- The Golden State Warriors are on top of the NBA world.
Under new head coach Steve Kerr, they’re out to an NBA-best 16-2 record and have looked as complete as any team in the
Association so far. They’re feeling mighty potent and perhaps no one more so
than the man who signs the checks and pays the bills. Owner Joe Lacob is
sporting a big pair these days and took a moment to lay out former coach Mark
Jackson at a Menlo Park, California, luncheon for fellow venture capitalists
earlier this week. He explained why he fired a coach who led the team to a
51-31 record and a playoff berth and why Kerr, a first-time head coach, is a
major upgrade. "Part of it was, he couldn't get along with anybody else in
the organization. And, look, he did a great job -- and I'll always compliment
him in many respects -- but you can't have 200 other people in the organization
not like you,” Lacob said of Jackson. He laid out Jackson for creating a
culture within the organization that needed to change and said the former
broadcaster-turned coach-turned broadcaster again was an inexperienced coach
who the owner said "didn't know X's and O's, really." Because of
that, Lacob said, the team tried to hire an experienced staff around Jackson,
an idea that was met with resistance from him. "You can't have a staff
underneath you that isn't that good," Lacob said. "And if you're
going to get better, you've got to have really good assistants. You've got to
have people that can be there to replace you. We all know this from all of our
companies. It's ... Management 101." He then propped Kerr up and said that
unlike Jackson, he was willing to “hire the very best. Carte blanche. Take my
wallet. Do whatever it is to get the best assistants there are in the world.
Period. End of story. Don't want to hear it.” Points for honesty, at least,
Joe………
- Self-immolation has made its way across the Atlantic
Ocean. The practice of turning oneself into a human torch is typically part of
the protest M.O. of Tibetans opposing Chinese rule in their country, but it
popped up this week in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, where a young farmer set
himself on fire outside the Chiapas state legislature building to demand the
release of his father, an indigenous leader who was arrested last year on
charges stemming from a series of demonstrations in 2011 that turned violent. Agustin
Gomez Perez didn’t exactly self-immolate properly, as he laid down and allowed
another protester to douse him with gasoline and set it alight Friday in the
state capital. If he wanted to do it right, he would have done the dousing and
match-flicking himself, but setting yourself in fire is still a ballsy move
either way. According to Perez’s stepmother, Araceli Diaz, he is "serious
but stable" condition with second- and third-degree burns. This might not
exactly be “Grapes of Wrath”-esque agricultural professionals raging against
the establishment, but Gomez Perez and other indigenous farmers have been
protesting last year's jailing of his father, Florentino Gomez Giron, and
they’re not giving up the fight. For the record, the father is charged with
murder, stealing cattle, organized crime and causing 39 families to flee the
Ixtapa municipality as a result of leading protests in 2011. He sounds like a
stand-up guy in his own right, which is probably why the government has such a
beef with him………
- When you’ve just been accused of sexual misconduct by 15
different women over the course of decades and your one-sterling reputation is
in shambles, you really want anyone at all to come to your defense - unless
that someone is a reality karaoke judge and commercial pitchman/part-time
musician who escaped jail time earlier this year after pleading no contest to
drugs charges and was then forced to apologize after tweeting controversial
remarks about rape immediately afterwards. Give
it up for CeeLo Green, who has risen - as much as a 5-foot-1 man can rise - to
the defense of embattled comedian Bill Cosby, saying that his silence
following a string of historic rape allegations made against him should not be
seen as an admission of guilt. While technically correct and tagged with Green’s
admission that he "definitely can't judge" the comedian, the words won't exactly
inspire much confidence in anyone given the source. "He [Cosby] hasn't
said anything. Which is also to some an admission of guilt, as well. It just
doesn't seem fair any way you slice it,” Green said. "You can't defend
yourself in that capacity. You just have to let facts be facts and so on and so
forth. The facts have to speak the loudest. With that being said, none of this
seems fair. But of course, for any victim in the situation it's highly unfair.
It's not for me to judge him. I definitely can't judge him. It's just
unfortunate because he's so beloved to so many." Umm, thanks for stating
the obvious and adding nothing to the discussion, C. Maybe just focus on not secretly
slipping ecstasy into the drink of your dinner date at a sushi restaurant ever
again and let the legal system deal with the Jell-O pudding pop man……….
- Crime is bold in the Bronx. That much is obvious after a
group of criminals courageously swiped a 5-by-3 foot crucifix from a Bronx church
during services, much to the surprise of the faithful. The $5,000 German-made
wooden cross was lifted from the lobby of Padau Roman Catholic Church and maybe
it should have been expected given that the crucifix stood near a sign
proclaiming, “Jesus wants all of us to come to him.” The thieves came, all
right, some time between 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., and they left with an artifact
that is going to be awfully difficult to move on the black market. “I’m
distressed. That crucifix means so much to the people here … I’ve never seen
anything like this,” pastor Josu Iriondo said. The church is on East 166th
Street near Prospect Avenue, smack dab in the middle of the borough. Police
believe the heist was planed out ahead of time and that’s how they were able to
unscrew all of the bolts that attached the crucifix to a wall without anyone
noticing so that they could complete their sinister plot by returning to snatch
the while parishioners were deep in prayer. “It’s someone who knew what they
were doing. They had to be professionals,” Iriondo said. “They must have come
in before … We didn’t realize. Somebody said after the fact that the crucifix
was very loose … I suppose that [the thieves] covered it, went to the car in
front of the church, and placed it in the car.” That’s quite an imagination you
have there, pastor. He also speculated that some church members may have seen
the crime happen but simply assumed it was part of an ongoing renovation
process. Spotting the cross won't be tough for the person who knows what to
look for, given its special design, and Iriondo said it means so much to the
church that he is distraught over its theft. Here’s hoping it’s a kick-ass
addition to someone’s dorm room……..
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