To Curry, ‘kind of like a blast from the past’
By Art Spander
Steph Curry hit this one. Not with a jumper, with a comment, about a victory that that was as emotional as it was unlikely. “It was,” said Curry, “kind of like a blast from the past.”
From the distant past, from the Warriors’ championship seasons, five, six years ago, when Golden State was Golden and no deficit seemed impossible to overcome — which Monday night against the Lakers a deficit seemed to be but wasn’t.
You still wonder what could have been for Aaron Rodgers
By Art Spander
It’s hard to watch Aaron Rodgers play as efficiently and successfully as he did in the NFL playoff game Saturday and not think what could have been. Indeed, what should have been.
Rodgers threw for 296 yards, and the Green Bay Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 32-18, to advance to next week’s NFC championship game, where they’ve been before. Four times before.
And when it comes to Rodgers, who has won a Super Bowl, we’ve also been there before.
He seems to be everywhere; in those State Farm Insurance commercials; usually in the field for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (not this year, however — no amateurs) and in the opposition’s hair. Or end zone.
Where he isn’t is in a 49ers uniform. Even though he grew up in Chico hoping to be, and as an undergrad played for Cal, maybe 25 miles away from the Niners' facility.
An old story? Absolutely, but also an irritatingly unforgettable story.
The Niners had the No. 1 selection in the 2005 NFL draft. The presumption was they would choose Rodgers, who one Saturday against the previous No. 1 team in the land completed his first 23 passes, tying an NCAA record.
That wasn’t good enough for the new 49ers coach, Mike Nolan, who wanted someone more athletic and mobile than Rodgers. The pick was star-crossed Alex Smith of Utah, who now 15 years, several teams, many coaches and one serious injury later is with the Washington Football Team.
Nolan last was defensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys who, failing to qualify for to the postseason, fired him a week ago.
Nolan was hardly the only one not to put his faith and future in Rodgers. The quarterback remained untaken until the 24th pick by the Packers, whose QB at the time was Brett Favre.
“Quarterbacks need time to develop,” said Mike McCarthy, who in one of those all too typical sports mixtures was San Francisco's offensive coordinator when Nolan didn’t take Rodgers, became Rodgers' head coach with Green Bay and is now coaching the Dallas Cowboys, who just let Nolan go.
Rodgers has developed — into a star, a salesman and a celebrity. He’s 37, older than most NFL quarterbacks but younger than Tom Brady and Drew Brees, with whom he is ranked.
Asked about his performance Saturday, Rodgers was not quite as cool as he appears in the State Farm ads, like the one in which he launches a tee shot, wonders if the ball came down yet and then shrugs as it plops into the cup.
The victory Saturday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay (no frozen tundra on a 35-degree afternoon) set up Rodgers for his first home conference championship game. The other three, including last year’s loss at San Francisco, were on the road.
Unlike games in California during this Covid-19 crackdown, a few thousand fans were permitted to attend the win over the Rams.
“I’m definitely a little emotional, just thinking about what we’ve been through,” said Rodgers, who Saturday went 23 of 36. “It got me emotional with the crowd out there today.”
Rodgers threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams and a game-clinching 58-yarder to Allen Lazard with 6:52 remaining. Rodgers also had a 1-yard touchdown run, the first by a Packers quarterback in a playoff game at Lambeau since Bart Starr’s winning sneak in the Ice Bowl against Dallas on Dec. 31, 1967.
The Rams also had a Cal quarterback, Jared Goff, who was the first overall pick in the 2016 draft. He was in the Super Bowl his second season, but as of now he’s not Aaron Rodgers. His lone TV commercial is one of those ESPN promos.
At Pebble, a Pro-Am without any “ams,” including Bill Murray
By Art Spander
It was created by a man who could swing a 5-iron as impressively as he could hold a musical note. In time, his tournament, the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, became the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. What didn’t change was the last part of the label, “Am.”
The pros, from Snead and Hogan to Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods, had their place and their victories, but what made the Pro-Am special were the amateurs: entertainers, athletes and politicians as eager to compete and as we were to watch them.
Now the event, a mid-winter festival on the Monterey Peninsula, has fallen victim to Covid-19, as have so many other attractions. They’ll hold the AT&T in February, as always, but not like before.
According to a release from the PGA Tour, the AT&T will be played “without the traditional multi-day format,” which means it won’t be the traditional Crosby/AT&T.
Inevitable, perhaps, the way the virus has surged, chasing the 49ers and the Sharks to Arizona and forcing the suspension of so many NBA and college basketball games, but still disappointing.
The courses are the same, although only Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill will be used, Monterey Peninsula Country Club unneeded for a greatly reduced field.
The charity beneficiary is the same, the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, which Crosby told me in the early 1970s, when some of the pros didn’t like the format, was the only reason he didn’t withdraw his support.
The threat of inclement weather will be the same, although the Pacific storms are as unreliable as were Jack Lemmon’s tee shots.
Lemmon, of course, was a regular, a good guy if not a good golfer, who tried for years without success to make the cut but even in his unfulfilled attempts made us appreciate his persistence and sense of humor.
Sure, we were thrilled by Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson, but we were no less enthralled by Huey Lewis — who might break out in song at every tee box — or Tom Brady.
Back in the ’50s, when the world was naïve, the guy who kept us attuned and laughing was Phil Harris, who had a ton of one-liners and also more than a minimum of one-putts.
In one rainy Crosby, he slopped off the inundated 17th green at Pebble and told the press, “I can’t wait to get out of these wet clothes and into a dry martini.” If you’ve heard that before, well, jokes survive.
The routines by Harris, Dean Martin and even Crosby himself have been taken over by Bill Murray, who has done everything from pull a female spectator into a bunker to hurl a frozen fish at spectators.
If the tournament occasionally resembled a variety show, well, how many times could you remind the audience that every putt breaks toward Carmel Bay?
Murray was a player as well as a comedian. He grew up near Chicago, caddying with his brothers, and in the 2011 AT&T he teamed with D.A. Points, who won the pro section. Murray won the pro-am.
On the 16th in the final round at Pebble, Points, getting into the spirit of things, yelled at Murray loud enough to he heard, “It would help if you made a putt.” Which Murray then did. “His being funny helped relax me,” said Murray, who hardly needs help at relaxing.
No Murray this winter. No quarterbacks — Tony Romo has been a consistent entrant, and Peyton Manning an occasional one — no wisecracks, no entrants sitting near the 17th tee being interviewed by Jim Nantz.
No crowd at the 15th tee, “Club 15” the description, chanting before the golfers hit their tee balls.
There will be golf played at Pebble next month, but not the golf we’ve come to expect. How can it be a pro-am without the “ams”?
Email Article Warriors’ Wiggins plays D and outplays the critics
By Art Spander
When a year ago Andrew Wiggins was traded by Minnesota to Golden State, a sports blogger named Brandon Anderson wrote, “The Timberwolves might have saved their franchise, while the Warriors made a catastrophic misstep that could put their dynasty on the brink.”
Basketball brinksmanship as practiced by the Dubs seems to be working. We’ll learn more after Tuesday night’s game against the Pacers at Chase Center.
The Warriors have won four of their last five, and in their most recent game Wiggins played like a man who could have been the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, which six years ago he was.
Even for his defense, which was unexpected — at least to those who thought they knew a man once labeled “Least Defensive Player” in the NBA from a plus-minus rating.
As an NBA observer tweeted last February when the Warriors acquired the frequently belittled Wiggins, ”Maybe he’ll smile with Steve Kerr.”
Kerr, the Warriors coach, certainly is smiling because of Wiggins. “We’re not asking him to change our franchise,” Kerr said of Wiggins. “We’re asking him to play defense, run the floor and get buckets. He’s capable of doing all that.”
As verified on Sunday night, the night Steph Curry was only 2 for 16, with just 11 points. Wiggins scored 17 and guarded Toronto’s Pascal Siakam down the stretch of the 106-105 victory.
“He just used his length, athleticism and anticipation,” said Kerr. “We now have someone we can put on the opposing team’s best player, whether it’s Pascal Siakam, LeBron James, Kawhi (Leonard) or Paul George.”
Klay Thompson had that responsibility, but of course he’s missing the season with the torn Achilles tendon.
The 6-foot-8 Wiggins always was expected to do more than he did, at least by his critics.
He grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, hockey country, and two years into high school moved to a prep school in West Virginia. A Feb. 7, 2013, article in Sports Illustrated knocked Canadian basketball and Wiggins’ work ethic. In his next game, he scored 57 points.
After a year at Kansas, Wiggins was taken first in the 2014 draft by Cleveland but, quickly enough in a swap that involved the Cavs, T-Wolves and 76ers, went to Minnesota. As part of the transaction, the Cavs got Kevin Love.
What Wiggins would get was complaints. Sure, he had impressive games, but not enough of them, even though he would be voted Rookie of the Year. The era belonged to the Warriors and Cavaliers, and T-Wolves fans were disenchanted.
As were some of the media.
During a Bulls-T-Wolves game two years ago, Chicago play-by-play announcer Neil Funk piled on Wiggins.
“We’ve seen Minnesota twice this season, and Wiggins has not been engaged in either game.” said Funk.
“He just kind of floats around out there — he does nothing ... Zach (LaVine) is just much more active than a Wiggins type, night in and night out … and Wiggins just has that, and I’m sure he wants to compete, we know he’s a talent, there’s no arguing that, but his body language is as if ‘I don’t care, I’m just out here.'”
Then he was out of there. One basketball observer couldn’t decide whether the Warriors were more thrilled getting Wiggins or getting rid of D'Angelo Russell.
The answer has arrived. Maybe Wiggins simply needed a team like the Warriors. Maybe he became more determined. Sometimes what’s needed is a change of scenery. Sometimes a change in motivation.
“I’m playing with the Defensive Player of the Year, Draymond,” Wiggins said of his new approach. “He’s out there, he’s vocal, he helps out a lot on defense giving us advice, just showing us certain things. We’ve got the rook down there, James (Wiseman) trying to clean stuff up. It’s been good.”
For the Warriors, and for Andrew Wiggins. At least so far.
Draymond is the one who makes that difference
By Art Spander
The best defensive player in the world. Steve Kerr said that about Draymond Green. Of course it’s an exaggeration, but this is an era of exaggeration, and if anybody is going tell us that it would be Kerr, who is Green’s coach with the Warriors.
And if anybody deserves that compliment, that exaggeration, it’s Green.
“There’s no sport where one player makes that much of a difference.” So said Chris Mullin, the Hall of Famer who once made a difference for the Warriors in the 1980s and now does their pre- and post-game TV.
That comment is not an exaggeration. It’s the truth.
In football, a player is 1/11th of the lineup; well, 1/22nd, considering offense and defense are separate units; in baseball, one-ninth; in basketball, one-fifth. But numbers alone are inadequate.
Even those of the win streak that the Warriors carry into Wednesday night against the Clippers at Chase Center. Two games.
A trifle compared to the 24 in a row that opened the 2015-16 season. Yet after an 0-2 start to the schedule, a bit of reassurance.
The Warriors have spent time practicing. James Wiseman, the No. 2 overall pick in the November NBA draft, has spent time improving. Steph Curry has spent time making most of his shots. Green has spent time reminding everyone how much he was missed when absent because of a sore foot.
“He’s kind of our point forward in many ways,” said Kerr, “and the leader of the team.”
That last part is no exaggeration.
Curry is the headliner, the one who gets the points — 62 two games ago — and, with two MVP awards, the most attention. Think of the Dubs, and you cannot think of anyone but Steph.
Wiseman is the comer, and his progress, with only three college games and then months of relative inactivity, has been tantalizing. When this kid learns the game, others will learn what he’s about to become: one of the greats.
Andrew Wiggins is the mystery, the first man taken in the 2014 draft but who has been twice traded and frequently criticized for being more unpredictable than reliable. Ah, but maybe this is his spot and his year.
Damion Lee, Eric Paschal, Kelly Oubre, Kent Bazemore and Kevon Looney are among the pieces on the roster.
Green is the feisty, experienced and wise guy who has to make certain those many pieces fit properly.
“He impacts the game so dramatically on defense,” Kerr said of Green’s play after the Warriors defeated the Sacramento Kings, 137-106, Monday night. “And then on offense he gets us organized.”
In those recent glory days when Kevin Durant was around, and Klay Thompson was healthy and Andre Iguodala was anywhere he needed to be, Draymond got what was coming to him — NBA Defensive Player of the Year in ’17 — and made sure teammates got the ball.
There were incidents, the scuffle with LeBron James, then of Cleveland, and suspension in the 2016 finals; the argument with teammate Durant in November 2018. Nothing that would keep Draymond from his role.
Those days, five straight finals, three titles, are gone. So, through injuries (Thompson) or personnel movement, are most of the men from those teams, other than Green, who will be 31 in March, and Curry, who will be 33 also in March.
A feeling of familiarity. A need for adaptation.
“They know each other so well,” Kerr said of Green and Curry. “So their pick-and-roll game is beautiful to watch with their hand-backs. And Draymond understands how to get (Curry) open. Our defense gets a lot better with Draymond on the floor. Steph gets more transition opportunities as well.”
Then there are the other Warriors who leave Green uncertain.
“There are times out there,” Green confessed, “where I’m out there on the floor and I don’t know where to go because we’re all figuring each other out. So it’s important we get that movement, and even as important that I’m directing that movement and helping guys get that understanding.”
The best defensive player in the world seems as capable with the ball as without it.