It’s Hater Tuesday and Robert Rowell, the bell tolls for thee.

10.13.2008 | 10:24 pm | Hater Tuesdays, Pogonophobia, The Warriors

We’ve been trying not to come right out and say this, but the time has come. In the span of a few short months Robert Rowell, pictured above, has embarked on a Chris Cohan-backed campaign to limit the Warriors’ competitiveness for the foreseeable future, alienate the remaining star players, and freeze out Mully and Nellie on any financial decisions more significant than picking up unrestricted free agents. Worse still, the door to that corner office of the President of Basketball Operations has finally been opened to the media, revealing a diffident and unrepentant bean counter who appears to be bent on asserting the scope and authority of his bean-counting dictatorship to anyone who might have the audacity to want to see the Warriors field a competitive and cohesive basketball team.

Grab a Snickers. This could take a while.

First, we’ll address his recent emergence from behind the shroud of secrecy. With his decision (apparently one made against the urgings of both Don Nelson and Chris Mullin) to suspend Monta without pay for 30 days, he was compelled to face the media. What did he have to say? Well, with Kawakami, Lepper, Hu and the rest of the beat writers in attendance there are no shortage of accounts. My fave on this matter? From Kawakami. It seems that his, um, “perseverance” as a questioner got some revealing answers.

TK: You didn’t have to suspend him. What were the reasons for doing that?

ROWELL: Players operate under a uniform player contract in our league and when you violate a provision of the contract you need to be accountable for your actions. This is something that doesn’t happen a lot in the NBA. We’re in somewhat uncharted waters with this.

There’s only been a couple incidents where people were injured while participating in prohibited activities. To us this is big for the organization. We made a committment to Monta for $66 million to be a great basketball player.

We’re in a situation where he is now not with us. We’re going to do everything possible that we can obviously to get him back and to help him rehab and get back on the basketball floor but right now we felt that it was an apprporiate consequence.

TK: Is voiding the contract now out of the question in the future?

ROWELL: Our expectation is that Monta fully recovers, he’s back on the floor and he has a prosperous career as a Golden State Warrior. That’s our goal and that’s what our focus is.

TK: But if he doesn’t fully recover, you can take further actions?

ROWELL: I think that that is something that we obviously have our rights reserved but other than that, that’s something that really isn’t an issue at this moment. We feel that it’s an injury he’s going to fully recover from.

TK: So you’ve retained the ability to suspend him again?

ROWELL: Those are questions that I don’t have answers too today.

TK: If he comes back in a lesser version of himself can you take another bite out of contract?

ROWELL: That’s something that we’ll review at that time but again our position right now is that that’s not what our goals and objectives are here. Our goals and objectives are to rehabilitate Monta.

With both Mully and Nellie keeping stiff upper lips on the subject, one has to wonder about their own contract negotiations. Well, Janny Hu over at the Chron squeezed Rowell on that aspect of the situation during her five minutes.

JH: OK, reality. Mully’s on the last year of his contract.

ROWELL: Now you’re coming to reality. Really. You guys are great. It’s a fishing act. Chris is on the last year of his contract. Don Nelson is on the last year of his contract. We have a lot of work to do in this organization. We’ve got a lot of work to do with this team to get it to where it needs to get. We’re going to evaluate everything. We’re going to make the appropriate personnel decisions at the appropriate times. Everyone’s under contract right now. There’s no rush to have to do anything other than what we’re doing and trying to win basketball games.

JH: So you’re saying you want to see how this year goes. That they have to prove something?

ROWELL: I’m saying we have a lot to prove.

JH: They, the two of them?

ROWELL: This organization has a lot to prove.

JH: So the fact that you guys have not had discussions, that’s on your part?

ROWELL: We haven’t had discussions because everyone’s under contract. We haven’t had discussions because you guys want us to have discussions, I guess. Who says that just because you’re going into the last year of a contract and you’ve got a contract that runs through June 30 or April 3rd or whatever it is that everyone has to have public discussions about their futures?

Are you starting to feel like this dude just really doesn’t give a shit? I am. Or maybe competent coaches, thoughtful and capable front office personnel and happy superstar guards grow on trees where he lives in Candyland. But wait, where it seems like I should be wrapping up, I haven’t even really got untracked yet. I mean, this is Fear The Beard and we haven’t even once talked about how he torpedoed Baron’s contract extension this summer. And then there’s the whole thing about how he is (apparently) negotiating with the agent-less Stephen Jackson by his damn self.

So yeah, we’ve been sitting on how Rowell killed the Baron Davis/Chris Mullin contract talks for a while now. I, for one, really didn’t want to write about it. I had an anecdotal understanding of what type of deal had been rejected, from sources well placed at that, but now that everything’s all public like, it’s fair to make a statement. Basically, my statement: this blows. Matt Steinmetz and others reported on it recently, and here’s Steinmetz on how things broke down.

Some may try to soft-pedal the importance of Rowell vetoing a three-year, $39 million extension for Baron Davis this offseason, leading to Davis’ opt out, but it is significant.

What it means is that Rowell is no longer just assessing the monetary aspect of deals and instructing accordingly. He’s assessing the player aspect of deals and instructing accordingly.

But that’s just the beginning. Now that Rowell is vetoing or modifying Chris Mullin’s negotiated deals with the team’s best players, the player-personnel decisions are no longer in the hands of the two men with an aggregated 70-plus years of NBA experience between them. They are in the hands of the guy who masterminded the “It’s a Great Time Out” marketing scheme. Clearly, Baron Davis did not move him. But even given that likelihood, the deal that was ultimately put on his desk and denied was really pretty fair. To everyone. Especially the Warriors. Maybe he didn’t notice all of those butts in seats the last couple of years. Or the national-television revenue being afforded a team restored to TNT and ESPN relevance. It’s baffling. Steinmetz goes on.

The most important thing you need to know about Davis’ three-year, $39 million extension offer is this: It was fair. Absolutely fair.

So fair that neither side really liked it, a sure sign they had come to middle ground.

The deal was thought out and sound, and was the kind of deal you let your vice president of basketball operations live or die with. It’s not a deal you put a halt to unless something else is going on, like you don’t really want Davis here in the first place.

Davis was going to be in the salary ballparks of Tony Parker and Chauncey Billups, but he wasn’t going to be on the pay scale of a Chris Paul or Deron Williams. That sounded about right.

Mullin thought so. Ramasar [Davis' agent] thought so. Davis thought so.

Rowell did not, and came back with one less guaranteed year and $12 million less in guaranteed money.

Dude, wait. Really?

And yes, finally, Rowell is negotiating with Stephen Jackson on the terms under which he would “finish his career as a Warrior.” Sound familiar? Janny Hu got this response on why Mullin seems to be absent from the negotiations, at least in terms of what Jack said publicly. And then she pressed him on the growing understanding that Rowell does what Rowell wants to do.

JH: Is Mully going to be a part of those discussions?

ROWELL: They’re aware of it. They’re aware that Stephen wants to retire as a Golden State Warrior. And doing an extension on a player, there’s parameters. It’s pretty simple. There’s not a whole lot of negotiation that needs to go on. You can only take a guy up a certain percentage off what they made before.

JH: But it’s your decision to grant the decision. Would that be your call or Mully’s?

ROWELL: I’ll tell you this. Stephen Jackson has embraced this organization more than any player has since Mr. Cohan’s owned this team. And he’s the best player we have. And we’d like to see him around. And we’ll leave it at that. I’m not going to get into who’s saying what or this.

JH: Sure, but from the outside it’s a little strange that Mully is not a part of this.

ROWELL: Why? How do you know he hasn’t been a part of these discussions?

JH: Jack’s said that.

ROWELL: How do you know he’s not been a part of early discussions about wanting to be around here? Because he has.

JH: That’s different than actually getting down to negotiations.

ROWELL: That’s not how it works. Honestly, at times you guys are more worried about stirring the pot than what reality it. I’m being honest. Reality is we all know what we’re going to do and we’re going to go and put it together and do it.

So. Feeling any hate yet? The petty defensiveness in front of the media doesn’t surprise me much, but it certainly doesn’t make his arguments go down any smoother. I mean seriously. You talk to the media once a decade and within five minutes the conversation degenerates into “you guys” and “stirring the pot.” Broham. I got news for you. You, sir are the one stirring the pot. And you were the one who furloughed our best player out of town on the first thing smokin’ out of OAK. And did so after being presented with a perfectly reasonable deal. And now you are fining the future of the franchise $3 million dollars for an offense that there is ample precedent for leaving unpunished–most notably for Bay Area fans, with the example of then-Giant Jeff Kent’s wheelie-popping, wrist-snapping exploits back in spring training 2003.

But the worst of all? Mr. Robert Rowell, you clearly seem intent on taking as much liberty with the goodwill generated by the Warriors teams of the past few years as you like in the service of goals that seem more like those of a petty tyrant than those of a basketball visionary. And in the process, you’re totally harshing my Great Time Out. Try to stick to the marketing stuff. I personally don’t care much for your tendencies in that department either, but at least pizza-delivery dudes get off of the floor when the game starts. Now, we are starting to feel your influence on the hardwood after the horn sounds, and I’m not much enjoying the feeling. And seriously bro, no matter who you put in a damn rubber suit to shoot t-shirts at me next year, for the good of the fans whose interest you allegedly represent, you had better start leaving the basketball decisions to the people who actually understand them. Some of us are actually there to watch the game.

In frustration,

Daniel Turman

PS. And for anyone who made it this far, here’s your reward: McCain and Obama debate bingo cards to soothe the pain.