Golden State of Mind



When did you think you’d ever hear this one: an aging vet looking for one more shot at a ring is considering playing for…the Warriors? Funny what one postseason run can do for a team’s rep. (Remember Tim Thomas bolting Phoenix to play for the Clippers last summer?) In Golden State’s case, the veteran in question is Gary Payton (who's from Oakland). According to GP’s agent, The Glove will decide soon whether he wants to play one more season, go for a front-office job in Seattle, or turn his attention to doing TV work. A couple thoughts on that: First, with the way the Sonics’ new ownership obviously wants to get out of town, they’re not gonna hire someone with such strong ties to Seattle unless GP absolutely blows them away in an interview. Second, we still thing Gary’s best chance for a ring and decent PT would be in Boston. Can his 39-year-old legs keep up with the Warriors’ pace? And how much tick will he get playing behind Baron Davis? (And before anyone gets on our case, we know GP already has one ring with Miami. But the way he insists on continuing to play, obviously he wants another one.) …

Newly-minted Hall of Famer Phil Jackson in the L.A. Daily News: “Kobe and I are very much in collusion in that we want to have an opportunity and we want this team to have an opportunity to succeed. And one of Kobe’s complaints is to improve the talent and give him the teammates he can compete with. I’m in collusion with him on that.” Can’t argue with that. Later, Mr. Sensitive added, “We lost out on the Kevin Garnett sweepstakes. Red Auerbach came out of the grave and told Kevin (McHale) to give him to the Celtics. That was a blessing, that connection. We just didn’t have the connection to make that happen for us.” Classy …

Here’s a question: With Smush having escaped to Miami, who will become Phil’s new scapegoat for whenever he wants to scream at Kobe but can’t? In order, we’re looking at Jordan Farmar, Kwame Brown and Vlad Radmanovic …

Shaq was at the LSU/Virginia Tech game on Saturday. The cameras were focused on him in a luxury box for a minute while the announcers talked about him, and then Shaq looks in the camera and gives this wide-eyed look that was either him being funny or him silently threatening “Do NOT ask me about you-know-what.” …

By now you’ve probably heard or at least heard of the rant that cost Darko 14 G’s for talking about doing bad things to people’s mothers. Doing damage control, Darko’s agent told the Memphis Commercial Appeal, “He’s been in the NBA for four years. I can think of him getting one technical foul in four years. He’s a fiery competitor, but this would certainly be something that’s out of character.” To be fair, Darko barely played for 2.5 of those four years. It’s kinda hard to get called for a T when you’re behind the bench and Larry Brown has you unsure of when to speak …

Did you see Michigan get embarrassed at home again? With the Wolverines getting smacked 32-7 at the half, ABC cruelly decided to throw their sideline reporter into the lion’s den and have her interview notoriously crabby UM coach Lloyd Carr on the field. Carr actually wasn’t too bad, but when the reporter asked if he knew the extent of QB Chad Henne’s first-half injury, Carr said “Of course I do,” gave an evil smile and ran off …

Did you see the end of the Auburn/South Florida game, though? Auburn was the heavy favorite, playing at home, and South Florida gave them all they could handle. With about a minute left, South Florida was down by three and got the ball to the 1-yard line for 4th-and-goal. A lot of teams would go for the field goal and the tie, but consider that SF’s kicker was 1-for-5 on the day at that point and the players probably had less confidence in him than the Cavs would have in Anderson Varejao making a move to the basket with the game on the line. The South Florida players were literally begging their coach to let them go for the touchdown, but he called out the kicker (an angled kick, no less) and the kid actually makes it. Auburn gets the ball back with a little time left to do something after a good kick return, but their coach decides to go safe and play for overtime, which the home fans boo him for. In OT, Auburn got a FG first and South Florida found themselves with 4th-and-inches in easy FG range. But this time they go for it, get the 1st, and score a TD on the next play for the W …

One more college football note: Gilbert Arenas‘ cousin, Javier Arenas, took back a punt for a TD in Alabama’s win over Vanderbilt. Javier is a sophomore DB for the Crimson Tide …

We’re out like GP as GM …

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