The building was rocking and rolling for sure last nite, that renovated basketball arena, home of the Golden State Warriorsm who opened their championship playoff series with a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. 
 
Across the parking lot, the dark football stadium becomes a Mardi-Gras of sorts 10-times years, when all those fans, wearing paint, jewelry and adornments, root for the the NFL team, the Raiders.  And this time of year, you can find plenty of empty seats, and an occasional winning streak, when the baseball team plays there, the Athletics.
 
It struck me as odd though, in the city that all these teams play, no-one wants to use the name “Oakland” as part of their branding, and they always seem to be trying to leave.
 
Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco, is an economically challenged city.  Unemployment is high.  Murder rate is high.  There is an aging downtown.  And it’s franchises are always trying to flee the old facilities they call home..
 
The Warriors games are the in place to be right now, but it hasn’t been that way in a long time.  You think Warriors, and Rick Barry was a long time ago.  More recently it was the home of Latrell Sprewell, who said he couldn’t feed his family on 16M a year, and was leaving.  Before that it was the failed career of Chris Washburn.  Before that the give away trade of Joe Barry Carroll.  And it’s owner Franklin Mieuli, benevolent to a fault, called them Golden State.
 
Warriors ownership has been casting glances towards a new building in San Francisco, seemingly intent of getting out of the arena just renovated, just off the 880-freeway.
 
The Raiders are playing in a relic of a stadium, poorly expanded and renovated for the new Mount Davis seats, now tarped off.  It’s been a horrid product for a decade, thanks to Al Davis’ poor drafts, hideous free agent signings, and his mercurial ways.  The eras of Marcus Allen to Ken Stabler are a long time gone.
 
And they did vacate Oakland, leaving to go to the LA Coliseum, with the promise of riches.  Instead there was a money grab, a gravel pit, gang-bangers and their ilk, and Davis took his team back to the East Bay, where things got worse.  NFL football was passing Davis by, and the business of NFL football, he never ever grasped.  They are one of the poorest teams in existence in an era where everyone makes money in the NFL.
 
And they are looking to leave again, to go to Carson or Hollywood Park.
 
The Athletics have explored new stadiums in San Jose and Sacramento, blocked either by lack of financing or territorial rights granted by MLB to the cross-bay Giants.  The product has been good, been bad, and in a constant state of change, thanks to their GM-Billy Beane.  The baseball franchise links back to the original wildcard of an owner Charley Finley to the current Moneyball era of Lewis Wolf.
 
But what strikes me odd, they are the Golden State Warriors; they are the Raiders-period-exclamation point; they are the Athletics.  Very little, if ever, a reference to the city where they play Oakland.
 
Good teams at times, but not the emotional city linkage you’d find if this were the Lakers, Red Sox nor Packers.  And that is very strange.

They are ready, we are ready, for a much anticipated NBA championship series.
 
The Splash Brothers-vs-King James and his Cavaliers on the court.  Cleveland-vs-Golden State.
 
The last time they were playing this deep into June was 1975.  The Warriors, coached by Al Attles, fueled by Rick Barry’s long distance shooting, and the fire and fury of Clifford Ray and Keith Wilkes, beat Washington in a stunning four game sweep.  The Bullets had Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld, the street toughs, and still lost.
 
Cleveland hasn’t won a championship in any sport since the 1964-NFL-Browns, but the Cavs did come close once during the Bill Fitch era.
 
LeBron James came home, yes you can come home, but you have to leave first.  He did, in a hateful exit to form the Dream Team in Miami.  He did return to the 330-Area Code, and he has delivered on a promised to get the Cavs to the finals.
 
The most complete player in the NBA is driven to success, but he leads a hurting team right now.  Running mate guard Kyree Irving is good, but is hurt alot, the latest being a strained knee.  The Cavs got to the finals, losing center Anderson Veraejao and Kevin Love along the way to season ending injuries.
 
The Warriors have been losers for years, and it took time to put things in place, but have they ever come together.  Steph Curry may be the best pure shooter since Pete Maravich or the modern day Michael Jordan.  Klay Thompson is his running mate, and has become a sniper too.  And the Warrior provide a consortium of big men, who can score, or play defense, rebound or give fouls.  You will hear the names Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, and Andre Iguodala alot.
 
This looks like a series of 1-on-1 games, LeBron-vs-Curry.  James will push the tempo but the big question is whether he can survive layer after layer of defensive players Golden State sends after him?
 
The coaching matchups will be fun.  Steve Kerr, a winner at every stop in his basketball life, from the University of Arizona, to the Chicago Bulls, and now as a coach against the globe-trotting coach Dave Blatt, few fans know much about, but who built a reputation coaching abroad.
 
The key to the series will be Golden State shooting the ball, and not turning it over.  They hit an amazing 40% of their 3-point shots in season.  They average 11-treys per game, which provides them with lots of point, and they have firepower to get on those 13-3 runs that blow games open.  They have bulk and depth also to grind it out.
 
The Cavs need the wild shooting JR Smith and Matt Dellavedova to get hot, not be stone cold, to provide the points that James cannot get them.  Somehow, someway, the Cleveland bigs Tristan Thompson and Tim Mozgov must score, board and stay out of foul trouble.
 
This will be fun for sure.  First time in a longtime for Golden State.  James is (2-4) in NBA finals, and he won’t have the luxury of Chris Bosh-Dwayne Wade around him from Miami days.
 
Splash Brothers to beat the King and the Cavaliers on his court in six games.

It should come as no surprise, what the San Diego Chargers are doing with their top defensive player, Eric Weddle.
 
If history counts for anything, then this is business as normal.  And if that history is to be remembered, it’s likely to end badly, costing the team on the field.
 
The Chargers decision not to offer a contract extension in this offseason, after initially saying they would, smacks of disrespect to a player who has done everything plus more for the franchise over the course of his career, on and off the field.  Like all issues with agents, a contract offer becomes a negotiating chip.  The dollar offered seldom winds up being the dollar spent, but that is part of the game.
 
Why would the Chargers diss Weddle at this point, creating a distraction for the 2015-season?  Simply put, they have a dollar value on that position, and they are not going over that dollar value, and it would have been that way had they made an offer.
 
Weddle is finishing up a 4-year deal, the second he signed with the club, that has averaged 8M per season.  He established himself after his first deal was up,  was allowed to test the open market, got a bid from the Houston Texans.  It forced San Diego to respond and ‘overpay’ Weddle on the last deal.  Granted he developed into a rock-solid trustworthy leader and talent, but there was no rationale for paying him that kind of money early on in this deal.
 
So now because the last offer was mishandled, they will likely let him test the market, Weddle has become Darren Sproles and Vincent Jackson.  The Chargers mishandled them to, in the AJ Smith era.  Sproles was franchised tag at 7M after two great years, well above his pay-scale level.  On he has gone and done well at New Orleans and Philadelphia.  Jackson was jerked around, when he could have been signed earlier, and next thing you knew, he was gone to Tampa Bay on a mega contract.
 
Had the Chargers treated them fairly, not overpaid Sproles and lowballed VJ, they might still be here.  The team lost them, and the franchise has never been the same.  Now a repeat again, this time with Weddle.
 
There’s no way they are going to pay him on a four year extension at his age.  Call it the Ed Reed-Baltimore Ravens syndrome.  There’s no way they are going to pay him 10M a year going forward either.  And you cannot link Weddle to an age-injury notation, this is not a perennially hurt Troy Polamalu player either.
 
Yes the franchise has to take care of Philip Rivers, and maybe Corey Liuget.  But they did take care of Donald Butler and King Dunlap, and no one believes those guys are as important to the team as Weddle has become.  But the cap keeps going up, older players will be leaving, so there is money to be moved around.
 
Another odd happenstance is what Mike McCoy did, telling his players this week before the OTA’s began, to move on from Eric Weddle, as if he was just another name on a blackboard.  Wrong assumption.  Even more wrong is a coach getting involved in a player’s contract situation infront of other players.  Yes McCoy may be management, but he has a responsibility to keep his team together.
 
He just took sides in a contract dispute, in essence telling the players, ‘your contract does not over-ride loyalty to the team’.  The man, who does not like distractions, just created one, that could split the lockeroom into us-vs-them, players downstairs vs people upstairs.  You do remember the AJ Smith era of barbed wire fences in that building, “you are a Charger on a year-to-year basis”.
 
It must be some deep-rooted philosophy in that Chargers Park building, that you are our property, and we will do with you what we want, when we want, and the price we want.  All fine and good, except there will be options out there for Eric Weddle to experiment with.  Can you say New England Patriots-Bill Belicheck, or the Indianapolis Colts, or Green Bay Packers?  This is not the era of Halas-Paul Brown-Al Davis either. The GM-Tom Telesco should know that.
 
If you don’t learn from history, you are bound to repeat it.  The Chargers appear headed down that road with Eric Weddle, in addition to the rumored road they may be travelling to Los Angeles.

There’s nothing as sudden, nor as final, as losing a Game 7-on your home ice, 1-game away from the Stanley Cup finals.  The ache, the melancholy, the frustration is something that will last an entire summer.
 
As one season ends, another about to begin, the cup finals, but the reality is, Game 7’s are always ‘win or go home’…
 
The NHL Stanley Cup finals begin tomorrow night when the near dynasty Chicago Blackhawks meet the Tampa Bay Lightning.  You don’t think of the words dynasty when you talk Blackhawks, at least you don’t confuse them with the iconic Montreal Canadiens (Beliveau-Richard-Plante), or the Philadelphia Flyers (Fred Shero) or the Oilers (Gretzky-Messier) nor the Islanders (Potvin-Bossy)
 
But Chicago is back going for another ring, shooting for their 3rd Stanley Cup in a six year window.  About as close to dominance as you can get, especially in the NHL salary cap era, where player turnover is a constant every July.
 
The season is over for the Anaheim Ducks.  An awful ending for what we thought would be a return trip to center ice to try and get another ring.  Made even worse by losing at home, in another Game 7-decision.  In a sport where home ice is so huge, it is unimaginable that the Ducks could be elimiated three straight years, at home, in the 7th and final game of a playoff series.
 
As exit meetings occur today with those players, you wonder if they will be exiting that building a final time.  And you wonder if the coach may exit too, for as bad as the Ducks end of season runs have become, coach Bruce Boudreau has a (1-6) career record in those exit games, and those games were marked by really poor emotional play by his team, wondering if they were mentally focused to go get it done, again, at home.
 
Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry are fabulous power players.  The Ducks were complimented by a deep line of forwards who could score goals, from the ex-Canuck Ryan Kesler to role players like Matt Beleskey, Andrew Cogliano to Patrick Maroon and more, each important in their own say..
 
The defense has such a cross section of talent, from an old warrior like Francois Beauchemin, to young studs like Cam Folwer and Hampus Lindholm.
 
The goaltending gave you flights of fabulous play, from Frederic Andersen to John Gibson, but also frightful nights, with Andersen giving up 19-goals in the last 4-playoff games at the most important time of the year.
 
In retrospect, maybe the Blackhawks just had too much talent.  Once you take Perry-Getzlaf off their game, others didn’t really have the talent level to step.  There was no Marian Hossa on the Ducks 2nd-3rd lines.  The dropoff on defense in Anaheim was significant once Fowler or Lindholm were done with their shifts.  Young legs sometimes can’t keep up with experienced firepower.  That plus the Hawks will to do it every shift.
 
So close, but still so far away, because the Ducks aren’t playing tomorrow nite against Tampa Bay, like we thought they might.
 
Maybe we were misled, for the entry series against Winnipeg and Calgary were not as challenging as to having to play say the LA Kings or San Jose or St. Louis in early rounds.  But this was a team that was in a pressure tank full of games in March and April, fighting the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay for the point total race and overall home ice advantage.  They won when they had to win in regular season.
 
You don’t fire coaches who drove their teams to 100-point seasons, but you don’t get gold medals either for just trying to win.
 
Maybe this is a learning curve season for lots of young guys.  The torch was officially passed a couple of years back from the Kariya-Selanne-Neidemayer era, to Getzlaf-Perry.  They still have time left on the clock, gas in the tank.  Maybe the experiences of all these enormous ‘pressure games’ will serve the kids well, and this experience will make them better the next postseason go-round.  Maybe this was more stagefright, or mental exhaustion, or just getting overwhelmed by the talent level of the guys wearing the tomahawks on their crest.
 
Ducks hockey, a pretty bright future, even if this week is an emotional downer.  No practices to go to, no game to look forward to.  It’s as empty a feeling as you can have.
 
Like I said, the finality of getting knocked out in the 7th game at home, is about as severe a jolt as a roster can have.  A year from today, maybe they will be better for it.

It all starts tomorrow morning, the beginning of the most important time in San Diego Chargers history. A time to determine whether the franchise stays in its home, or moves back to its origins, Los Angeles.

The Mayor, his city Attorney, county officials and members of the city negotiating team, will sit across from owner Dean Spanos, his point man Mark Fabiani, team lawyers, and designated negotiators.

Here are the players in the opening day lineup.

Mayor-Kevin Faulconer-he could become a superstar if he can pull off this stadium package without using tax dollars or getting a ‘no vote’ from taxpayers. The biggest question, has the Task Force fired its best shot, or is there another money that can be arranged if necessary.

Attorney-Jan Goldsmith-the man behind the scenes, who knows the law, what can be agreed to without a vote, and how to coordinate the city-county loan plan.

Ron Roberts-the County rep is the entire process, knows the ins and outs of relationships, a steadying voice in all this, who has had a long relationship with Chargers ownership. Might be the most experienced-respected man in the room.

Peabody-Nixon…The negotiators, working with the city to deal with the ‘fine print in the transaction. They know the NFL and all the tricks of the trade. They are not rubes.

Dean Spanos-Chargers owner who runs a successful money making venture. His mouth says one thing, stay in San Diego, his actions say something else, see the Carson project. He has not extended a helping hand to CSAG, and they are working on his behalf.

Mark Fabiani-assigned to take care of the best interests of the owner, he has been a constant critic of all things the city has tried to do since Day one of the task force. He will do the owners dirty work.

Eric Grubman-the NFL VP of Stadiums plays devil’s advocate, but understand, he works for Roger Goodell, and who does Goodell work for, the owners, and that includes Spanos. They will do a deal in the best interest of the owner.

Carmen Policy-you would wish he had been assigned to work on the Chargers stadium in San Diego, not Carson. He wants back into the NFL, and likely will become a key member of the organization if they becomes the LA Chargers.

So the stage is set for all these talks. It will take weeks, maybe two months, to march thru the fine print. Maybe by August 1st, we will know if the Bolts are San Diego’s team forever going forward, or a lame duck franchise.

It shall be interesting to see how private these talks are, or whether the negotiating info gets leaked to selected media in LA, by Fabiani.