What a difference four months makes
NBA Finals foes in June, Golden State and Boston are off to the rockiest of starts in October
They were the two best basketball teams in the world when we last watched an NBA game that counted.
Some four months later, Golden State and Boston are starting the new season as the league's co-leaders in internal chaos.
There will surely be other contenders for that unwanted crown that will have to be monitored once the games start counting again. Brooklyn, Phoenix and Los Angeles' glitziest team come to mind.
For now, though, with a week and change to go until Opening Night, neither the Warriors nor the Celtics are inspiring much envy from rivals leaguewide.
Boston is still adjusting to the shock of life under a new coach after management suspended Ime Udoka last month for unspecified “violations of team policies" stemming from a relationship he had with a female employee within the Celtics' organization. Joe Mazzulla, at 34, has stepped in as Udoka's untested replacement for the season, but even the seemingly simple task of finding an experienced former head coach to join the staff as Mazzulla's on-the-fly mentor has posed another short-term problem on top of Robert Williams’ ongoing knee trouble.
Golden State, meanwhile, has suddenly entered the upper reaches of the NBA's Scandal Rankings — courtesy of Draymond Green's practice-floor punch that rocked teammate Jordan Poole. Green will be away from the team indefinitely in what Warriors coach Steve Kerr termed a "mutual decision," but it was not difficult to hear Kerr's very terse tone (below) and wonder how mutual the terms of Green's reinstatement will be.
Let's be clear here: I am adamantly against …
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