boutons_
04-30-2007, 09:44 PM
May 1, 2007
Davis Is Face of a Warriors Team Made of Castoffs and Renegades
By HOWARD BECK, NYTimes
(http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=HOWARD%20BECK&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=HOWARD%20BECK&inline=nyt-per)
OAKLAND, Calif., April 30 — Baron Davis was hopping, strutting, smiling, almost dancing across the Golden State Warriors’ practice court Monday morning as his teammates waged a half-court shooting contest.
His moves were free and fluid, not those of a man burdened by knee operations, back injuries and a half-dozen years of disappointment and discord. His voice reverberated with the relaxed assurance of someone emancipated from his past.
“I’ve never given up on myself,” Davis said.
The Warriors are poised to complete one of the biggest upsets in N.B.A. playoff history. Davis, their fiery, focused floor leader, is poised to complete a great transformation, from an addled underachiever to an undisputed superstar.
Golden State holds a stunning three-games-to-one series lead over the Dallas Mavericks (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/dallasmavericks/index.html?inline=nyt-org). One more victory and the Warriors will become only the third eighth-seeded team to beat a No. 1-seeded team, and the first since the N.B.A. adopted a best-of-seven first round in 2003.
Through four games, Davis has been brilliant, averaging 25.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.2 steals. He has also made 55 percent of his field goals and half of his 3-pointers. The Dallas guards cannot handle his power, and the Mavericks’ big men cannot handle his speed. No one has stopped him from getting to the basket. Aside from one moment of foolishness — an ejection in the Warriors’ Game 2 loss — Davis has quickly filled out a most valuable player résumé.
Consider Sunday’s performance, when Davis led the Warriors to a 103-99 victory. He made a 49-foot bank shot to close the first half. He had a 3-pointer, a block, a steal and a fast-break dunk to end the third quarter. And he scored the layup that put the Warriors ahead to stay in the final minutes of the game.
“Baron’s the man, and he’s proving how great I told you that he is,” Coach Don Nelson said.
Dirk Nowitzki, the slumping Dallas star, called Davis “phenomenal.”
Matt Barnes, Davis’s teammate, said, “He’s a leader, a superstar.”
Talent was never a question for the 28-year-old Davis. Everything else was.
There were serious injuries — a torn anterior cruciate ligament when he played for U.C.L.A. in 1998 and a herniated disk when he played for the New Orleans Hornets (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/neworleanshornets/index.html?inline=nyt-org) in 2002. He had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in February.
There were also questions about his character. A lot of Davis’s former coaches and employers thought he lacked it. Davis was tagged with a label of being selfish and being a coach killer. Stout and strong at 6 feet 3 inches, he was also at times out of shape. He clashed with Coach Byron Scott (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/byron_scott/index.html?inline=nyt-per) in New Orleans, and when the Hornets traded him to the Warriors in February 2005, the owner, George Shinn, called him “poison.”
The Hornets were so eager to unload Davis, and his expensive contract, that they traded him for a pair of journeymen — Dale Davis and Speedy Claxton.
A lot has changed for Davis in two years, not the least is his view of history. He expressed gratitude toward Scott and said the trade was a chance to “get my love back for the game.”
“That’s what’s happening now,” he said.
Chris Mullin, the Warriors’ general manager, viewed Davis as the key to a franchise rebirth that is irrefutably under way. “I don’t prejudge people,” Mullin said. “I’ve seen things turn around. We both were realistic that we had a lot of work to do.
Jason Richardson, who had been the Warriors’ go-to guard, welcomed Davis’s arrival. “I knew he wasn’t a coach killer,” Richardson said. “He was a guy that wanted to win.”
But it took one more coaching change for Davis to complete his turnaround. The Warriors last summer fired Mike Montgomery and hired Nelson, who prides himself on letting his star players shine.
“He was ready for a change of pace,” Nelson said of Davis. “I had to marry Baron. I was going to make that work no matter what. But he made it so easy.”
Davis compares Nelson to Paul Silas, another father-figure type and his first coach with the Hornets.
“He’s teaching me how to be a leader,” Davis said. “He’s held me accountable.”
The Warriors were in the midst of a six-game losing streak in early March when Davis presided over a players-only meeting at the team’s New York hotel.
“Guys responded and everybody got what they had to say off their chests,” forward Al Harrington said. “We’ve been a totally different team since then.”
The season had been rocky, with Davis and Richardson missing time because of injuries, and Mullin making the blockbuster trade to acquire Harrington and Stephen Jackson from Indiana.
Three days after the team meeting, the Warriors went to Detroit and crushed the Pistons (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/detroitpistons/index.html?inline=nyt-org), 111-93. They closed the season on a 15-5 run to make the playoffs on the final night.
Davis, with his menacing scowl and scruffy beard, is the perfect face for a team built around castoffs and renegades. The Warriors are brash and edgy and emotional, the sort of players who are beloved when they are winning and dismissed as impulsive, undisciplined louts when they are losing.
“Everyone has a journey,” Barnes said. “They talked bad about all of us.”
On Sunday, Nelson said he gave Davis a simple instruction — to dominate. It was the kind of coaching Davis could embrace.
Davis Is Face of a Warriors Team Made of Castoffs and Renegades
By HOWARD BECK, NYTimes
(http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=HOWARD%20BECK&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=HOWARD%20BECK&inline=nyt-per)
OAKLAND, Calif., April 30 — Baron Davis was hopping, strutting, smiling, almost dancing across the Golden State Warriors’ practice court Monday morning as his teammates waged a half-court shooting contest.
His moves were free and fluid, not those of a man burdened by knee operations, back injuries and a half-dozen years of disappointment and discord. His voice reverberated with the relaxed assurance of someone emancipated from his past.
“I’ve never given up on myself,” Davis said.
The Warriors are poised to complete one of the biggest upsets in N.B.A. playoff history. Davis, their fiery, focused floor leader, is poised to complete a great transformation, from an addled underachiever to an undisputed superstar.
Golden State holds a stunning three-games-to-one series lead over the Dallas Mavericks (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/dallasmavericks/index.html?inline=nyt-org). One more victory and the Warriors will become only the third eighth-seeded team to beat a No. 1-seeded team, and the first since the N.B.A. adopted a best-of-seven first round in 2003.
Through four games, Davis has been brilliant, averaging 25.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.2 steals. He has also made 55 percent of his field goals and half of his 3-pointers. The Dallas guards cannot handle his power, and the Mavericks’ big men cannot handle his speed. No one has stopped him from getting to the basket. Aside from one moment of foolishness — an ejection in the Warriors’ Game 2 loss — Davis has quickly filled out a most valuable player résumé.
Consider Sunday’s performance, when Davis led the Warriors to a 103-99 victory. He made a 49-foot bank shot to close the first half. He had a 3-pointer, a block, a steal and a fast-break dunk to end the third quarter. And he scored the layup that put the Warriors ahead to stay in the final minutes of the game.
“Baron’s the man, and he’s proving how great I told you that he is,” Coach Don Nelson said.
Dirk Nowitzki, the slumping Dallas star, called Davis “phenomenal.”
Matt Barnes, Davis’s teammate, said, “He’s a leader, a superstar.”
Talent was never a question for the 28-year-old Davis. Everything else was.
There were serious injuries — a torn anterior cruciate ligament when he played for U.C.L.A. in 1998 and a herniated disk when he played for the New Orleans Hornets (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/neworleanshornets/index.html?inline=nyt-org) in 2002. He had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in February.
There were also questions about his character. A lot of Davis’s former coaches and employers thought he lacked it. Davis was tagged with a label of being selfish and being a coach killer. Stout and strong at 6 feet 3 inches, he was also at times out of shape. He clashed with Coach Byron Scott (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/byron_scott/index.html?inline=nyt-per) in New Orleans, and when the Hornets traded him to the Warriors in February 2005, the owner, George Shinn, called him “poison.”
The Hornets were so eager to unload Davis, and his expensive contract, that they traded him for a pair of journeymen — Dale Davis and Speedy Claxton.
A lot has changed for Davis in two years, not the least is his view of history. He expressed gratitude toward Scott and said the trade was a chance to “get my love back for the game.”
“That’s what’s happening now,” he said.
Chris Mullin, the Warriors’ general manager, viewed Davis as the key to a franchise rebirth that is irrefutably under way. “I don’t prejudge people,” Mullin said. “I’ve seen things turn around. We both were realistic that we had a lot of work to do.
Jason Richardson, who had been the Warriors’ go-to guard, welcomed Davis’s arrival. “I knew he wasn’t a coach killer,” Richardson said. “He was a guy that wanted to win.”
But it took one more coaching change for Davis to complete his turnaround. The Warriors last summer fired Mike Montgomery and hired Nelson, who prides himself on letting his star players shine.
“He was ready for a change of pace,” Nelson said of Davis. “I had to marry Baron. I was going to make that work no matter what. But he made it so easy.”
Davis compares Nelson to Paul Silas, another father-figure type and his first coach with the Hornets.
“He’s teaching me how to be a leader,” Davis said. “He’s held me accountable.”
The Warriors were in the midst of a six-game losing streak in early March when Davis presided over a players-only meeting at the team’s New York hotel.
“Guys responded and everybody got what they had to say off their chests,” forward Al Harrington said. “We’ve been a totally different team since then.”
The season had been rocky, with Davis and Richardson missing time because of injuries, and Mullin making the blockbuster trade to acquire Harrington and Stephen Jackson from Indiana.
Three days after the team meeting, the Warriors went to Detroit and crushed the Pistons (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/probasketball/nationalbasketballassociation/detroitpistons/index.html?inline=nyt-org), 111-93. They closed the season on a 15-5 run to make the playoffs on the final night.
Davis, with his menacing scowl and scruffy beard, is the perfect face for a team built around castoffs and renegades. The Warriors are brash and edgy and emotional, the sort of players who are beloved when they are winning and dismissed as impulsive, undisciplined louts when they are losing.
“Everyone has a journey,” Barnes said. “They talked bad about all of us.”
On Sunday, Nelson said he gave Davis a simple instruction — to dominate. It was the kind of coaching Davis could embrace.