The Grey Lady on the Oak-land Team

Dr. X posts this from his table at the Algonquin:

"The New York Times observes today that the Warriors are a team of castoffs and renegades. No word yet on whether they are also ragamuffins, scoundrels, hooligans, or wastrels.

"Used to be, if you said 'Golden State Warriors' people would walk up to you and give you flowers. Light classical music would begin to play. They were so gentle, and delicate. They lost in the same way deer die during hunting season in Wisconsin - with a certain grace, exhaling their last breath with just a hint of melancholy.

"That shit stopped January 17th, when they traded for the Hanson Brothers, er, Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington. Overnight, the Warriors went from Princeton JV tough to streets-of-Oakland tough. And then Baron Davis got out of physical therapy and onto a basketball court.

"The Times is the first to put the spotlight on him, but many more will follow. You take the hugely talented but mercurial and injury-prone Davis and give him a good coach, a supportive crowd, and a leadership role - and you get a man on a mission. Davis is out to prove he is a legitimate superstar.

"It could have been Baron Davis who said: 'There's a lot of things about me that you don't know anything about, Dottie. Things you wouldn't understand. Things you couldn't understand. Things you shouldn't understand. You don't want to get mixed up with a guy like me. I'm a loner, Dottie. A rebel.'

"Here is what Davis actually says about himself: 'Basically, I'm the shit.' And that is correct.

"By the way, the movie The Warriors was based on the novel The Warriors, which was based on Xenophon's Anabasis. 'Anabasis', literally translated, means a journey from the coast to the interior - to kick someone's ass.

"Hey Dallas: Tuesday night, 6:30 Pacific. We got your Anabasis, right here."