FanHouse RobertRowell

The Warriors finally got around Tuesday to doing something they probably should have done back in October.

They announced that executive vice president of basketball operations Chris Mullin wouldn't be returning for 2009-10, and that Larry Riley would be the Warriors' new general manager.

The reality of the situation is that most in the Bay Area and around the league -- Mullin included – knew he was a goner back during the preseason. That's when team president Robert Rowell (pictured, right) made it clear to the media that he and Mullin had had a fundamental disagreement over how to handle Monta Ellis' moped accident.

As the story goes, Baron Davis worked out a three-year, $39 million extension with Golden State general manager Chris Mullin in June 2008. The deal would have prevented Davis from opting out of his $18 million salary for 2008-09, bringing a four-year total salary to $57 million for the All-Star point guard, a nearly perfect fit in Don Nelson's wailing offense.

But team president Robert Rowell vetoed the deal at the last minute, which caused Davis to opt out. The Warriors, shocked, threw money at Elton Brand (nope) and then Gilbert Arenas. The offer to Gil, a player coming off an injury that had claimed 18 months of service? Five years for $103 million. Arenas and Davis are friends. Soon after Golden State made the offer to Gil, the friends spoke. Monte Poole of the San Jose Mercury News has the post-dated dispatch.

Ever-breathless Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News has been creaming the Warriors all year, but his latest cannon fire might be the most relevant when all's said and done. Today on his blog Kawakami reports that Monta Ellis and his agent (Jeff Fried) will meet in a couple weeks to decide whether Ellis wants to suit up for the Warriors again.

My understanding is that, once Fried and Ellis put their heads together and weigh Ellis' physical situation and his feelings about Don Nelson and team management, this will be the period that determines Ellis' future with or departure from the Warriors. [...]

Ellis and Fried have long planned to re-assess Ellis' status with the Warriors once they felt Ellis was on the brink of returning to action–this has been planned since they filed a grievance over the Warriors' 30-game suspension and resulting $3M fine.

As I said, Kawakami has a dozen breathless insights a week from Oakland -- and he's a general sports columnist. Dude gets around. But he's telegraphed the transformation of the Warriors inside, and it'd be odd for Fried and Ellis to have a notable meeting worth attention if Ellis weren't planning on making some sort of stand. Fried wouldn't give Kawakami any reason to think there's smoke if there was not a fire brimming -- Ellis' camp has little to gain if it's not going to play tough.

And what could Ellis and Fried possibly pull? "Give back some of that $3 million or trade me" sounds about right. (Or Kawakami -- who has been the chief flogger of Robert Rowell's regime in Oakland -- could be wishfully reading more into than exists.)

Few franchises live with a reality bleaker than that of the Clippers. Golden State fits the bill, though. But never you mind that: Baron Davis told Stephen Jackson the point guard would love to come back to the Warriors via trade, and Jack told Marcus Thompson II of the Contra Costa Times, which is sure to please the Clippers.

"That's all we talked about," Jackson said. "I went to his house, spent some time with his mom and his grandmother. He wants to come back. And if he wants to come back, I want him back."

The Warriors have been laughably bad, the Clippers have been laughably bad. Without question, Warriors management should regret letting Davis go. Davis should regret leaving. The Clippers should regret signing Davis without first securing Elton Brand. But all the regrets in the world won't get these two teams talking.

There is absolutely no way Warriors management will talk with Clippers management following the Davis fiasco. The way in which Davis waited until nearly the last minute before executing his early termination option will not be forgotten by Robert Rowell or Chris Cohan ... who led the charge to jettison Davis in the first place. If the management outside of Chris Mullin didn't like Davis before June 30, do you really expect them to swallow pride and change course so soon? If so, you haven't paid much attention to the Warriors.

The admission from Davis' side is hilarious, though. He'd had Acknowledgment and Resolution already. I guess this would be Pursuance. Nothing left but a Psalm.

How bad are things in Oakland? ESPN's Chris Broussard was on the teevee this morning reporting that Chris Mullin (the GM) and Don Nelson (the coach) aren't speaking, and that Nellie is trying to trade Mully's players out from under him.

All out war has been brewing in Golden State since June, when (potentially at Nellie's behest) team president Robert Rowell vetoed Mullin's three-year, $39 million contract offer to Baron Davis, who had been prepared to sign. But apparently now the hold of the floundering franchise is at stake. Broussard reports that Nellie told Anthony Randolph's agent to try to find a trade opportunity -- Randolph has played only 12 minutes in the last three games, despite a bunch of Golden State injuries. A Randolph-Raymond Felton swap has been rumored but denied from the Warriors end.

Atma from Golden State of Mind sides with Nellie and pins many of Golden State's shortcomings on Mullin's shoulders. And it's true: Mullin has made some bad choices in the draft and free agency. But look at the two supreme bright spots on the team, Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins. That's Mullin's work. An undersized two-guard without a deep stroke and a 7-footer with no J? You think Nellie wants anything to do with that? Nelson, at this point, is Larry Brown on hallucinogens: fickle, domineering and insane.

Coming into the season, Stephen Jackson had an ideal contract from his employer's perspective: not only was it affordable (he's making just $7.1 million), it also conveniently expired just in time for the summer of 2010. Jackson made some noise this summer about wanting an extension, but at the end of the day he had no leverage.

Why should the Warriors jeopardize their future cap space by giving a 30-year-old (former) head case an extension? General manager Chris Mullin knew it'd be a mistake ... which is why Jackson went behind Mullin's back to negotiate with team president Robert Rowell.

Today, the Warriors announced that Jackson received his extension, and as Janny Hu of the San Francisco Chronicle points out, the team's press release notably features quotes from Rowell without a single mention of Mullin. (Heck, for all we know, Mullin may have learned about the extension from that very press release.) The team didn't officially reveal the terms of the extension, but it's believed to be for three years and $28 million, keeping him under contract through 2013 while granting him the highest annual raise allowed under NBA rules. He'll be 35 years old in the final year of his contract.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. Detroit Free Press, via DBB. An account of the hours-long Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton goodbye chat.

2. The Sporting Blog. Which teams will surprise us by not falling back to the Earth (or being revived)?

3. Tim Kawakami. How Baron Davis and Robert Rowell screwed up two franchises.

4. Ball Don't Lie. Do NBA players/owners downsize on the eccentricity during a financial crisis?

5. Blog Maverick. Things Mark Cuban hates, in order: 1) To lose. 2) To lose. 3) The English language.

6. Blazer's Edge. A look at how one bad basketball moment can affect you for decades.

The Robert Rowell-Chris Mullin skirmish in Golden State has seemed to be preparing for wholesale war for months now, and today Marcus Thompson III brings news Rowell (an implement of team ownership) has canned Mullin's top aide, assistant GM Pete D'Alessandro. Even worse, the Warriors replaced D'Alessandro with an ally of coach Don Nelson, assistant coach and former Grizz executive Larry Riley.

Nelson, by taking an extension with the team despite all the signs Mullin was being pushed out, has already aligned himself with ownership. It's an interesting turn of events, for sure: Nelson and owner Chris Cohan reportedly hate each other's guts, stemming from Nelson's first stint in Oakland in the early '90s (the Webber era) and resulting lawsuits when Nelson asserted he hadn't been fully paid. Mullin, a longtime confidante of Nellie beginning in Mullin's playing days with the W's, had to lobby Nelson to take over the aimless team two years ago. That hasn't exactly gone as planned.

Thompson suggests some reasons behind Rowell's move, but misses what to me is the easy explanation: the Warriors are trying to get Mullin to quit. They have already neutered him in the Baron Davis, Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson situations ... heck, even with Nellie's extension! Now they are "killing his family," so to speak. Is it money? Is it PR? I don't know ... but it seems clear Rowell and Cohan (however involved he is at this point) would prefer Mullin to excuse himself from the table rather than be excused.

The Golden State Warriors disrespect of their fan base continues. Earlier this summer Warriors President Robert Rowell allowed the team's star Baron Davis to leave for the Clippers. Obviously Warriors fans are not happy with the move, but being the loyal fans that they are, will likely continue to support their beloved Warriors.

So how do you think the Rowell decided to thank fans for their support after the loss of Baron? By raising ticket prices, of course.