Optimism of the will (or a funny thing happened to The Golden State Warriors on the way to Indian Wells).
First of all, I’m going to go light on the analysis in this post. Bethlehem Shoals over at “Free Darko” and “The Baseline Sees All,” has done an impressive job of providing a solid deconstruction of our Golden State Warriors for the upcoming season. I use the word “deconstruction” because that is always an appropriate term when describing The Cohan era Warriors. If you read anything about The Dubs in the next 48 hours, make sure you peep it here. In addition, Tim “Haterade, is it in you?” Kawakami is obviously the man to follow if you just can’t get enough of the recent Stack Jack drama. So, in general, there’s not a whole lot that I could say that hasn’t already been said about the team as of late.
However, I would like to point out that I detected a light breeze of change starting to blow before last night’s outdoor match against The Suns in Indian Wells. Maybe I’m reading into it because, like all Warriors fans, I need to be an optimist, or more precisely, to quote Antonio Gramsci, the great Italian political thinker, “I’m a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.” Intellectually, I know there’s zero reason to be optimistic about this team, but I’m going to will myself to be nonetheless.
Read why by making the jump…
It’s not just me doing the “willing” either, it’s also because of the bullheaded efforts of a few Warriors players and coaches that I’m hopeful a change is gonna come. In Shoals’ piece, he implies that Morrow will end up on Nellie’s bench more often than not. In Kawakami’s piece, he implies that Nellie is not the right guy to nurture young talent. Both of these opinions could be right, but what if they’re not? The actions taken by Nellie and the coaching staff to exert their will by first benching and then suspending Stephen Jackson, thus giving most of Jack’s minutes to the young guys (primarily Morrow), led us to two straight nights of Chocolate Rain, and two wins (I know, I know - meaningless preseason games, but humor me here). This also demonstrates that Nellie is recognizing the will of his players, and executing accordingly - namely, Stephen Jackson’s egotastic determination to NOT play for The Warriors by any means necessary, and the will on the part of the young dudes (Morrow, Randolph, and Curry) to be better than average NBA players now, and All Stars in the future. Nellie, at least for the time being, is using the proper coaching Ju Jitsu.
Stubbornness in The Warriors organization usually leads to, at best, inertia, and at worst, a coach getting his neck throttled. However, maybe this time, things will be different. I know, Intellectually, none of this makes any sense, but if the stars align, as they did this weekend, maybe everyone could get what they wish for, or “will” for rather. Now, if reason prevails instead, and there really is no aligned course for players, coaches and management, then The Warriors will go off the rails even further. If that happens, then let the will of The Fans finally prevail on David Stern for some NBA version of The GM Bail Out whereby Robert Rowell would be asked to resign in Rick Wagoner-esque fashion, and new management would be required to show that it was righting the ship. Now that’s unrealistic, but still maybe worth being optimistic about.
M. Meschery
Invoking Gramsci might be a first in sports journalism, but I’m feeling you. Being more of a “Prison Notebooks” man myself, I’d have to offer a vague spectulation about the rise of fascism within the Warriors organization, and how that rise effectively supplanted the egalitarian and socialistic tendencies of the previous iterations of the team. Iterations which were ultimately unable to articulate a cohesive enough vision of the team to counter the ever-increasing rise of fascism in the front office. Silencing dissent around the trade of Baron Davis was the first Mussolini moment for Bobby Rowell. Selective deformation of the “team-first” socialism that remained (extending Jack, fining Monta, marginalizing Mully), rendered the transformation complete.
Now, we all know who stands atop the reviewing stand in his toy soldier suit demanding that we goose step our way to our seats for opening night. Whether we do, or under what circumstances, depends on where we fit on that other Gramscian continuum. The one of which you speak.
I too choose optimism. But I wonder how easy that was for Gramsci during the time when he was a political prisoner. Perhaps one can be a dissident and an optimist at the same time. Rooting for a youthful revolution too powerful to ignore, while bitterly chastening the powers that be for the ruthlessness with which they try to silence criticism of their autocratic “leadership” seems like a good approach for me to take toward this season.
Okay, back to the game. Clippers tonight. Anyone unable to watch can catch it here: http://atdhe.net/index.html.
Predictions? Thoughts? Baron Davis as the Gramsci of this situation? I’m not saying the Clippers are prison, per se, but exile is exile.
Comment by admin | 10.12.2009 | 10:36 am
We’ve been saying it for years but finally, it seems that mainstream media is beginning to winnow down to the heart of Dub dysfunction. Yep, the head nachos.
Thanks Adrian.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AgNGxhvVataLECCg8koNMU45nYcB?slug=aw-cohanwarriors101209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
While we hunch over our respective laptops to watch the game tonight, is anyone interested in brainstorming potential buyers for this hapless organization?
Comment by Gd. | 10.12.2009 | 2:40 pm
Nice comments. Yes, a bit of a dramatic metaphor, but it is kind of fun to think of Cohan as Mussolini - How about “The Golden State Black Shirts?” Well, prison probably killed Gramsci, but he didn’t die in jail. Hopefully, Cohan will sell the team soon so we don’t have to wait until right before our deaths to finally be free from the incompetence.
Comment by matthewmeschery | 10.12.2009 | 3:02 pm
While I’m not an expert on Warriors managment, my lack of skill in that area actually makes my grasp of Antonio Gramsci’s ouevre look intimidating. It is not. Nevertheless, I will boldly step into the commentary here, armed only with ignorance, to say that “will” and “optimism” are fine, but when you start hoping that “the stars will align,” you’ve ventured into astrology and that sh*t is not Marx-approved. “To tell the truth is revolutionary,” Gramsci apparently said, if BrainyQuote is to be believed. Maybe so. But to put one’s faith in harmonic convergences is just goofy. Sorry, broham.
Comment by bjackson | 10.13.2009 | 11:46 am
Actually, are you sure you’re not related to Stephen Jackson? He’s basically saying the same thing to the team. Except it comes out sounding more like, “Fuck all a y’all.”
Comment by admin | 10.13.2009 | 1:16 pm
In that case, fuck all y’all. And footnote it.
Comment by bjackson | 10.13.2009 | 6:13 pm
I believe I said at the very start of my piece that I was going light on the analysis - key word being “light.”
Comment by matthewmeschery | 10.13.2009 | 6:56 pm
Bjack! I didn’t mean it like that!
Comment by admin | 10.13.2009 | 7:29 pm