The return of Rick Reilly at SI

Understandable. But how much of that (Rushin, for instance) is on him, and how much is on you for just having seen it so much?

For example, I eagerly anticipated the 8-page swimsuit issue when I was 13 and had little exposure (no pun intended) to such things. And I kept it around for weeks or months.

Today's 236-page issue goes into the trash barely 10 minutes after I take it out of the mailbox.

And it's not because the content is "worse."

I suspect someone reading Rushin for the first time these days might be blown away by some of the wordplay.

 

Oh, it's definitely me. He's still clever, but I guess it just doesn't impress me as much. But I will say that, while it is certainly understandable that folks like Berman/Rushin/Reilly/etc. settle into their niche and start to coast, I'm disappointed that folks with their unusual talent don't try to branch out more and make the most of it.

 

Who thinks that headline is about Reilly and not the Warriors?

 

Gotta say that those jerseys are really fucking kick-ass.

 

They are . . . even though they haven't played in The City since 1971.

 

Those are the best jerseys I've ever seen.
Wish they would stop wearing those trash-bag-like alts.

 

Reilly missed the story ... Golden State's owner thinks he's the reason they're so good:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/m...ists-took-over-the-golden-state-warriors.html

 

Isn't he, though? He has put everything in place. The only piece that was there when he arrived was Curry, who had a much different role and questionable future.

 

He had very little to do with the players they acquired -- or didn't unload. Jerry West deserves that credit.

 

OK. Who hired Jerry West?

 

Agreed. Remember this?

In March 2012, Lacob took the microphone during a game at halftime to honor Chris Mullin, who played for Golden State from 1985 to 1997. From the moment he began speaking, Lacob was booed. It had nothing to do with Mullin. The previous week, the Warriors sent Monta Ellis, the team’s most popular player, to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for Andrew Bogut. With time, that would take its place among the most effective trades in basketball history. The Warriors did more than acquire Bogut, a seven-footer who had missed half the season with a broken ankle. Trading Ellis allowed Curry, the point guard, to look for his own shots instead of mainly facilitating Ellis’s. In truth, Lacob hadn’t wanted to trade Ellis. His basketball advisers, including West, persuaded him. “They made their case, especially Jerry,” Lacob says, “and I accepted it. They were right.”

Lacob understood that the Warriors, who had a losing record, needed to be dismantled before they could be rebuilt. He often had to implement a similar strategy with struggling companies. But the fans had been hearing about long-range plans for decades and had little confidence in them. And now they no longer had Ellis. The booing continued for so long that the former Warrior Rick Barry had to beseech the crowd to allow the ceremony to continue. By then, Lacob was shaking. The humiliation was so public, so raw, that Lacob’s friends were moved to send messages of support. Many mention it now, four years later, as a rite of passage.

 

He hired a good personnel guy. Doesn't mean he deserves as much credit for their success as he's claiming.

They'll go the way of every other team as soon as Curry et al are done. Lacob will still be thre and they will not be what they are now.