The Warriors: Down and Out in Old Monterrey
So what do you do when you haven't made the playoffs in 11 years, you refuse to hold the front office and the head coach responsible, and can't seem to come up with a real plan to win?
You jack up ticket prices -- (again), start scheduling games in a foreign country, and blanket the community with hot, scantily clad women. If only the Warriors organization spent as much time on their plan for victory as they do on their marketing plan.
The jack in ticket prices is the second in the last three years, and the Warrior faithful are not happy about it. And we can't really blame them. Attendance has been surging the last few years as the Bay Area has rallied around the hometown franchise, but the payoff has been less than satisfying. Back-to-back 34-48 seasons and a playoff drought that just won't end. Owner Chris Cohan and crew have quite the huevos muchos grandes to think that Bay Area fans should actually be paying more for their chance to see NBA futility.
The preseason game in Mexico against the Denver Nuggets on October 14, 2006 makes some sense. NBA Commissioner David Stern has always been big on the globalization of the NBA, and since 1992, the NBA and WNBA have played 19 games in Mexico. Nuggets forward Eduardo Najera is the only Mexican player in the NBA and the Nuggets are one of the better teams in the Western Conference, so having Denver in the game makes sense. But the Warriors finished 13th of 15 in the Western Conference this past year and have no obvious reason for being in this game except that they're at the bottom of the NBA pecking order and when Davey boy says jump, teams like the Warriors say "how high."
As for the Warrior girls, well, if this team isn't going to get a coach that can lead the team, and is going to continue to waste lottery draft picks on "the best available player" instead of actually trying to put a contending team together, then bring 'em on. They seem to be the only part of this organization that is worth watching these days. Don't say that too loud though, Cohan might decide to start charging fans for those heretofore gratis autographs and pictures.