Cohan Strikes Again! Larry Riley = Awful Hire
May 12th, 2009
I don’t think anyone could possibly run an organization worse than Chris Cohan has operated the Warriors. He always seems to one-up his terrible moves. Bad moves aren’t surprising anymore, but they’re still frustrating. Yesterday’s announcement that Larry Riley would be the general manager was just another in a series of terrible moves. Cohan has managed to make bad hire after bad hire, with each move somehow being worse than the one that preceded it. He’s placed Robert Rowell, a man who seemingly knows very little about basketball, in charge of the organization, and Rowell has managed to give Stephen Jackson an extension that NOBODY in the league would have granted. Rowell apparently also thinks Don Nelson is some kind of a basketball wizard. The same Nelson who has left his previous three organizations on sour notes. As for Riley, he isn’t basketball smart, but he’s smart enough to know that if he’s friends with Nellie, he can get the GM job that isn’t possible anywhere else.
Make no mistake, I’m not a fan of Chris Mullin. He basically had the job for four seasons (not counting this past lame-duck season, which does have some of his fingerprints on it) and the Warriors made the playoffs once. That’s a bad track record. He did some good things, like the Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins picks and the Baron Davis and Indiana trades, but most decisions were bad moves or just plain questionable, like the Ike Diogu and Patrick O’Bryant picks or the Dunleavy, Murphy, and J-Rich contracts. Even the 2007 draft of Brandan Wright and Marco Belinelli is a poor one. Still, Mullin did have some respect around the league, he appeared to learn from some past mistakes, and had a great relationship with players. I’d prefer someone else, but Mullin was a much better option than Riley.
That’s because no other team in the NBA would hire Larry Riley as a GM. He was an assistant and advance scout in Dallas (2000-2006) and Milwaukee (1988-1994). His only true front office experience was director of player personnel for Vancouver (1994-2000). Yes, Vancouver. So, he was part of an organization that made Bryant Reeves, Antonio Daniels, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim high draft picks. Feel better about the Warriors chances now? Let’s look at some of the other great talent that went through Vancouver during Riley’s personnel tenure: Benoit Benjamin, Blue Edwards, Lee Mayberry, Tony Massenburg, Cherokee Parks, Eric Leckner, Antonio Harvey, Anthony Avent, Roy Rodgers (He couldn’t even get Rodney Rodgers; Roy Rodgers, by the way, was also a first-round pick). This guy has an eye for talent alright.
Nobody is surprised by the Riley hiring, as it was a terribly kept secret. It’s just sad that, while most organizations try to build towards championships, the Warriors under Cohan’s ownership just hope to survive financially, and maybe make the playoffs every 15 years or so. We’re used to bad ownership in the Bay Area, but at least we think the other guys are actually trying. With Cohan, we can’t be sure. He’s too much of a pansy to address the media, or the fans, to let us know one way or the other. He must have zero backbone to continue to own a team while knowing that he is hated by an entire fan base. It’s been documented that his family has to hear about his futility in their everyday lives. Maybe this makes me a bad person, but I hope he hears about it and gets yelled at and/or booed every time he goes to the grocery store, when he drops his kids off at school, when he goes to the gym, when he goes to church, wherever he goes, people should be throwing insults his way. He doesn’t deserve to own this team. He doesn’t deserve the best fans in the NBA. It’s time we run him out of town. Apparently, in the past 15 years, we haven’t tried hard enough.
Mullin has been let go from basketball Siberia, writes Tim Kawakami. There are those who don’t like Kawakami, and maybe he does think a little too highly of himself, but give him this: He’s the only columnist in the Bay Area who constantly calls out this pathetic organization. If there were more columnists as harsh as Kawakami, we might actually see some productive changes.
In Talking Points, Kawakami has more answers.
It’s staying in the family again, writes Ray Ratto. It just goes to show how illogical this organization is. They keep promoting from within, which would be fine is this were a winning organization, but not when you’re a perennial loser.
Cam Inman isn’t going to let Mullin off the hook. His reign was a failure.
Rowell says one of Riley’s strengths is the “ability to work with a group of people to achieve a common goal”. Oh, I feel so much better now. That’s rhetoric that can be said about anybody hired for a new job, whether they were qualified or not.
Giants
The Nationals were a welcome sight for the league’s worst offense as the Giants dumped Washington last night, writes John Shea.
Adam Dunn says the Giants never called him this offseason and the ballpark doesn;t scare him.
It wasn’t pretty but Randy Johnson earned his 298th win, writes Laurence Miedema.
In Andrew Baggarly’s notes, Brian Wilson says he doesn’t expect an apology from Casey Blake and Sergio Romo is getting closer.
Bruce Jenkins says Blake owes the Giants an explanation. It might be easy for opponents to misinterpret Wilson’s act, writes Gary Peterson.
Tim Alderson’s awesome Double-A debut means the Giants will soon have to figure out what to do with their pitching surplus, writes El Lefty Malo.
In last night’s minor league lines, Madison Bumgarner wasn’t as dominant as Alderson, but pretty solid nonetheless. Also, Jesus Guzman had five hits for Fresno.
A’s
The players are blaming the ballpark for the lack of home runs, writes Mychael Urban.
Hitting coach Jim Skaalen is staying the course, writes Joe Stiglich.
There are a few former players, and also Art Howe, who will act in the Moneyball movie in 2011, writes Susan Slusser. It will be interesting to see how the Howe-Beane relationship is portrayed.
49ers
The support and faith that Mike Singletary’s family shares runs very deep, writes Ann Killion.
SI’s Don Banks has the Niners as a playoff team in 2009.
Raiders
Patience is required for the Raiders draft class, as Jerry McDonald writes.
David White echoes the same sentiment and also has four other minicamp observations.
Sharks
The State of the Sharks is Thursday at HP Pavilion, but don’t expect any important answers, writes David Pollak.
Colleges
Jon Wilner projects the Pac-10 football race and also sees Washington as a slight favorite over Cal in the hoops race.
A spring review of the Cal linebackers from Jonathan Okanes.
Other Items
Andre Ward is offering a free workout tonight outside of Oracle Arena.
As a Hall of Fame voter, Ann Killion is open to ideas.
JaMarcus Russell is among some pretty big names on the ten athletes facing the most pressure, writes Inman.
Mark Cuban is a twit, writes Scott Ostler.
Games Today
A’s (Trevor Cahill) vs. Royals (Luke Hochevar) 7:05 PST
Giants (Matt Cain) vs. Nationals (Jordan Zimmerman) 7:15 PST
Categories: Golden State Warriors | Tags: 49ers, A's, Adam Dunn, Andre Ward, Art Howe, Brian Wilson, Casey Blake, Chris Cohan, Chris Mullin, Don Nelson, Giants, JaMarcus Russell, Jesus Guzman, Jim Skaalen, Larry Riley, Madison Bumgarner, Mark Cuban, Mike Singletary, Randy Johnson, Sergio Romo, Sharks, Tim Alderson, Warriors
