Jerry West is staying with the Warriors for a while. (USATSI)
The Golden State Warriors will continue to consult with Jerry West through at least 2016-2017 after reaching an agreement on a contract extension, per Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News:
Warriors executive board member Jerry West has agreed to a two-year extension with the team through the 2016-2017 season, an NBA source confirmed to this newspaper on Wednesday.
West had one year remaining on his original deal with the team and this new deal will be tacked on, for a total of a three-year commitment from this point.
…
West, 76, had recently told associates … that he was thinking about retiring for good, especially after the chaos of the Warriors' 51-win season and subsequent firing of coach Mark Jackson.
But West also told friends that he remains passionately interested in making the Warriors a title-contender.
Warriors general manager Bob Myers also recently agreed to an extension, one that will reportedly keep him in Golden State through 2017-2018. Aside from the coaching change, it looks like the team is hoping that continuity will help the team grow in the coming years. West joined the team in 2011 after a legendary playing career and a storied run as the architect of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Warriors had a chance to acquire superstar power forward Kevin Love this summer, but the front office decided it would not part with shooting guard Klay Thompson in order to do so. According to the Mercury News, West was a "leading voice" in making that decision, though it came down to owner Joe Lacob and Myers in the end.
The franchise is set to move to San Francisco in 2018, and West "has had a large role in the Warriors' quest to line up sponsors and build support" for the transition, according to the Mercury News.
Basketball Hot News
Commissioner Adam Silver: Hawks GM Danny Ferry shouldn’t be fired for comments
“He has a little African in him. Not in a bad way, but he’s like a guy who would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out the back….. For example, he can come out and be an unnamed source for a story and two days later come out and say, ‘That absolutely was not me. I can’t believe someone said that.’ But talking to reporters, you know they can [believe it].”
That is what Hawks GM Danny Ferry said about Luol Deng on a conference call with some of the minority owners of the team back in June just before the start of free agency. He has since apologized.
Should Ferry be fired for those comments?
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said no, speaking to Sam Amick of the USA Today in Barcelona.
“The discipline of a team employee is typically determined by the team, and in this case the Hawks hired a prestigious Atlanta law firm to investigate the circumstances of Danny Ferry’s clearly inappropriate and unacceptable remarks,” Silver said. “In my view, those comments, taken alone, do not merit his losing his job.
“It’s a question of context … These words, in this context, understanding the full story here, the existence of the scouting report, the fact that he was looking at the scouting report as a reference when he was making these remarks, what I’m saying is — and frankly my opinion — is that this is a team decision in terms of what the appropriate discipline is for their employee. But if I’m being asked my view, I’m saying that, based on what I know about the circumstances, I don’t think it’s a terminable offense.”
Ferry said that he read those comments off of a scouting report. For the record Ferry advocated getting Deng and the Hawks made a two-year, $20 million offer, but Deng chose Miami.
I still don’t see how Ferry survives this, and as Silver said it’s all about context.
A franchise where a scout would write such things in a report and where Ferry would repeat them in a conference call to owners (if we take Ferry at his word for how this happened) has some clear racial tensions within the organization itself. Which falls on management. Try writing a report with that kind of stuff in it at your place of work and passing it along to your boss, see how it goes. Think he’ll pass it along to the head guy?
It doesn’t matter that some of what is going on here is an ownership power play. Whoever comes in as the new majority owner of the team — Bruce Levenson is selling his stake in the team after the release of a questionable email he sent — is going to need to fix the team’s relationship with the community, with African-American season ticket holders, and make Atlanta a franchise that free agents want to come to. He needs to make it a franchise that might keep guys like Paul Millsap next summer.
Can Danny Ferry be part of that in Atlanta?
He knows his basketball but I just don’t see how he’s a part of that new future in the ATL.
That said, Adam Silver and the people in power currently with the Hawks see it differently.
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