By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

The Warriors made it official this morning on behalf of majority owner Chris Cohan:

FOR SALE.

Cohan has hired a franchise-sale specialist, Galatioto Sports Partners, to manage the disposal of the team he ran into the ground during 16 seasons of ownership — 15 of those playoff-free.

It seems fairly obvious that Cohan is bringing in GSP to attempt to drive up the price from the $320 million value upon which Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison — the odds-on favorite to wind up as the next Warriors owner — based his early bid. According to Tim Kawakami, who has been all over this story for the better part of a year now, there are five or six other groups that have been waiting until now to get involved in the bidding.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Your daily guided tour through the national and local media coverage of the always-entertaining Golden State Warriors.

WEB MEDIA

CBSSports.com (Ken Berger): The big winner of the day in the “Destined-To-Be-The-Most-Talked-About-Warriors-Story” sweepstakes. Now, a couple of points:

1) I don’t necessarily put a huge amount of stock into “a high-level coaching source” — the one that said Nelson could become a consultant, with Keith Smart taking over as head coach “by next week” — because there’s no indication of how connected this person is with what’s going on at 1011 Broadway. Kicking Nelson upstairs would mean kicking away roughly $10 million, and it’s hard to believe that Chris Cohan and Bobby Rowell are willing to eat that slice of humble pie. I will say that it’s been well known for a long time that Nelson wants to live out his days with such a consultancy in his pocket, to be the retired Don Corleone figure to some organization. It’s what he planned for in Dallas, before the fallout with Mark Cuban, and what he wants in Golden State.

2) I put a lot more stock into the anonymous source Berger quotes as saying “(Nelson) wants Monta out.” You can’t put guys on the block in this league without word getting around, and quickly. So I definitely can see heat to that fire.

3) “Rowell tries to be their friend, and they laugh at him.” No explanation necessary.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Your daily guided tour through the national and local media coverage of the always-entertaining Golden State Warriors.

PRINT MEDIA

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): Not much different than his earlier blog post immediately after the Ellis-Nelson confrontation. Apparently, Ellis didn’t get his ankles taped at the hotel, and therefore missed the start of practice, drawing Nelson’s ire. Or some such thing.

Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): More from the RSC. The money quote for me is the last one, where Nelson tries to absolve himself of all blame: “If you want to be any good, you’ve got to have good chemistry. … The coach can help when the players are willing.”

New York Post (Peter Vecsey): Mostly, it’s a column about Byron Scott’s ouster in New Orleans, but it includes this hilarious quote from Al Harrington: “Had I stayed with the Warriors any longer I felt for sure (Nelson) would have ended my NBA career.” Yikes.

(A Byron Scott aside: Did you see Baron Davis’ Tweet about the coach he battled with repeatedly before finally getting traded to Golden State? “B. Scott got fired… Sad to see that happen! Good Coach!” Talk about your BS for B.S.)

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I didn’t want this to get lost in the Morning Report shuffle. On the heels of Adrian Wojnarowski’s complete evisceration of Chris Cohan on Yahoo! Sports earlier this week, Tim Kawakami provides the second must-read piece for every Warrior fan:

Robert Rowell’s 25 fire-able offenses as Warriors colossus

– Geoff

PRINT MEDIA

Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): Stephen Jackson breaks his silence. “I’ve got no choice but to go out there,” Jackson said. “I’m just going to do my job. I don’t want to be fake. I’m just going to go and play basketball and handle my business.”

We’ll see how that turns out.

San Francisco Chronicle (Ray Ratto): Chris Cohan will sell someday. But not just yet.

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): A brief summary.

WEB MEDIA

ESPN.com (Marc Stein): A distinct lack of good news on the trade front: “… no deal appears close in an economy where teams are overwhelmingly reluctant to take on players in their 30s possessing long-term contracts.”

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