Prologue: Gambit pileup at Oracle

We're all actors in a soap opera.  - Steve Kerr

In my brief career as a sportswriter, I learned one thing:  for every story you write, you need a plot line.   People will know the score from radio or tv, or now the Internet.  If you want them to read your story you're going to have to tell them a story.  And a story needs a plot.

A beautiful hit, but so much better if you know the backstory

Some nights, there will be no obvious hook.  Your team lost 124-87, the coach and player quotes were perfunctory, the crowd went home sometime during the third quarter.  But...there's always something.  And in truth - no one likes to admit this - bad teams actually make better copy.  It's not admirable, but given a choice of a profile of clean cut and successful Tim Duncan, or some Bad News Barnes stories, most people will choose the latter.  Here is an example from The Washington Post:

After a particularly wild night in New York, [Barnes] slept in and missed every flight to Norfolk, where the Spirits were playing the Virginia Squires at Scope.

Barnes chartered his own plane and arrived at Scope just before the game, a woman on each arm — his companions from the previous evening — and a bag of McDonald’s burgers in his hand. He opened his full-length mink coat to reveal his Spirits’ uniform.
“Boys,” he said. “Game Time is on time!” 

Benched for the first quarter, Barnes finished with 43 points and 19 rebounds.

Democracy dies in darkness.

Tolstoy - probably a Clippers fan - said “all happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”  Shows what he knew.  The Golden State Warriors prove that Tolstoy was a chump.  They are happy and sad, joyful and neurotic, nutty and wildly successful, in ways the dour Russian novelist could never imagine.

How  does this Draymond guy stay on the floor scoring six points a night?

Our dour friend from the Steppes would certainly appreciate the complexity of the Warriors' current plot.  As the Greatest Team of Modern Times faced off against the Sacramento Kings in an unimportant regular season game Thursday night, here were some of the plot lines in play.  Over at TVTropes, they call this a gambit pileup.

• Kevin Durant's contract is up this year.  The former League MVP and MVP of the last two NBA Finals, may find a new team.  The mindful Warriors, however, are focused only on the present and winning now, except for:
• Is the Kevin Durant-Draymond Green shouting match a big deal? (link)
• Knicks will go after Kevin Durant, who says he can play 'anywhere in the world' (link)
• LeBron James injury will HELP Lakers land Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and others (link)
• etc. etc. etc.

• Frustrated by media distractions, Kevin Durant only wants to talk about basketball, calls a press conference to complain to the media about the media.
• "Who are you? Why do I gotta talk to you?” (link)

• Kevin Durant brings home MVP trophy from meaningless exhibition game:
• On Stephen Curry’s special night, Kevin Durant wins All-Star Game MVP (link)

• The whole Draymond-Durant screaming match is totally over though, everybody's just about winning games now.

• Oh, this just in, Draymond has fired his agent and hired LeBron's.
•  Draymond Green to Lakers 'CONFIRMED' - NBA fans go wild after LeBron James agent move (link)
  

Wait, there's more!

• Special event Thursday night - We Believe in the house.  Personal appearances by Don Nelson and some of the players.  Everyone at the game gets a J Rich poster and a "We Believe" pin.
• Don Nelson, Stephen Jackson and J-Rich remember ‘We Believe’ Warriors - Warriors bring back former players, coach for final tour of Oracle Arena (link)
• Here is something announcer Tim Roye said about that team on the radio recently:  "Flying with that team was as close to being on a real live pirate ship as I have ever been."

• Maybe the Kings are the new We Believe team?  Nah, but let's discuss...
• Warriors’ ‘We Believe’ team honored. What that squad and these Kings have in common. (link) 

•  DeMarcus Cousins is a Warrior now.  Can he make it back after a terrible Achilles tendon injury?
• Team is undefeated in the nine games Cousins has started.
• “I’ll be dead honest with you and you can print this: he was a pain in the a** when we were trying to get him ready and scrimmage,” Steve Kerr said (while laughing) to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. “He was just so angry, because he wasn’t playing.  “He was just in a bad mood because he’s a passionate, emotional person and you think about what was taken away with the injury, not just the playing time and the joy of being out there, but the contract that he was looking at. His life got turned upside down.” (link)

• DeMarcus Cousins used to play for the Kings - this is the first time he will play against them as a Warrior.  
• Warriors’ DeMarcus Cousins to face Kings — and his polarizing past (link)

• The young Sacramento Kings are outclassed...OR ARE THEY?  They have lost three games with the Warriors this year, but the games were all close.  Can they break through?
• Call it moral victories. Call it three learning experiences. Call it whatever you want, but the Kings have been in each game all the way down the wire.  (link)
• The Kings pose problems not only for the Warriors, but also for most of the NBA, because they are the fastest team in the league and have plenty of length on the wings.  They are relentless. They’re on their toes, seemingly at all times, and that sometimes catches the Warriors flat-footed. (link)

• The Warriors are not themselves, having lost to the 76ers and Trailblazers (badly) right before the All-Star break.  Can the greatest collection of talent ever assembled in the NBA find its collective soul and play well as a team for 48 minutes in a regular season basketball game?

I personally investigated that question, and I have answers.  More to come.
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