Category: Golden State Warriors

by Tony the Tiger Hayes

SAN FRANCISCO–If the Golden State Warriors were to win or even sweep the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA Championship their first since 1974-75 could that change the direction for the Warriors in getting a new arena constructed at Mission Bay? San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development seems confident that any proposal or any measure on the ballot opposing it would be defeated and the Warriors will succeed in getting the new arena.

The hot debate had been about traffic issues in the South of Market Mission Bay project and the city has brought forward an 800 page environmental impact report that consists of how traffic would work during arena events. Mission Bay Alliance who has opposed the new Warriors arena says that traffic will be a standstill before and after Warrior games and other events at the arena.

The city environmental report says they have a solution to the traffic problem. When the peak of traffic starts between 6:30PM-7:30PM on weekdays when workers mainly go home at that time in traffic and fans are going to try and get to the arena, the city plans to redirect arena traffic to go onto 16th, Third and Illinois Streets. The UCSF hospital traffic was a concern on how emergency vehicles would be able to access the roads during those peak times.

The city has planned for hospital traffic to use Owens, Minnesota, Fourth and Seventh Streets for access to UCSF during concerts and basketball games at the arena. The city plans to use 21 officers to decipher traffic arena traffic from hospital traffic and that they would have signs posted to say “Hospital Only” for traffic leaving the Mariposa Street exit.

Mission Bay Alliance argues that trying to fit an 18,000 seat arena project consisting of two towers for condos with traffic involved in a two and half square mile area which would also include AT&T Park events on occasion would be reminiscent of what 49ers traffic was like coming in and out of Candlestick Park. Matter of fact with two facilities going it could be worse. The Alliance says that even with the new arena alone it would be impossible gridlock using those streets to redirect hospital traffic and Warriors basketball traffic and maneuvering traffic in general during peak hours.

Arena opponents simply put said it won’t work in a cramped neighborhood with that type of layout: “essentially what the city and the Warriors are trying to do is jam an elephant into a VW. It’s neither comfortable for the elephant nor advantageous for the V.W.” said Sam Singer who is a spokesman for one of the four law firms hired in order to stop the new arena by Mission Bay Alliance.

The City is proposing investing $40 million in transit including four new T line street cars. It is important to note that on San Francisco Giants game days the T line runs only one car as opposed to the N Judah which now runs two cars together on game day and the single car T line feels like that elephant in a VW when riding during Giant game days.

The City also is proposing a crossover track that would allow light rail to pass each other the cost for development for the rail crossover would run into $6.6 million a year to operate. The city is also planning to use traffic enforcement officers from the Municipal Transit Authority to run traffic beside the 21 control officers. Will the cross over idea work? Will using huge amounts of traffic control officers work for Warriors games and Hospital traffic? “There is no way to place an 18,000 seat arena that is going to have an event every other day day across the street from a major hospital and not have it significantly impact the ability of patients to reach that hospital as well as physicians and nurses to get to work” said Singer.

With four legal firms gearing up to fight the Warriors new arena plan and using an experienced CEQA attorney whose practice is environmental law Susan Brandt-Hawley. Hawley successfully fought, argued and worked for the opposition of the 8 Washington Street ballot initiative a proposition that opposed the waterfront condominium in the city’s 2013 election. Later the Warriors wanted to build their new arena at Piers 30-32 but realized that opponents and the waterfront neighborhood was prepared to put an initiative on the ballot and polls showed voters would vote down a Warriors Pier 30-32 arena. Hence the move to Mission Bay and the purchase of the land owned by Salesforce.

As confident this time as the Warriors are about constructing the new arena at Mission Bay, Mission Bay Alliance has now become more than just a wild card but an adversarial opponent of the project prepared with four law firms with CEQA experienced lawyers, traffic engineers who can demonstrate how traffic will be backed up for hours trying to get into an arena event and even some missing the beginning of the event because of parking and being out in traffic.

Tony the Tiger Hayes is a talk show host for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Cleveland Cavaliers entering Sunday’s game are still absorbing the tough blow of losing Kyrie Irving for the rest of the series, they have LeBron James but when you get to this part of the season and your in the NBA Finals it’s tough to do it with just one guy. LeBron is one of the rare players in the history of the NBA to pull out a victory in the NBA Finals all by himself.

It’s near impossible to do that four more times in a best of seven series to ask LeBron to do all the scoring, provide all of the defense and offense. The thing about Irving is he’s an All-Star. The Cavs have Kevin Love but he’s been out for several games and it depends on what the offense is doing and when he’s in there with LeBron that’s a much more dynamic offense.

Irving is a point guard he has a great handle and he has tremendous ball control and it takes someone to get the ball to LeBron with a better position to do a little bit better. Irving is not a pure point guard he’s kind of a hybrid between than your typical point Nevertheless your talking about one of he premier players in the NBA Irving is almost 23 years old.

Irving’s tremendous three point shooter he’s probably the best three point shooter so losing him definitely hurts them and in that category. He’s a threat to drive, he’s quick playmaker and he’s a very exciting player. In watching the first game of the series you saw when Kyrie was in there Cleveland became a much more difficult offensive team.

The Warriors had a struggle with that on the other hand for the most part the Cavs had to force feed the ball to LeBron and he scored on isolation plays. The Warriors defense was able to survive even with Irving in there. Nevertheless without Irving that’s difficult and the Cavs right now have a very thin bench. When you take away one of their main scoring threats it becomes incredibly difficult for that offense.

LeBron can drop 40 all he wants (he dropped 44 on Thursday night) if he doesn’t have anyone else helping him it’s going to be really tough in Cleveland and it’s unfortunate for the Cavs that they lost a player as talented as Irving especially at this stage of the season. Cleveland has had more than it’s share of bad luck over the years and in every sport and frankly without having Kyrie around its a huge blow.

David Zizmor does commentary each week on the NBA Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Cleveland Cavaliers announced this afternoon in a brief press conference with head coach David Blatt who only could shake his head about Cavs point guard Kyrie Irving who went through an MRI at Stanford Sports Medicine Clinic and was diagnosed with a fractured knee cap and will miss the rest of the NBA Finals against Golden State.

Irving is schedule to undergo surgery for the fracture in the next few days at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland. Irving who had been suffering from a left knee injury for the last few weeks. Irving was injured in the Cavaliers 108-100 loss to the Warriors on Thursday night and had to leave the game. At that time it was not determined if Irving was going to be able to play in game two on Sunday in Oakland but that was all decided when doctors did the MRI.

Irving had been averaging 19 points in the playoffs and even better with 23 points in game one on Thursday night until he had to leave due to the knee injury in the fourth quarter. Irving a three time NBA All-Star and whose dad Drederick is involved in his son’s basketball business affairs was vehemently angry after finding out that he would miss the entire remainder of the finals due to the knee injury.

The elder Irving upon hearing of his son’s status slammed a private room door where Cavaliers personnel and medical staff were delivering the news to Drederick. It was reported that Drederick left the meeting slamming the door and walked out. Cavs General Manager David Griffin went to talk to Drederick but Drederick pointed towards Irving’s agent Jeff Wechsler in other words talk to the hand. The situation for the Cavaliers looks grim with LeBron James basically fending for himself in game one once Irving left the game.

LeBron scored a post season high of 44 points but it wasn’t good enough as Golden State won in overtime 108-100. It all appeared like LeBron was like an island facing the Warriors top starters Andrew Bogut, Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, and Draymond Green. LeBron could score but couldn’t defend all that the Warriors were throwing at them.

Blatt was asked about the situation now going into Sunday’s game with the loss of Irving, his father basically was angry about this injury and is the Cavaliers responsibility and fault that they overused and pushed his son to his limits and now he’s out for the rest of the finals. Blatt in speaking with the media didn’t have any answers only to say, “you’ve got to talk to the people who are closer to that, I’m not involved in that whole agent-dad thing.”

David Zizmor does commentary on the NBA each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

AP Photo/Ben Margot

By Jeff Hall

OAKLAND –

It was a game that appeared like a football game with two great offenses that you got the feeling that the team who had the ball at the end would come away the winner. While that was not exactly how it ended, it was a wild start to the NBA Finals and it was The Golden State Warriors that out lasted the Cavaliers 108-100

Both teams had a long wait before game one, and no one seemed to have benefited from the break more than LeBron James. James seemed to be everywhere the ball was in the early going in the game. James Led the game’s scoring and had seven points quickly in the first few minutes of the contest. The Warriors seemed cold and rusty and struggled shooting at the start of the game

The Warriors were 0-3 from beyond the 3-point line until Harrison Barnes made the first long ball after the Warriors first time-out.

The Warriors were 6 for 21 shooting in the first quarter Cleveland took advantage and went on a 10-0 run late in the first quarter.  Cleveland led after the first 29-19. Lebron James had 12 first quarter points, Curry was held to just 4 points

“It was a slow start for all of us, I thought in the first half we looked nervous.”said Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr.

In the second, the Warriors pulled within four points thanks to the bench play of Marreese Speights. Speights took charge and gave the Warriors the offensive spark they needed and seemed to heat up the play of the entire team. The Warriors recovered from a fourteen point deficit thanks to outstanding benh play.

Despite the Warriors poor shooting, they managed to stay close to the Cavaliers

The Warriors tied the game eight minutes in the second quarter thanks to the great deliverer Stephen Curry who made his first 3-point shot to even up the scoring. A Cleveland turnover and another Curry three gave the Warriors the lead in the second

JR Smith ended a wild first half with a 3-point shot in the final second of the first half to give the Cavs a 51-48 lead at the end of the first half James led all scorers with 19 first quarter points and despite the slow start, Curry finished the first half with 14 first half points. The Warriors bench gave the Warriors the lift they needed scoring 18 total points with Speights leading all bench scoring with six first half points.

The scoring remained fierce in the third quarter with the teams exchanging the lead throughout the action.

Draymond Green got himself into foul trouble when he committed his fourth foul with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Andre Iguodala drove to the basket after a Warrior steal away from James in the final seconds of the third and the teams were tied at seventy-three. James led all scorers with 30 points by the end of the third.

LeBron was definitely the star of the game, but not even his greatness was enough to help his team pull away from the hard scoring Warriors offense and tough defense in a game that was ultimately decided by the outstanding bench play of the Warriors.

James scored 44 points for  the cavs.

Kerr had this to say about James performance. “He’s a great player and he’s a tough player to stop.  You pick your poison and you take your chances.”

Notes:

James 44 points became the highest point scoring total in his play in an NBA Finals game

In the final seconds, Curry missed a layup after being tightly defended by Kyrie Irving and allowed the Cavs and James to get the final shot of the game with the game fourth quarter.. James missed a step-back 3-point attempt and a missed second attempt by Iman Shumpert and sent the game one into overtime.

Curry scored the first points in overtime making two free-throws nearly two minutes into the overtime period

Curry was fouled again and made two more free-throws giving the Warriors a four point lead. Harrison Barnes gave the Warriors  essntially a game finishing shot with a 3-point basket with two minutes remaining in OT giving the Warriors a 7- point lead.. After the play Kyrie Irving had to leave the game as he held on to his back and struggled to get back into the locker room. Irvin has been fighting a knee injury throughout the playoffs and worked hard to be ready for play in the finals. Irving was a big part of this game on both ends of the floor and this would be a huge loss for the Cleveland if they have to go the rest of the way without him.

” I felt something a little different in my knee and couldn’t continue to play” said Irving after the game.

“I hope he’s okay, you want everyone to be healthy in the Finals. I hope he’s able to come back.” Said Kerr after the game regarding the injury to Irving.

While the Warriors appeared to be the nervous team in the beginning of the game, Cleveland looked like the unsettled team during the Overtime period The Cavs scored only a single basket thanks to a easy give away layup from LeBron James at the very end of overtime.

James led all scorers and scored a game total  44 points. Curry Led he Warriors scoring with 26 points and eight assists. Klay Thompson seemed to be just fine scoring 21 points after not knowing if he would be able to play in Game one of the finals.

“We came out of regulation flat an without the kind of energy we displayed throughout the game. It could have been fatigue.” said Cavalier’s Head Coach David Blatt.

Notes: James 44 points became the highest point total for him in an NBA Finals game.

 

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Before I covered any other team in the Bay Area I had the chance to cover the San Francisco Warriors at the Cow Palace in the late 60s before they moved to Oakland in 1971. The Cow Palace was the first place I covered basketball and the Warriors always had great fans. When I talk about the best fans I mean the fans who supported this team whether they were in first or last place.

I covered the Giants for many years in the 80s and nobody cared about the Giants and the A’s struggled through the late 70s and early 80s before they went to the World Series in 1988. The Warriors have always had support and it is about time they made it to the finals and a lot of people have passed away waiting for the Warriors to win another title.

It was the 1974-75 Rick Barry-Al Attles days when they last won a championship title. It’s a beautiful thing that this finals is going to happen starting Thursday night in Oakland and I wish nothing but the best for Golden State. The Cleveland Cavaliers are a very good team also and they have one of the best players in the world in LeBron James for Cleveland and Stephen Curry for Golden State these two are money for the network.

The networks that might have hoped that the Clippers or a larger east conference team with a larger TV market would have made it. They may not get totally shutout as Curry has been one the faces of the playoffs and of course with LeBron James. LeBron is already a megastar and for TV it’s great to have LeBron and now you have Curry.

We know that the Bay Area is a great place but in a place like Kentucky they could care less about a guy like Curry but the network audience will be tuning in and they will be out to see why the Curry is the Most Valuable Player on the other side your going to see the other superstar like LeBron. This is why TV likes it because they do have established superstars and LeBron is one player who needs no introduction.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the TV Spanish voice for the Angels, the Radio Spanish voice for the A’s, and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Cleveland Cavaliers are a strong and powerful club and to be able to beat the Cavs it will take a lot of physical exertion. You heard the Golden State Warriors Andrew Bogut make some comments after this series against the Houston Rockets that Memphis was exhausting. Their physical in play and they grind on you.

That’s why they call Memphis the Grindhouse, Houston is a different kind of physical Bogut said Dwight Howard of the Rockets in so many words was a dirty player and that’s not an exclusive opinion of Bogut that’s pretty much a league wide opinion. Howard has amazing talent but when he gets a little bit frustrated and gets a little bit upset he gets dirty.

We saw that when Howard did that open had fist at Bogut and we saw that with a number of technical fouls in this last series. Had this series continued into game six to Houston Howard would have been suspended for game six because he got his seventh flagrant or technical foul that is an automatic one game suspension.

So since the Rockets lost the series Howard will be suspended for game one of next year’s regular season. The bottom line is that physical play really takes a toll on the Warriors. You saw it with Steph Curry going head over heels on the Rockets Trevor Ariza landing on his head in a very scary moment in game four.

That was a pretty scary moment, Curry was bruised up and you could see in the following game five he was not as explosive or aggressive as he had been in the past. That didn’t change the fact that he didn’t play a great game he definitely changed his style a little bit because of the pain. Of course in game five Klay Thompson got kneed in the head for an awful, awful injury.

Thompson suffered a concussion and a laceration to his ear he’s the one who really needs that week off between the conference and NBA Finals. The NBA has a protocol for concussions that everybody has to follow and Thompson has to follow it now. Most people let alone basketball players recover from a concussion within ten days.

David Zizmor does Warriors commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

Yes, I remember that championship season, and yes I covered those Golden State Warriors under coach Al Attles. After they won it all, a big celebratory rally was held at Union Square in San Francisco. I was walking a couple of blocks away from Union Square, with my big Superscope tape recorder to get some audio for the station I was working for KOFY 1050AM, then a Spanish format radio station. In those days I was also working for Dean Witter, a stock brokerage firm in the financial district. As I walked towards Union Square, I ran into Bill King, Voice of the Warriors, who was wearing short pants, purple socks and Jesus sandals. He was also going to be at the rally with the owner Franklin Meuli, Coach Al Attles and all the players. It was a happy and pleasant day in The City.

These where your 1975 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors. They ended the regular season with a 48-34 record and defeated the Seattle Supersonics on the Western Division Conference Semifinals; then went on to beat the Chicago Bulls in the Western Conference Finals, and finally they shocked the NBA by sweeping the Washington Bullets in four games during the NBA Finals.

Rick Barry was the Most Valuable Player 29.5 points per game. Jamaal Wilkes aka Silk, Phil Smith, from the University of San Francisco (whose father was a cable car operator in San Francisco) Derek Dickey, Jeff Mullins, Charles Johnson, Butch Beard, the intimidating Clifford Ray, George Johnson with a great Afro hairstyle, Charles Dudley, Bill Bridges and Steve Bracey.

This bunch beat the heavily favorite Washington team that under coach K.C Jones finished with a 60-22 record. Wes Unseld, Kevin Porter, Phil Chenier, Mike Riordan, Clem Haskins, Nick Weahterspoon, Truck Robinson, Dick Gibbs, Tom Koselko and Dennis DuVal.

In 1975, the President of the United States was Gerald R. Ford and the Vietnam War came to an end. A gallon of gasoline in the United States was .44 cents, the average price of a new automobile was $4,250, average cost of a new home was $39,300, average income per year was $14,100, average monthly rent was $200, the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, “The Big Red Machine”, in the American League, the Oakland A’s won the Western Division with 98-64, while in the National League the San Francisco Giants finished in third place in the West with a 80-81 record.

Where were you in 1975? Where you yet to be born? Or where you in the Bay Area when the Warriors won their first NBA title.

It is good to remember.

Good luck to the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors, in their quest for their second world title.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the TV Spanish voice for the Angels and Radio Spanish voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com