It is our sad duty to inform you that Baron Davis has opted out of his contract and is probably finished as a Golden State Warrior....

(By Joe Kukura) Congratulations, all of you Boston expats out there. As of this morning, your Celtics are the NBA’s newly-crowned 2008 World Champions. You represent yourselves disproportionately well in Bay Area sports bars and events, yet there is sometimes a perception that we f*cking hate you. That may be, but with last night’s 131-92 demolition of the Lakers, you have acquired another trophy for your impressive collection and did to Kobe Bryant what......

(By Joe Kukura) The National Basketball Association hopes you are enjoying the Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals… and hopes you are totally oblivious to what could be the Mother of All Sports Scandals – namely, the allegations that NBA referees have been fixing the games to favor certain stars and to make playoff series last the maximum number of games. There’s one referee under indictment, and he’s singing like an Ed Jew fan at a Board......

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Here's todays sports news...

Attrition has been one of the Warriors' best pickups this offeseason. While the Warriors have taken some baby steps forward, many of the Western Conference rivals have been moving in the opposite direction.

When looking at the Warriors chances to make the playoffs this year, it runs from the bottom up....

There is no doubt that coach Don Nelson and his sidekick Chris Mullen have reshaped the Warriors, and the team now has a pretty strong pool of players from which Nellie can choose to implement his failed system of up-tempo small-ball.

Well, just to follow up on yesterday's day of violence, we can't find anything about the late-afternoon incident on Ellis Street that a couple of you guys saw, but there was another shooting around 11:50 p.m. in Visitacion Valley. That one was fatal. (The Examiner also has a list of other recent daytime shootings in SF, if you're interested.) Phew, let's get to the less life-endangering stuff. Politicians! Matt Gonzalez's 2003 mayoral campaign team was......

American sports fans, do you know what you're missing right now? -- the magical, the legendary, the completely captivating Tour de France. Yup. In fact, the Tour has already reached its first rest day after eight straight days of racing.

Let's face it: for cycling fans, the Tour is the pure Nirvana. Thanks to the Versus (formerly OLN) network, US fans (all 12 of them) of skinny tires, incredible bike handling, and human suffering can watch cycling every day for three straight weeks. It just doesn't get any better than this. It's like the NCAA tournament, the US Open, the NFL playoffs, the NBA Finals, and the World Series all rolled in to one. Every night -- every goddamn night -- cycling fans can kick back in their recliners (or on their stationary trainers), drink in the international flavor, and let the joy of cycling wash over them. Every night! For three straight weeks!

The increasingly nasty little rivalry brewing between the Mavs & Dubs took on a whole new dimension as Mark Cuban sued Don Nelson for using some sort of super-double secret confidential information against the Mavs in this year's playoffs. As the old adage says, if you can't beat 'em, sue 'em. ...

It's been 365 days, one failed first round draft round pick, a new/old coach, a franchise-changing trade, and an improbable playoff run since last year's NBA draft, and guess what? The Warriors needs coming into today's 2007 NBA draft haven't changed one bit from last year.

They still need a big body down low that can board and command the paint, and they need a defensive stopper.

Well, that was a grim Daily Californian homepage yesterday. The top six stories: pedestrian hit by car on Telegraph; Berkeley summer camp evacuated due to Tahoe fire, body found near the Berkeley Marina, beloved local activist hit by train, Cal student to be tried for killing David Halberstam, and memorials for the local murder-suicide family. On the bright side, the other article on the home page is that Cal basketball star DeVon Hardin has decided......

Here's todays sports news...

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

It's Memorial Day, so it must be time for Carnaval! The two-day multicultural festival on 17th and Harrison, filled with big headdresses, drums, and tasty-smelling food! (note to self: is our car parked near there? Better move it.) This year's theme is LOVE HAPPENS, and, as you can see in the above YouTube clip, this year's Carnaval King and Queen can really shake it! It's an action-packed two days: Saturday is the festival, with......

Bust out the Thin Lizzy Warrior Nation, because the boys are back in town.

Thursday night in the vaunted O-rena, the Warriors rebounded from back-to-back shoulda-coulda-wouldas in Salt Lake City to dominate the Utah Jazz, 125-105. In the must-win game 3, the Warriors not only staunched the momentum bleed of games 1 and 2, they completely reversed it. And they couldn't have done it without the uplifting energy and emotion of the hometown crowd -- and of course, Baron Davis.

We were pretty much wrong about everything.

Last night in Salt Lake City, in game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series, it was the Utah Jazz who had the energy and it was the Warriors who were a step behind. The Jazz looked confident; the Warriors looked hesitant. The Jazz ran the Warriors off the court. Matt Harpring done brought it. And the Jazz backcourt held its own behind the spirited play of Deron Williams. Did we leave anything out? Oh yeah, the Jazz didn't lose by 20, they, uh, won, 116-112.

Game 1 was a back-and-forth nailbiter (16 lead changes and 21 ties) that went right down to the quick. And like a bamboo shoot to the quick, it hurts. The Ws fought hard all night and had a chance to take the lead on a three-pointer by Stephen Jackson with eight seconds to play, but the shot clanked and so did the Warriors fortunes in game 1.

Improbably, almost impossibly, the Golden State Warriors' dream season continues tonight with game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal matchup with the Utah Jazz. The Warriors are into the semis by virtue of their historic six-game stunner over the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks; the Jazz eeked out a game 7 road win over the Houston Rockets.

The Jazz are the fourth seed in the Western Conference, but in our minds, its the Dubs that enter this series as the favorites. The Jazz are undoubtedly mentally and physically drained after their game 7 thriller on Saturday, while the Warriors are riding a wave of emotion that shows no sign of dissipating.

Go ahead Bay Area, whoop it the hell up. Call in sick to work, pick up a twelver at the corner store, order some team gear online, call your boys over, and replay game 6 again and again and again on your DVR. It's time to cel-eh-brate, come on! Last night in the O-rena, before 20,677 fanatics-in-arms, your Golden State Warriors rose up and crushed the Dallas Mavericks, 111-86, to close out their first-round, best-of-seven series, four games to two.

We somehow missed this, or more like didn't care, but Charles Barkley has now become Public Enemy #1 here in the Bay Area. This is because during the NBA Playoffs, Barkley has said a number of bad, bad things about the area. Among other things, he's said this about the Bay Area: "It's the dumping ground of people who can't afford to live in L.A." And this: "You know, we should take the show on the road. For the next game, we should go to hell - I mean, go to Golden State." And then there's this: "I would rather stay on Alcatraz than San Francisco or Oakland.'' He also talked trash about Sausalito . Sausalito! ...

Warrior Nation, can it get any better? Seriously. After Golden State's tenacious, gutty, and spirited come-from-behind 103-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks Sunday night in the O-rena, the Warriors have taken a 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven series. After 13 years of waiting, nobody in the NBA is more jacked up than the Warriors and their long-suffering fans.

The season has gone from just another shit sandwich to a gravy train with biscuit wheels in little more than a month. From nine games below .500 to .500. Not just a .500 record, but playoffs. Not just playoffs, but most favorable matchup. Not just favorable matchup, but a game one victory to take home court advantage in the series and set the basketball world abuzz.

OK, so we've gotten some flak about picking the Warriors to take down the Dallas Mavericks in six games in the opening round of the NBA's western Conference playoffs. We'll be the first to admit it's a homer pick, because, well, we do really want the Warriors to win, and we'll be the first to admit it.

But our pie in the sky has an empirical basis. Here's five reasons why the Warriors will beat the Mavs in this playoff series.

Revel in it Bay Area NBA fans: this year the Western Conference playoffs mean something, because for the first time in 13 years, the hometown Warriors are part of the party.

So let's take a quick drive down the lane and see what the Warriors are going to have to deal with as they knife their way to the Finals. (Yeah, we know, but just roll with the sentiment. It's been 13 years and there's an abundance of pent-up enthusiasm to be dissipated.)

Here's a rundown of what's happening in the world of sports blogs...

It's been building for the past month, but fans of the historically woebegone Golden State Warriors, awoke this morning with a dazed sense of disbelief to screaming headlines announcing: THE STREAK IS OVER -- THE WARRIORS HAVE MADE THE PLAYOFFS!

It's been so long since the Dubs got an extended play on their basketball season that neither they nor the fans really know what to do with themselves now that the dream has become a reality.

A good NBA season is like a good acid trip: it's all about peaking at the right time. Just ask last year's champions, the Miami Heat, about that one (the NBA season, not the acid trip). Well lo and behold, the Warriors are playing the last month of this season like a seasoned DeadHead instead of a burned-out meth-breath. After stomping the playoff-bound Utah Jazz Monday night in the O-rena, 126-102, the Warriors' playoff chances are skyrocketing like so many fantastic colors, and their days as league doormat may truly be numbered.

Here's todays rounup of sports news....

That's what the Ohio State University and the entire sporting world, with the exception of diehard Gator lovers and their recently embarked bandwagon brethren across the land, are thinking after the University of Florida beat down the OSU 84-75 last night to capture the men's NCAA basketball national championship. It's OSU's second consecutive national championship game defeat to Florida, this year.

If you're thinking it's deja vu all over again, you're right. The Gators came into the championship game as the defending NCAA champs -- and went out the same way. Their hard-fought but decisive victory marked the first back-to-back basketball championships by any Division I men's team since Duke's 1990-1992 run and only the second repeat since the end of the John Wooden era at UCLA more than 30 years ago.