Warriors’ GM Myers will depart

“The dominoes are starting to fall,” Tony Kornheiser said on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption. 

He was talking about the Warriors, specifically the departure of Bob Myers, the architect of those great Warriors teams. 

An overstatement. Myers is leaving. That was speculation weeks ago, now it’s a fact. So is the aging of the Warriors roster and new NBA salary limitations.

But this is not about the game of dominoes. 

Rather about the sport of basketball, where the concern is whether the shots fall — or if they don’t whether you’re able to grab the rebounds. Strong organizations — and with our championships in six seasons the Warriors are among the strongest — rely on more than a single individual, no matter how intuitive and capable he (or she) might be.

There’s an old French saying, everything passes, about our impermanence not about contributing an assist on a jump shot.

Bob Myers is a great story. Raised in the Bay Area, UCLA, player agent and then basketball operations president and GM of the Warriors, during the most successful era of their existence.

But he’s 48, a family man, and the GM position is all-consuming. Once you’re at the top — Myers twice was NBA executive of the year — there’s only one way to go.  And it’s not up.

Maybe it’s a little different, but when he was winning with the 49ers Bill Walsh said the usual NFL coach doesn’t last more than 10 years with a team. 

“Either you get fired for losing or the players stop listening to you if you’re winning.”

The late John Wooden, whose teams took all those NCAA titles at UCLA, insisted winning was tougher than losing. 

“No matter what we did,” said Wooden. “It wasn’t enough.” 

Now, for a time at least, Myers has had enough. 

"The bottom line is this job,” Myers said in an afternoon media conference. “The one I’m in, I would say this for any professional general manager or coach, requires complete engagement, complete effort, one-thousand percent.”

“If you can’t do it, then you shouldn't do it. That's the answer to the question of why. I can’t do that to our players, I can’t do that to Joe, Peter (owners Joe Lacob, Peter Guber), can’t do it to myself. And that’s the question I’ve been wrestling with.”

Myers can stop wrestling. He can step out of the ring.  

You just wonder how much he was affected by the punch Draymond Green — a Myers draftee threw at Jordan Poole — or if James Wiseman hadn’t been the team’s first pick in the draft a couple of seasons ago   

Myers had been with the Warriors for 12 years. As with any break-up, this won’t be easy. Myers teared up at what is apparently his farewell words to the media. He did a hell of a job — an unprecedented one.

From giving lessons to getting a hug from Rory

Not too long ago Michael Block was giving lessons. On Sunday afternoon, Rory McIlroy was giving Block hugs. Only in golf?  Probably.

Block is a golf professional, as opposed to being a professional golfer.

One makes club members and public course players do what’s possible, to enjoy the sport. The other may make millions, as did Brooks Koepka,  Sunday at Oak Hill Country Club in upstate New York.

Sometimes the twain do meet.

Sometimes we end up with a story that seems more fantasy than is imaginable. That’s what happened for Block. And for golf.

Those guys and ladies who give lessons, whether at some fancy club or resort or a “stop-and-sock” driving range at the muni, very much can play the game.

Perhaps not as well as Arnie, Jack, or Tiger — or Brooks Koepka, who with the victory at Oak Hill now has five major titles — but better than millions of others. 

Some, such as Block, have tried to qualify for one of the pro tours. Others, maybe an ex-caddy, were content to remain teachers.

Block has been around. He’s 46, has a family, grew up in St. Louis, and played college golf at Mississippi State and Missouri. Later on, he came west and had work as an assistant at Palm Desert for a couple of years, then became head pro at Trabuco Golf Club in Orange County, where he took care of the normal responsibilities, including lessons at $150 each.

Yet, he never gave up the dream, and he entered the PGA Tour qualifying school. He reached the second stage, which is good although not quite good enough. Still, there were tournaments to enter and succeed. He’s the reigning PGA of America Professional Player of the Year.

Every year players such as Block get into the PGA Championship. Usually, they miss the cut. Not only did Block make the cut, but he also made a splash. More than that he made himself weep when introduced on TV and made America cheer.

Down the stretch Block not only made a hole-in-one, but he made par-saving putts, long ones, the final two holes which enabled him to tie for 5 and earn an automatic place in next year’s PGA Championship in Louisville.

And not exactly incidental, Block, with a final-round even-par 70 and a four-day total of one-over 281, won $288,000.

Yes, the world and finances and inflation and everything are different now, but in his entire career, Ben Hogan won just $230,000.

As they say, timing is everything.

Block came along at the right time, helping create the right tale, the underdog who catches fire and because it’s on ESPN and CBS on a weekend, it keeps us tuned in and emotionally involved.

That Block, by luck of the draw, had the wonderfully popular McIlroy paired as his playing partner for the final round and it was almost surrealistic. After the last putts at 18, Rory wrapped his arms around Block.

He seemed as thrilled as everyone. And why wouldn’t he be?

PGA Championship now truly a major

They used to call the PGA Championship the minor of the majors. It was held in August when people were more interested in playing golf than watching, and on courses that were less than testing and more than forgettable.

Given a choice your average touring pro, while not unhappy with any victory that paid purse money, would, in no particular order pick to win the Masters, US Open and British Open before the PGA.

Then the tournament contracted to play at great locations like Pebble Beach or Oakmont or, where it’s currently being held--and properly flummoxing so many of those in the field--Oak Hill, at Rochester, NY.

And no less important was the change of dates, from the end of August to mid-May when the event wasn’t up against the start of the overwhelming presence of the NFL’s preseason.

The belief here is the history of any major--indeed any golf tournament --is determined by the venue and the leader board. When the names at the top are names you know, swinging away on a course you want to know, success is all but guaranteed.

That is the case at Oak Hill after Thursday’s first round of this PGA Championship. Granted you may not be familiar with the guy who was in first, Eric Cole, although he did make a run at the Honda Classic.

 Cole was 5-under par through 14 holes, which was all he could finish because of frost-delayed start. Yes. You can get away from pro football by shifting the tournament dates, but you can’t get away from Mother Nature.

The other leaders are a revitalized Bryson Dechambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open champion, Scottie Scheffler, the 2022 Masters winner and Dustin Johnson, who’s won a Masters and U.S.  Open. True, he’s fled to the LIV Tour, however a multi-majors champ is a multi-majors champ forever.

Oak Hill (not to be confused with Oakland Hills in Detroit) has been the site of other PGA Championships, but since the last one in 2013 it was made more difficult, bunkers lowered, fairways narrowed.

The man on TV Thursday said the rough was growing practically between shots, an exaggeration, but isn’t golf the best of sports for exaggeration?

 “You don’t have to hit it very far off to make a bogey,” said Viktor Hovland, who after a 2-under 68 must not have been off more than infrequently.

Scheffler offered his version of the possibilities--and impossibilities, to wit, “It’s just one of those places where you hit one shot maybe barely offline, and sometimes you hit a good shot and end up in a place that’s pretty penalizing.”

Isn’t that what golf is all about? Like life, it’s an unfair game. But also a game someone will win.

To steal an old quote from Jack Nicklaus, who Tiger Woods to the contrary probably is the greatest golfer of all time: “The person who hits the fewest bad shots has the fewest bad lies.”

Hollywood reminders of Lakers success

We’ll leave the reasons for the Warriors’ loss, or if you choose the Lakers’ victory — the missed shots, the throttling defense, all those basketball explanations — and for a moment concentrate on the mental aspects of the result and how difficult it will be for the Dubs partisans to live in a sporting world where once again the power and glory belongs to Southern California.

There were more than a few examples during the telecast of the game Friday night, the one that if it didn’t signify the end of what had been labeled the Warriors dynasty, certainly was a jolting reminder that change had occurred.

You know the final score of the deciding Game 6 of the 2023 NBA Western Conference semifinal, alas a rout, Lakers 122 Warriors 101, L.A. wire-to-wire.

At Crypto.com Arena, where we were informed, seats were going for $30,000 — even if the announcer meant the private boxes, that’s not cheap — and the crowd included Elon Musk, Bad Bunny, Kim Kardashian, and from out of the past the serious fan, Jack Nicholson.

Yeah, Hollywood, celebrities as far as you could see and probably more than you can stand. But because the Warriors for the first time in years were unable to do the job, that’s the way it’s going to be.

That’s also the way it was when Magic, Kareem, or Kobe were out there, and the Lakers owned the Warriors and everything else west of the Sierra. Such a refreshing — and rewarding — interlude when Steph and Klay splashed, and Draymond got in an opponent’s face and got a technical or two. Or three.

Nothing is forever. The reminders kept coming. Now they’re here and indelible.

Maybe we were too caught up with history to pay close attention. Didn’t the Sacramento Kings win the first two games of their playoff over the Warriors? Yes, the Dubs pulled out the first round because Steph Curry scored 50. He was amazing. He was great. However, even greatness ages.

The Warriors’ front office, notably general manager Bob Myers, knows the progression and drafted people such as Jordan Poole, who was touted as the next Steph Curry. It is to dream. And miscalculate.  

Darvin Ham of the Lakers is a rookie head coach, a last-minute appointee as it were, but he’s been an assistant long enough to have helped develop Giannis Antetokounmpo into an MVP with Milwaukee. And he — and his staff — figured out how to defend Curry, who with Klay Thompson and Poole lost in the wilderness, and that was enough to stop the Warriors.

When an organization has an aging championship team it is confronted with a difficult decision whether to rely on the athletes which have been so good for so long or slowly remodel, rebuild, adding pieces to the mix.

The Lakers began the season in a hole, losing, but then they reshuffled and made trades. Their core was the always reliable, and obviously remarkable LeBron James and the frequently unpredictable Anthony Davis which was an advantage against the Warriors. Friday, James had 30 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists. 

“Our leader,” confirmed Ham.  

Davis had 17 points, 20 rebounds, and two assists. Some non-leader.

Curry, naturally was the high scorer for the Warriors, with 32. 

“He never lets you relax,” LeBron said.

The presumption is the Warriors’ front office, already over budget but needing to upgrade, won’t be relaxing or standing still. But what moves are possible, and if LeBron and Davis hang around, will it make a difference?

In the autumn of 2001, Warriors coach Steve Kerr, teammate of Michael Jordan on those super Chicago Bulls teams of the 1990s, pointed out the window doesn’t remain open very long.

After four titles in six years, the Warriors have to wonder if theirs has closed.

Lakers’ AD is OK; are the Warriors?

An elbow to the head. A wobbly walk to the locker room. A statement of reassurance.

Anthony Davis, the Lakers beast in the middle when he wants to be, is fine. Which is more than you can say for the Warriors.

So much in so short a time. Some critical changes. Except one thing hasn’t changed. Well, make that two things haven’t changed. 

The Warriors haven’t won a game of this best-of-seven NBA Western Conference semifinal at Los Angeles, where Game 6 will be played Friday night. And unless they can figure out a way to do so, they’ll be finished.

Done. The former champions. And please don’t let the door or the painful reality hit you in the back.

From the Warriors’ side of the discussion, there are words of optimism, as is expected. But why? LeBron James is LeBron James, who well understands what to do when needed. And then there’s Davis, AD, whose injuries and time on the bench out of uniform earned him the mocking epithet, “street clothes,” but this series has tailored him a new reputation.

The Warriors had a very good chance to win Game 4 at L.A., but in the end, they could not. That’s what counts in sport, the final result, could-haves (the Warriors were up by seven heading into the fourth quarter) and should-haves mean zilch.  

The 6-foot-10 Davis has meant everything to the Lakers, scoring inside and keeping the Warriors from doing the same. And certainly, rebounding like mad.

He got hit in one of those go-for-the-ball scrambles under the basket with 7:43 remaining (and LA trailing).

On the TNT national broadcast, there was laughter — same old AD, getting hurt. On Thursday, in the L.A. Times, there were words of near-panic. 

”This is what the Lakers feared,” wrote the columnist Bill Plaschke. “This is what Lakers fans dreaded. And this is what the Golden State Warriors needed.”

Not exactly. What the Warriors need most of all is a road victory which seems improbable the way the Lakers are rolling — unbeaten at home in the post-season including a play-in game that got them in the playoffs. The Dubs had the home-court edge but that disappeared after they dropped the opening game.

After that, it’s been a difficult and so far worthless climb.

To make matters worse, Wiggins, who has played well (as a former #1 overall draft pick should be playing), may miss Game 6. On the injury report Thursday evening he was listed as questionable because of a left costal cartilage fracture.  

Should the Warriors pull off a miracle (is that too strong?), there will be a seventh game at Chase Center in San Francisco. 

Otherwise, they’ll be idle for a long time, next season.

Dickens should be writing Warriors’ tale

This should be authored by Charles Dickens. He wrote “Bleak House,” didn’t he? Or maybe “The Brothers Grimm, Sigh!” 

No laughter for the Warriors these days. Not much hope either.

Say the Warriors do somehow stop the Lakers in Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference Semifinals Wednesday night at Chase Center up there near Oracle Park, another location of sporting depression. 

That would do nothing but delay the ending of a fall-short season which will leave people wondering what happened to Klay Thompson’s once beautiful jump shot and why Jordan Poole decided to retire without telling anyone.

The Warriors, the defending champions, have lost four of their last six games, including the final two against the Sacramento Kings in the series they did win. Meanwhile, the Lakers, given up for dead (the last two letters of that word are Anthony Davis’ initials), haven’t lost a playoff game at home.

L.A. had a losing record in February and needed to win a play-in game even to get to the post-season. If you can make sense of all that maybe you can explain why in the final minute of the Warriors’ 104-101 defeat Monday night, Steph Curry could miss not one but two of those long bombs he invariably makes.

Steph did have a triple-double Monday collecting 31 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds. So if he’s not on the court then the Warriors are not in the game. But when you’re up by seven after three quarters, you’re not supposed to lose.    

The fine LA. Times columnist Bill Plaschke was one of the guest scribes Tuesday on ESPN’s “Around the Horn,” as he is not infrequently, and when asked what happened to the Warriors gave a provincial legitimate answer: “Give credit to the Lakers.”

The Warriors appeared to be the better team coming in, as well as the week, leading up to the playoffs they barely made. However, L.A. took charge in game one and despite a Warriors bounce-back in game two, they have outplayed the Rub-a-Dubs most of the way.

You expected LeBron James to play and score as he did and feared the suddenly intense Davis might do the same. But when a guy named Lonnie Walker, who had been benched, gets 17 points, you are likely to have a problem, and the Warriors did. 

Only 13 times in NBA history has a team won a seven-game series after trailing 3-1. In 2016 the Warriors beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals and then a few weeks later lost this same way to Cleveland and LeBron in the NBA Finals.

Steve Kerr also coached those Warriors teams.

 “You definitely draw on those experiences,” Kerr said. “Game to game everything changes, so just focus on the next one. The next game and then the momentum shifts in your favor.”

Kerr and the Warriors need a shift now, or the story for the Warriors will be bleak, grim and very unreadable.

Draymond has answer on how to beat Lakers

That was a quick answer from the Warriors’ irrepressible Draymond Green on how to defeat the Lakers after having been throttled by L.A.  

“Play better,” said Draymond, avoiding the essay response.

Next question: Against a Lakers team that is not only bigger, stronger, and suddenly realizing its awesome potential, how?

Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference semifinals is Monday night, and all the Dubs and their fans can wish is that it in no way resembles Game 3 on Saturday night, a 127-97 mismatch.

Yes, only one game, and with adjustments (the magic word in the postseason) and the Warriors only trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven series, the situation could very well flip. But that may depend as much on one player from the Lakers, the inconsistent Anthony Davis, as anyone on the Warriors.

And as a reminder, the Warriors, this season on the road have gyrated between bad and awful, an indication this isn’t the Golden State team of the recent past. 

The issue in the sport is being able to dictate the style and pace of play, something the Warriors accomplished in the second game when they ran, defended, and shot with wild abandon (whatever that may be). But you can’t run when you don’t have the ball, and the Lakers choose not to run even when they had it. 

For good reason. 

The track meet style the Warriors prefer becomes the deliberate basketball that the Lakers play so well with AD, who Friday night once more was the monster unleashed (25 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks), LeBron James (23 points), and one-time Warrior D’Angelo Russell (21 points).

The Warriors complained that early in the third quarter that, with the Lakers marching hither and yon to the free throw line, “the game stopped,” which is exactly how the Lakers liked it. That wasn’t the officials’ fault, it was the Warriors’ fault. They’ve always had reach-in foul problems. And with larger, more deliberate Lakers in their way, the Dubs on Saturday night were trying to get physical. 

The Lakers had 37 free throws Friday night and made 28. The Warriors were 12 of 17. Stopped? They could have held a picnic in the interim. Or let the players take a nap.

What the Warriors took was a figurative punch to the gut. Questioned what it was like when the foul calls (and Lakers free throws) were growing and growing, Draymond Green, once again a man of few words, said only, “It’s frustrating.”

Draymond, of course, has a history of drawing technical fouls for the things he says or does so in this case if brevity is not necessarily the soul of wit, it is a brilliant option to avoid getting charged with a T. 

It’s become apparent the 6-foot-10 Anthony Davis is the (sometimes tortured, frequently criticized) soul of the Lakers. When he isn’t injured or indolent, AD is overwhelming on offense, defense, and the glass.

If nothing else, and there is plenty else, he takes the opponents' attention away from LeBron, who even at age 38 is acknowledged still to be the best player in the sport.

You could say the Lakers have the Warriors on the run, but after getting stopped and pummeled in Game 3 that’s where the stagnant Warriors would prefer to be.

Warriors-Lakers: California here they come

This is as good as it gets for the not-so-late great state of California. Who cares if ESPN is fixated on listing events at Eastern Daylight Time?

Let's catch the last train to the Coast where oranges and redwoods grow and where the former Minneapolis Lakers and Philadelphia Warriors relocated with enviable success. 

Who imagined a few months ago when the Lakers were losing and the Warriors couldn’t win on the road that now in the lusty month of May they would be playing each other here in the NBA Western Conference semifinals, a playoff round as enticing as it should be entertaining.

LeBron and Steph, AD and Looney — and Klay, Draymond, and Wigs. Yes, basketball is the ultimate team sport, but it’s the individuals who make the shots and the difference.

To reprise that so-very-accurate Michael Jordan response when told there is no “I” in team, ”Yeah, but there is in win.”

There’s also an old journalistic idea that nothing is as dead as yesterday’s news. OK, but even moving forward past Sunday’s news, the Dubs stunningly overwhelmed the Kings, 120-100 at Sacramento, and Steph Curry set a Game 7 record with 50 points. In this case, yesterday’s news is going to live a long time.  

What we re-learned from both the Warriors and Lakers, who beat the Memphis Grizzlies, is that reputations as winners are well deserved.

LeBron James of the Lakers has scored more points than anyone in NBA history. Steph Curry is arguably the greatest shooter in NBA history. Two offensive stars ​​— yet in the end the results may depend on defense and rebounding. Or lack of it, which seemingly was why the Kings, after taking the first two games, lost four of the last five. They couldn’t stop Curry.

LA vs SF, initials representing the two cities founded by Spanish explorers. A rivalry of geography. And of pride.

For years and decades, NBA basketball out west belonged to the Lakers, to Wilt Chamberlain (although he did come out from Philly with the Warriors), Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and certainly Magic Johnson. Sixteen NBA titles, one fewer than the Celtics, to three for the Warriors, including one in 1975.  

Until Steve Kerr became the head coach of the Warriors, Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, and Draymond Green were on the roster. Then the Warriors added four more titles. It’s a quick turn-around for the Dubs, who must shift attention and style to face the Lakers, starting Tuesday night at Chase Center. 

“We’re excited to have the opportunity,” Kerr said about going against the Lakers. “I think the Lakers changed their team dramatically at the trade deadline. They made some brilliant moves and became an entirely different team.”

“Darvin (Lakers coach Darvin Ham) has done an incredible job guiding that team. They’re excellent defensively. They’ve got one of the all-time greats in LeBron. But a lot of talent across the roster. So it’s going to take a big effort to beat them, and we know how good they are.”

Just as the Lakers know how good the Warriors are.

How did the Warriors get here?

How did we get here? 

More specifically, how did they get here? The Warriors, that is, to Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs. This wasn’t supposed to happen, not after they finally won a road game at Sacramento and seemingly proved they had restored their excellence and our faith. 

A game at home, Chase Center, where they almost always win, and it would be on to the next round. But as we were reminded, almost leaves room for doubt, and defeat, a 118-99, defeat. And so Sunday in Sacramento there would be a final game for the Warriors’ postseason. And maybe for the season.

The Kings were favored, and why not. They had a better regular season record, earning the home-court advantage. They are younger and seemingly stronger. Father time is an unbeatable opponent. Steph Curry is 35. It all catches up with you.  

Sports are predictable. And unpredictable. The belief here was once the Warriors got a victory on the road, at Sacramento, they would be fine, that that experience and championships — and cheering at Chase — would make the difference. That wasn’t the situation in Game 6.

They were out of it before the second quarter began, a disappointment as well as a shock.

Was it surprising, with the Warriors down more than a dozen points and a loss inevitable, that the crowd at Chase was determinedly heading for the exits, apparently unconcerned there might not be another home game until next fall? The fans were not accustomed to what they had seen.  

It was Dick Motta, coaching in the 1970s, who popularized the phrase, “It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings,’ and certainly as the Warriors’ Klay Thompson pointed out the Dubs very much understand what they need to do, shoot, rebound and most of all play alert defense. But knowing and doing are not the same.

And if knowing is a factor the advantage would go to Mike Brown, in his first year as Kings coach, who spent the previous six seasons as assistant and interim head coach with the Warriors. He and his staff decided to go with a smaller lineup in Game 6, a maneuver that allowed Sacramento to get more open shots and also to harass the Warrior offense, Golden State shooting only 37 percent.      

NBA playoffs have a history of teams alternating wins and losses. The Warriors, aware of what some might say is desperation, assumingly would perform better — as they did in the three straight wins over the Kings earlier in the series. Dubs coach Steve Kerr said his team needed once more to be the aggressor.

He also said, perhaps as much for the fans as the players, “We’ve won Game 7s before. We know what to do.”

If they win, the Warriors get the Lakers, If they don’t they get months to remember and reflect.

Draymond: Man of thoughts, words — and actions

On that podcast hosted by the man-about-town, defensive wizard and too-often controversial Draymond Green, he forthrightly pointed out that most of us — meaning virtually everyone but the players — don’t understand the game of pro basketball.

No argument here. Only a note of appreciation for the fact Mr. Green not only understands but is able to put that understanding into effect.

A couple of days earlier, Friday to be specific, Draymond was paying a price as much for his reputation as for his (shall I say aggressive?) method of play, stomping on the chest of Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis.

And so in Game 3 of the first round, with Draymond viewing, the Warriors won. Then Sunday, with Draymond subbing — he played one second less than 31 minutes and chipped in with 12 points and 10 rebounds — the Warriors won again, but barely, 126-125.

The first two games were at Sacramento and the last two were at Chase Center in San Francisco. With three games remaining, at max, two on the Kings’ home floor, the Warriors’ dynasty — if four championships in six years are to be judged a dynasty in sports — crumbles but holds.

The Kings supposedly have the edge. What the Warriors have is the experience, the been-there-done-that feeling. They also have Steph Curry, who scored many of his 32 points Sunday when it seemed everything was going wrong offensively, and the bad boy-good thinker, Draymond Green.

Green is not quite the individual portrayed or at least imagined. On the court, it’s true that he goes hard and reckless, fiercely perhaps, but in interviews, he’s calm and reflective. Although he’s always determined to get the proper result, victory.

Coaches and athletes talk about winning cultures, about the old Yankees and newer Lakers. The Warriors over the last decade have established a winning culture. They’re one of the teams always mentioned on ESPN, one of the teams that have earned a place in history.  

Who knows what will happen in the final three (or two) games of this Warriors-Kings playoff series. But it has already been memorable. First Draymond gets suspended. Then in Game 4, which they also managed to win, in the final seconds the Dubs receive a technical foul for calling a timeout they didn’t have — like Michigan’s Chris Webber in the 1992 NCAA final.

Steph did that, but Kerr said he should be blamed for what might have been a costly bit of miscommunication but turned out to be trivial.

Curry reminded everybody of the objective.

“We talk a lot around here about doing whatever it takes to win, and everybody being flexible on what their role is,” Curry said. “It’s just being ready, no matter what the situation calls for, the versatility of our team.”    

Off the bench or in the starting lineup.

Win would get swagger back for Warriors

The Warriors say they are alright, and probably they are. A win Monday night over the Kings in Sacramento, and they’ve gained home-court advantage in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

They would also regain the swagger and belief a defending champion is supposed to put on display. 

But what if they lose, as they did on Saturday night? What if the Kings are the new Warriors, the way the Warriors a few years ago became the new Lakers? What if this is the season of change? What if this dynasty, like all dynasties, will end?

After all, the Kings had a better regular season record than the Warriors, the reason Sacramento has a possible four playoff games at Golden 1 Center, which for the Dubs is so close, roughly 90 miles away from Chase Center in San Francisco, but at the same time so far away.

Yes, it was loud Saturday night in Sacramento, but it’s always loud when a team that hasn’t been in the postseason in forever (well, 16 years) qualifies and is at home. That’s expected, but it’s also expected that a franchise that has multiple championships should not be affected.

Have you ever heard of Malik Monk? Before Saturday, that is. He’s averaging 11.7 points a game. He scored 32 and was 14 of 14 on free throws, taking advantage of a team that prides itself on defense but fouls all too frequently.

All that considered, the Warriors only lost, 126-123. And in a locker room more resigned than stunned, the reaction was almost a shrug. These things happen in the NBA, so let’s figure out why.   

"That first game is kind of a feeling-out process,” said the Warriors’ Steph Curry, “and we controlled the game for a good 32, 33 minutes. They went on a run at the end of the third, start of the fourth, and they got into it.”

Which wouldn’t have mattered if the Kings weren’t getting the ball into the basket, but they were. De’Aaron Fox getting 38 points formed a considerable 1-2 punch when adding Monk’s 32. 

What made the Warriors feel upbeat on a night of noise and defeat was the return of the missing Andrew Wiggins. He had been gone since February because of the mysterious family situation. He played 28 minutes, scored 17 points, and had a career playoff high of four blocked shots.

“We told him how happy we are to have him back,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who gave Wiggins a half hug as the player left the court.

Curry had 30 but couldn’t hit a jump shot with seconds left to play.

“All in all," said Kerr, “to come out here with a 10-point lead in the second half, have a chance to win late, I like where we are. I think we’re in a pretty good place.”

If not as good a place had they won.

An operatic reminder of death in the boxing ring

There’s an opera at the Met in New York, “Champion,” about boxing. Really about one fight and two men, one of whom would die from the result of that fight, the other who unleashed the fatal blows and was known to inhabit gay bars.

If that doesn’t create a modern libretto, well, Verdi didn’t have to deal with a 10-count after a knockdown.

A New York Times piece about the arrival of “Champion,” was a reminder of an era three decades past when I was employed by United Press International, known as a wire service in a room full of clattering teletype machines.

It was a Saturday night on March 24, 1962. Not only would there be a world championship bout at Madison Square Garden, but on another channel, an earlier hour, Wake Forest would play UCLA in the third-place game of the NCAA basketball tournament at Louisville. Which was also the same night as the game between the schools that won in the semis-Ohio State and the eventual champ, Cincinnati.

I did say the era was different.

Emile Griffith, originally from the Virgin Islands, and Benny (Kid) Paret, from Cuba, had fought twice previously, each winning one.  

Griffith’s clothes, actions, and relationships earned him a reputation as a homosexual, which in that era was not acceptable in most sports, especially the manly art of self-defense, as in the present. Griffith kept his lifestyle as secret as possible. There were rumors and sniggers. And little until the weigh-in     

Then, closeup after their weights had been recorded Paret, who could be cocky, called Griffith “maricon,” a Spanish word which translates as “queer” or faggot. Never awakening, Paret died 10 days later from a brain hemorrhage.

When Griffith got Paret in a corner he was unstoppable and unforgiving, pounding Paret’s head until he collapsed. We saw him carried out, never awakening, and he died 10 days later.  

It was sad and stunning, a televised shock to us all.

We would find out years later, it also was retribution. In 2005, Griffith told The New York Times that Paret’s taunts had “touched something inside.”

“I’m sorry but he called me a name, so I did what I had to do.”

Mickelson gets one more Masters memory

AUGUSTA, Ga. — He told us he was hesitant to say too much, which was so unlike Phil Mickelson. But that’s OK. His game told us everything we needed to know, almost.

It told us at 52, after the money losses, after in effect jumping ship — well leaving a lifetime link to the PGA Tour to hook up with the contentious LIV Tour — and after slipping past his 50th birthday, Mickelson still is one of golf’s main men.

This 87th Masters, which came to a stunning conclusion Sunday, belonged as much to Mickelson the outcast, as it did to Jon Rahm, the champion. 

That Rahm, who began the final round two strokes behind the guy who led from virtually the first shot of the tournament, Brooks Koepka, ended up the winner wasn’t the shock. He had been atop the world rankings most of the spring, and through history, many leads have been squandered — blown, if you choose — on an Augusta National course full of promise and heartbreak.

You know the saying: The Masters doesn’t begin until the back nine on Sunday.

That’s when 52-year-old Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champ and a six-time majors champ, made his run. He was 1-under for 54 holes. He was 8-under for 72 holes. Yes, a 7-under-65, the low round of the day. May I add, wow?

What Mickelson added was, “I had so much fun today. I feel I’ve been hitting these types of quality shots but have not been staying focused and preset for the upcoming shot, and I make a lot of mistakes; Kind of like you saw Thursday, and that cost me a bunch of shots.”

Not so many he couldn’t soar up the leaderboard to finish second, at 280, only four behind Rahm, who had a 69, Saturday. Not so many that in the group press conference, he couldn’t revert to the cocky kid who always came up with a smart-aleck response. Not so many we couldn’t think of the times when Phil was challenging Tiger.

Woods, who made the cut for a 23rd straight time in a Masters but withdrew Sunday morning because of plantar fasciitis, aggravated by long rounds Friday and Saturday.

Mickelson, stashed away on the Saudi-financed LIV Tour, had not been noticed of late. Other than when he made the tour switch with what seemed a lot of guilt, calling the Saudis “bad mothers.”

Why did he join them? He wanted leverage against the PGA Tour, after questioning how purse money was distributed. Mickelson has made millions as a golf pro, but he’s also lost millions at the gambling tables or betting on sporting events.

Whatever, he was gone, an aging star who almost disappeared — as did another tour jumper, Koepka, since the LIV didn’t have any attention and until a few weeks ago had no U.S. TV coverage. Fortunately, the four major championships were unconcerned with affiliations. They just cared if you could play.

As re-learned, Mickelson very much could.

“I’m hopeful this kind of catapults me into playing the rest of the year the way I believe I’m playing,” he said. “I worked hard in the off-season to get ready.”

Asked what he learned about himself, Mickelson said, “It’s not so much what I’ve learned. I was thinking when you come here to Augusta, you end up having a sense of gratitude. It’s hard not to, right? This is what we strive for. There’s a kind of calm that comes over you.”

“The fact that we get to play and compete in this Masters. I think we’ve all been appreciative of that,” Mickelson added. “I love everything about this, because it’s what I dreamed of as a kid to be a part of and I’ve got so many great memories wrapped up here at Augusta.”   

Especially this one.

Masters: Tales of Koepka and Tiger

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Part of the deal. Brooks Koepka said it. He understands you can’t do a thing about the weather, major golf championship or not. He also understands how to play the game, whatever the conditions.

As indicated by his place on the scoreboard, which is better than anyone else’s through a Masters which was supposed to be over, but like one those old European films that just keeps going and going.

Then again it is over. Probably. Technically. Koepka is running away with the thing — sorry, sloshing away. It’s been wet — “Super difficult,” said Koepka. “Ball’s not going anywhere.”

However, Koepka, who’s already won two U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship, almost certainly is going on to a victory and the green jacket presented to Masters winners.

When on this cold (55 degrees) soggy Saturday play was suspended yet again, Koepka had a four-shot lead over Jon Rahm and 30 holes remaining. Yes, there’s a lot of golf left but the other guys are the ones struggling, not Koepka, who like most who win the Masters, turns the par-fives into fours and never blinks.

The only real question when Friday’s worrisome second round, the one halted because of falling trees and fleeing spectators, resumed Saturday morning was whether Tiger Woods would retain his impressive record of never missing a Masters cut. He would.

Woods has now expanded his streak to 23 in a row. From 1997, the year he won the first of his five Masters, and shares the mark with Gary Player (1959-1982) and Fred Couples (1983-2007). 

"I've always loved this golf course, and I love playing this event," Woods said Saturday. "Obviously I've missed a couple with some injuries, but I've always wanted to be here. I've loved it.”

He’d love to win again and tie Jack Nicklaus’ total of six championships, but his body is against him after that 2021 car accident, and so is time. Woods is 47,  which is 15 years older than Koepka, who, having recovered from his own injuries, a knee requiring surgery, appears as strong and no less eager than a couple years back.

“I’m not too concerned with playing 30 holes,” Koepka said of his Sunday round, which after the storms is supposed to be held in acceptable weather.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll be up for it, considering it is the Masters.”

If he isn’t there’s something very wrong.

Could Bennett be the first amateur to win the Masters?

AUGUSTA, Ga. —  “Yeah,” Sam Bennett’s pals told him. “Hope you get low amateur. That’s pretty much all they were saying.” Because there wasn’t much more they could say.

Sure, they could have suggested he could make history. Fulfill a wish of the man who founded the Masters, Bobby Jones, do the unprecedented if not the impossible, and give the Masters an amateur winner.  But let’s be realistic.    

Golf, especially the major at the championships, belongs to the pros, to the men who have spent years of practice and competition earning their niche.  

So even though Bennett, 23, a senior at Texas A&M and the U.S. Amateur champion, was 8-under par and temporarily in third place when Friday’s second round came to a jolting suspension because of falling pine trees and falling rain, he’s not going to finish on top. 

Not with three-time major winner Brooks Koepka in first place and likely to stay there. Not with the sad tale of Ken Venturi being retold every time an amateur works his way up the Masters’ leaderboard.

“I haven’t played great this college season,” said Bennett, who shot 68-68—136 (Koepka was 132) and was efficient if not great in his first rounds of his first Masters. 

“I don’t have a pretty swing like some of the other amateurs. But it’s golf, not a golf swing (that counts).” 

Venturi had one of the prettiest swings ever. He grew up playing Harding Park in San Francisco and after time at San Jose State and the U.S. Army had developed into arguably the best golfer in the U.S., pro or amateur.

Three rounds into the 1956 Masters, Venturi was four shots ahead. Oh, the excitement. Oh, the disappointment. Venturi finished with an 80 and in second by a shot to Jackie Burke Jr.  

In those days Bay Area writers didn’t travel. When he arrived home Venturi, who was swarmed by reporters from what then were a half-dozen reporters, was asked what went wrong.

Years later Venturi told Golf Digest his mistake was trying to 2-putt every green. But originally there was the contention that playing partner Sam Snead had, contrary to accepted golf etiquette, intentionally rattled Venturi. It sounded like an excuse, which it wasn’t meant to be. 

Venturi went on to win the 1964 U.S. Open and had a fine career as a broadcaster for CBS. And has come as close to finishing first in the Masters as any amateur.

That’s not to dissuade Bennett from continuing to try. The guy has plenty of desire, and just incidentally a few tattoos, including words of advice from his late father. “One on my left arm,” Bennett explained. “I see it every time I grip a club. It’s right there, ‘Don’t wait to do something.’” 

The golf world has waited the tournament’s entire 87 years for an amateur to win the Masters. You have to be patient, but isn’t there a limit?

“Everything I’ve done in my golf career, playing in these big tournaments,” said Bennett. “has led me to succeed this week and leading forward.”

Nothing wrong with that attitude.

Masters: Old names, new games

AUGUSTA, Ga. — They’re knee-deep in nostalgia at the Masters. The opening shots of round one Thursday were struck by guys in their 70s and 80s, former champions Gary Player, 87, Jack Nicklaus, 83, and Tom Watson, 73, who once shot in the 60’s.

Then after waking up the echoes, providing a few moments to recall how it was, the year’s first major steps back quickly to the way it is. To a new generation, to names like Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm, and straight from his self-chosen disappearance on the LIV Tour, Brooks Koepka. Big hitters, boomers, and big names. That’s usually been the case at the Masters, where the grass, with an exception, is short and the tee shots long, where you can score low.      

It was the late Tony Lema, who said in so many words, the U.S. Open, where the fairways are narrow and the hazards severe, is hard work, a struggle, but the Masters is a pleasurable bit of recreation, entirely almost predictable, and fully enjoyable.   

In golf and tennis, the fans want success for the favorites and at the Masters that’s what they get, Nicklaus won six times, Tiger Woods five, and Arnold Palmer four. 

Eighteen holes into the 2023 Masters, Hovland, Rahm and Koepka are tied at 67, five-under par. Koepka has won three majors but none since he took the money and fled to the Saudi-finance LIV Tour — LIV in Roman numerals is 40, the number of holes for that tour’s tournaments.    

Rahm has won a U.S. Open and for most of this season was No. 1 in world rankings. Hovland, the Swede, seemingly always is in the contest. Not an anonymous soul in the group, normal for a Masters. The event brings out the best of the best.  

No, Woods, tied for 54th or something like that after a two-over 74, isn’t up there, but, hey Tiger is 47 and dare we remind you again, only two years away from that car accident which, if it didn’t take his life, took away much of the strength in his legs. 

Of the three tied for the leader, Koepka may be the most surprising, to us, not to himself. He did it with back-to-back U.S.Opens and a PGA, but other than being mentioned as a footnote in the war between the PGA and LIV tours there’s hardly been a word about his play. There was, however, television coverage of his lifestyle in the Netflix series Full Swing.    

Koepka, whose swing is very full, was told in one episode of the show that his game appeared to be far away from a great Masters round.    

“Anytime with something like that,” Koepka insisted. “You don’t see everything right, a lot of it was injury-based. They (the doctors) told me after (knee) surgery it was going to be pretty much a year and a half; I mean getting out of bed takes 15 minutes.”

Then, asked if the LIV issue puts more pressure on him in the Masters than when he’d been on the PGA Tour Koepka said, “I don’t really think about things like that. It’s just a major.”  

Hard to imagine Jack or Tiger saying that.

Masters irretrievably part of our sporting landscape

AGUSTA, Ga. — The location seems part cathedral and part real estate development.  The name, which he did not choose, embarrassed Bobby Jones, the man who was responsible for the creation of the tournament.

And yet because of history and some mystery — how do you get into the club; how do you get a ticket — the Masters irretrievably has become part of our sporting landscape

As the late, very great Dan Jenkins wrote, the Masters is the championship of nothing, no league or nation or continent, and yet for golf, it may be the center of everything, loaded with names and memories.

The Masters is where enlisted men from nearby Fort Gordon, having finished their assignment posting numbers on the scoreboard, jumped into the gallery following a pro named Palmer. And still wearing their uniforms, unintentionally started Arnie's Army.

The Masters is where years later another young guy named Tiger Woods shook up his opponents and because of his style and success — and race, a black man in what primarily had been a white man’s activity — shook up a sport that can always use some shaking.

Down here near the banks of the Savannah River, familiarity, contrary to the cliché, breeds not contempt but appreciation. The same venue, many of the same competitors, on television, the same comforting reminders from the words of CBS’ Jim Nantz.

So many athletes and fans, people who have been there and with exception done that, and whether they ever swung a club or a racquet, or know a double bogey from a double fault, say the only two events they would like to attend once are the Masters and Wimbledon.

Magical names where over the decades there have been so many wonderful games, where stories of the losers — Greg Norman, Jana Novotna — were more compelling than those of the winners.

The stories leading up to this Masters, involved, of course, Tiger, now 47, and still as always will be recovering from the vehicle crash of February 2021 — a sheriff’s deputy said Woods was lucky to survive — defending Masters champ.

Scottie Scheffler and the LIV Tour remain at war with the PGA Tour.

Not that anybody outside of the players, particularly Michelson and Brooks Koepka and the LIV and PGA Tour really cares about the war.

Golf, like tennis, is constructed on personalities, who’s playing and where. Watson defected from the PGA Tour and joined the Saudi-funded LIV Tour, only an issue if Bubba can’t enter a tournament because of his affiliation.

And the Masters, happily for all, especially fans of the Masters, has no restrictions. If the golfers themselves can’t get along, well, that’s their problem.

For the rest of us, the only problem may be the weather for this Masters, so inviting from the beginning, is supposed to turn nasty by Friday. Unfortunately, thunderstorms also are part of Masters tradition.

Warriors show they’re still winners

Two games previously, the coach took a few verbal shots at his team, which hadn’t kept the opposition from taking literal shots that went through the hoop. But this time Steve Kerr’s unhappiness was with someone in the media who wondered if Kerr was surprised by the way his team ended up after trailing big.   

Not really, Kerr responded in so many words, “These guys know how to win. Look what they’ve done. They’re winners.” And as we have learned, winners find a way to win.  

Whether the calls go against them. Whether they’re down 20 points. Or one hole with two to play. Or 15-40 in the third set.

It may be a quality they’re born with, it may be one they develop, but it is one that exists forever, one to be relied on, and one to be feared by the other team. Or other guy or woman, in individual sports.  A quality to be appreciated even if never quite understood.

These may not be the Warriors a few years back, who turned practically every third quarter into a personal festival, although Wednesday night against the frazzled New Orleans Pelicans there were more than a few tantalizing hints.

It was the game of the season for some Warriors fans, one to be treasured, one which brought back memories and in a way, with the playoffs coming, brought up possibilities. The Warriors came back from 20 points down.

It was one in which the required stars, the leaders, after halftime performed with the skill and gusto that made them stars and leaders.

Steph Curry throwing them in as well (39 points) as well as throwing them to teammates ( 8 assists, 8 rebounds).  Draymond Green throwing caution to the wind, coming close to a technical, but more significantly getting people on course.

“For the offense to work,” Chris Mullen, the Warriors Hall of Famer told the TV audience, “it has to flow. But it won’t flow when you’re making turnovers.”

This has been a difficult season for the Warriors, with Klay Thompson coming back from his injuries and then Curry getting hurt. Kevon Looney has played well as usual at what would be the center position. Gary Payton picked up as a spare part in a trade, had recovered from his injury, and played in two games, a boost to the defense.

They’ve had their run, becoming the most dominant team since the Lakers. Maybe they could fit together all the pieces one more time.

Winners never forget how to win.

Rybakina, Sabalenka shine on a gray day at the BNP

INDIAN WELLS — The women finally got their time in the, well if there was any sun at the BNP Paribas Open, until it came late disguised as a big, gray blob of clouds for the Sunday final.

Which is yet another reminder you don’t know what you’ll get in weather or sports.

Aryna Sabalenka had never lost to Elena Rybakina. True they had played only four times, but perfection is perfection. And this winter Sabalenka virtually didn’t lose to anyone. 

She was an impressive 17-1 overall, a figure which would have made the good, old Warriors and eccentric New England Patriots envious.

You know where we’re going on this one, of course, Rybakina beat Sabalenka. It took a while, 2 hours, 3 minutes, and the score was 7-6 (11), 6-4. But now Rybakina has a victory over her nemesis as well as something no less significant, the 2022 Wimbledon title.

It definitely went right for her. And now the 24-year-old Sabalenka has the realization that when everything is going her way, as she observed Friday when the semifinal was delayed by an electrical problem at Indian Wells, it all could go wrong.

Everything definitely went well for Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s final that followed the ladies’ match. The day brightened, although it didn’t make you reach for the sunscreen, and the 19-year-old Alcaraz of Spain thumped Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, 6-3, 6-2.

The victory elevated Alcaraz to first in the men’s ranking. Sabalenka, the Belarusian, was aiming for the same position in the women’s, but the loss to Rybakina will keep her second until further competition.

 “A tough loss,” conceded Sabalenka, “but she played unbelievable tennis. I would say I didn’t serve great.

A big failing when the best part of your game is the serve.   

“She deserves it,” said Sabalenka, a good sport in a sport infamous for bad actors and actresses. “She’s a great player. Hopefully next time I will do a little bit better.”  

At that level, they’re all great players, all too capable of knocking you down and out. Only two days earlier, Iga Swiatek was beaten by Rybakina.

Tennis is a pastime of mobility and instability. One match you’re getting all the bounces and the net cord drops, the next you’re getting in a car to the airport. Only a few days ago Iga Swiatek, the ladies' top player (according to rankings), was moving past one opponent after another, unbeatable.  

Until Friday’s semis when she was defeated by the lady who was on her way to the trophy.  

The 23-year-old Rybakina was born in Moscow, as in Russia, but lists her home country as Kazakhstan. Her racquets don’t seem to mind.

“The important thing is the first set,” said Rybakina, emphasizing the obvious. She was down 4-2 quickly, but forced a tiebreaker that went, well if not as long as Isner-Nicolas Mahut in 2010 Wimbledon territory, but plenty long.

“We both had chances. In the end, it went my way.”

It turned out to be the winning way.

From Medvedev, no apology, no mercy

INDIAN WELLS — No apologies this time from Daniil Medvedev. In a way, no mercy either.

The guy with consecutive I’s in his first name is also the guy who’s now with 19 consecutive victories, the most recent over Frances Tiafoe, 7-6, 7-6 (4) Saturday in the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open.

Medvedev, 27, a Russian although that hardly matters in a sport as international as tennis — he speaks English better than many Americans — is full of opinions if not necessarily himself.

He challenged the fans at the 2019 U.S. Open in New York. He whined about the playing surface in 2023 here at Indian Wells (later backing off and saying he had acted immaturely).

Sunday the challenge will be sporting, when in the final Medvedev faces Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old U.S. Open champion, who in the second BNP semi, defeated Jannik Sinner, 7-6(4), 6-3.

A year ago, Medvedev, a former No. 1 and U.S. Open champion, was in a slump. Or a funk. Whatever, he was losing and the tennis folk were coming up with all sorts of reasons, not including the inescapable fact he had undergone hernia surgery.  

But as verified by his current streak that two weekends included a win over No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the Dubai final, his game is in full recovery.

Before the semi, Medvedev conceded he was in a zone — as if with a steak of almost  20 straight people would expect something else.

“First of all, I’m really happy to win. It was a crazy match even the ending, tough. I still feel not stressed, but it’s definitely better to win 7-5, 6-3, because then you get the energy level down. But I know how to go through it, so that’s not a problem.”

The only problem for Tiafoe, one of the young American stars, is that while he’s improved tremendously over the last two or three years, he is better than dozens of others on the circuit, he’s a notch behind people like Medvedev and Djokovic. And despite all the work and support, always may be.

The U.S. hasn’t had a Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick in 2003. It did have an Indian Wells winner in 2022, Taylor Fritz, and a runner-up this year, Tiafoe.

Before the semi, Tiafoe pointed out, “The more you put yourself in position, the more you have the chances to win.”

This was another chance, but it ended up as Medvedev’s win. Not that he had escaped the pressure.  

“I mean it’s just another opportunity,” he said about making the final — repeating what seemingly every tennis player says about every match.

“The question is ‘Did I advance my position?’ Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.” 

Nineteen wins in a row have to be considered an advance. It’s hardly a regression.