They Don't Know Us

It's great to see the Warriors getting some national coverage. For the past decade-plus the Warriors received very little national media attention. But now that the Warriors are getting some ink, it makes you realize how off the national sports media can be. Let's take a look at what ESPN and Sports Illustrated wrote about the Warriors yesterday:

Five orders of flounder from ESPN.com
The Warriors made Greg Anthony's list of Five Biggest Surprises in this early part of the NBA season.

3. Golden State Warriors: Another team with a tremendous perimeter game with Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy and Baron Davis. The question is, can they establish an interior presence offensively and defensively? That's going to be huge with them moving forward.

Greg Anthony is a respectable NBA analyst. He knows the game, but he doesnt' know the Warriors. The Warriors' "tremendous perimeter game" (an overstatement) this season is due to the streaky shooting of Troy Murphy, Jason Richardson, and Derek Fisher, NOT Dunleavy and Boom Dizzle. Mike Dunleavy has had an awful shooting season (32% FG and 18.6% 3pt) and Baron's not exactly lighting it up with 33% FG and 27.6% 3pt. It's amazing how Anthony could write that. If he hasn't watched any Warriors games this season (understandable considering he has to cover the entire NBA) he should at least run a quick check of player stats before making his points.


Davis wins games by winning over teammates from SI.com

Take Troy Murphy, the Warriors' forward. A banger for most of his career, he's shooting a career-high 47.2 percent and hitting 1.2 three-pointers a game, or nearly one more than his career average coming into this season, in large part because Davis is creating wide open looks.

Don't know how many Warriors games SI.com's Ballard has seen in the past 3 years, but Troy's always been a perimeter shooter who can rebound. He has never been a post-up player or a "banger". T-Double's only showing improvement in that area this year.


I encourage Warriors Nation to stay local. The national sports media doesn't know the Warriors like the Bay Area media (Mercury, Inside Bay Area, SF Gate). Also, make sure to check out game recaps from us here at the Golden State Warriors BLOG and MVN- The City. We try to give you deeper analysis and make it more fun. AP recaps are painfully dull and boring. They rarely provide any insight or game excitement. The one strength of AP recaps is that they are published fast- usually within 30minutes of a game's completion.

The national media doesn't know the Warriors, but local media and Warriors fan sites do. Stay tuned Warriors nation!