Just got the release from the Warriors, and it’s short and to the point:

“Guard C.J. Watson, who underwent an MRI exam this afternoon, will be sidelined a minimum of 1-3 weeks due to a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee. Watson suffered the injury during yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) initial morning practice.”

This is not a good start to a critical year for Watson. As a restricted free agent this summer, Watson passed up an offer from the Warriors worth a reported $5.4 million over three years in favor of signing a one-year deal worth just more than $1 million and hitting the unrestricted free agent market next summer. The injury will put him further behind in fighting for minutes in Golden State’s crowded backcourt.

– Geoff

Damn you, Twitter, damn you. If athletes are going to keep breaking their own injury news, what’s left to help a poor Web journalist pump up their page views?

– Geoff

TWITTER

quietstorm_32 (C.J. Watson): 1st of the 2a days down wasn’t bad more learning then nething hurt my knee lil hope its nutn off for a nap til the next 1 in a couple hours

quietstorm_32 (C.J. Watson): the knee is still kind of sore and n pain hurt it this morning n the 1st practice goin2 see the doc n the morning hopefully its nutn serious

quietstorm_32 (C.J. Watson): and i can get bak on the court sooner then later cuz watching is killing me makes me want to get bak out there even worse

Read the rest of this entry…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — In the aftermath of the conflagration set ablaze by Stephen Jackson and, even more so, Monta Ellis, now is as good a time as any to note this fact: Just because a player has an obvious agenda when talking to the press doesn’t mean that he can’t still be correct while doing so.

Jackson wanted to use his 20 minutes to reiterate and emphasize his desire not to waste his final NBA years toiling for a team that seems destined for eternal 34-48 damnation. And Ellis took 15 minutes to press the fact that whether or not you want to call him the point guard, he expects to play 35-plus minutes a night and to have the ball in his hands for pretty much every single one of them.

But in making those points, the Warriors’ captains revealed some deeper truths that the organization doesn’t want to acknowledge: Namely, that they’re on the wrong track. In every sense.

I understand why the Warriors did what they did. Bobby Rowell wanted to avoid salary-cap strangulation such as the situation that led to Gilbert Arenas being able to walk out the door. Additionally, no president of any organization keeps their job without being in the black, and in nine seasons with Rowell at the helm, the team has cleared (according to Forbes, at least) an average of $4.7 million in profits each year.

Read the rest of this entry…

This is the debut of what will be a daily feature here at 48minutes.net, a Warriors-only compendium of media sightings from the last 24 hours, including articles (from dead-tree media and the fabulous Interwebs), blogs, Tweets, radio spots, video feeds and anything else I can get my hands on.

– Geoff

TWITTER

Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times: Monta Ellis may ask out of the #Warriors too soon, via some1 in his camp. Still bitterness on both sides from the mo-ped fiasco.

PRINT MEDIA

San Jose Mercury News (Tim Kawakami): “Jackson and Ellis, good friends, were making a key point: They’re both 10 times smarter than team management and they don’t care if any of us know it.” Yeouch. (Copy from Honolulu Advertiser because mercurynews.com has no Kawakami love.)

Read the rest of this entry…

The last major transcript of Media Day (I don’t know how Kawakami gets these done so quickly…) is that of Monta Ellis, trying his best to quash the Warriors’ great hope of pairing him and Stephen Curry together in an all-shooting, no-rebounding backcourt.

– Geoff

Q: How important was Don (Nelson, Warriors coach) and Larry (Riley, Warriors general manager) flying out and talking to you this summer? What was that about?

ME: Well, really, just like I said: Get on the same page. They wanted me to lead the team, be one of the leaders, and we had to iron some stuff out that happened last year that should have been ironed. Like I said, we put all that behind, us, everybody’s coming in positive, everybody’s got a great mindset, everybody just wants to win.

Q: Being a leader, does that mean being a point guard?

ME: Nope. Being a leader is leading by example. Say what I mean and mean what I say. I can’t go out there and tell nobody to do this when I’m not out there doing it myself. Lead by example. Be that leader.

Q: Have you talked to Stephen Jackson? Do you understand his situation?

ME: Like I said, that’s Stephen Jackson’s situation. That’s not mine. That’s not for me to comment on, right or wrong. (I’ll) let Stephen and the organization handle that part. Like I said, at the end of the day, when the ball is tipped off, I know Stephen Jackson is going to be there to play basketball, whether he’s here or somewhere else.

Q: You don’t think it will impact you?

ME: It’s not going to impact anybody. He got a hold on his situation. He got control over it. He’s been professional about it. Like I said, everybody’s coming in with a great mindset of just winning.

Read the rest of this entry…