly nice things about my writing over the years. But more than that, he’s just set an awesome example on how to watch basketball, write about it, and share the love. He’ll be back somewhere, and it shouldn’t take something like this to lead to a public outpouring of love, but he deserves it.
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