San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Lacob could complicate Oakland’s WNBA hopes
Here’s a Halloween-scary scenario for East Bay sports fans:
The WNBA decides to expand and identifies the Bay Area as the place it wants to put a new team. A great fit for so many reasons. On announcement day, with much fanfare and hullabaloo, the WNBA declares, “Our new franchise will be in San Francisco!”
Whuuuut?
What about Oakland? Didn’t Oakland’s African American Sports and Entertainment Group spend the past year sweet-talking the WNBA about putting a new team in Oakland? Didn’t AASEG secure the Oakland Arena, sign on a new dynamic owner in Alana Beard, plus a power bloc of Black Oakland women, and work every angle of expansion, receiving positive feedback from the top levels of the WNBA?
Sorry, Town. You got bigfooted. The Warriors and owner Joe Lacob stepped in with his wallet, his women’s basketball cred, his new arena and his strong track record as a basketball team owner.
It could happen. If so, it wouldn’t be bad for the Bay Area, which would gain a team in a dynamic, growing league. But it would be another sucker punch to Oakland’s jaw.
AASEG feels it has the inside track on landing a WNBA franchise, and Ray Bobbitt and his crew have worked hard and smart. They have vision, money and a mission.
But Lacob sitting down at the table would change the poker game, and he told me he remains interested in owning a WNBA team to sister up with his Warriors.
This nightmare (for Oakland) scenario would cement Lacob’s place as Oakland’s No. 1 villain. The Town would erect a statue of Lacob being set upon by a pack of Jack London’s wolves.
Would Lacob do that, steal yet another basketball team from Oakland?
One possibility: Lacob lands a WNBA franchise, and because he has a heart and business sense, elects to plant his team in Oakland. Lacob really does believe Oakland is a great sports town.
If it does come down to a battle between Oakland and San Francisco for that WNBA franchise, here’s what the Town has working in its favor: If there is an enlightened, do-the-rightthing league in pro sports, it’s the WNBA.
Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots ...
The rumor around Hollywood is that Brad Pitt’s next movie portrayal of an Oakland Athletic will be playing Bob Melvin in “Escape From Alcatraz East Bay.” Sports people often ignore the advice dispensed so generously in this column, so it was nice to see Melvin may have read my Oct. 17 column: “It’s time for Billy Beane and Bob Melvin
to leave the Oakland/Las Vegas A’s.” The A’s will replace Bob Melvin, but they will not replace Bob Melvin. Bad news for the 49ers: Bears’ coach Matt Nagy will be out Sunday due to a positive coronavirus test. There is a trend: NFL teams and quarterbacks thriving when they lose their head coach. Exhibit A:
Derek Carr, who has found new life AG (After Gruden). Exhibit B: Cardinals, who lost
Kliff Kingsbury for their Oct. 17 game in Cleveland, where Kyler Murray led a big win. Murray said, “I guess (Kingsbury’s absence) did give me a little more freedom.” Is it
Justin Fields’ turn?
Is that really such a bad idea? Teach your quarterback the system and philosophy, then step back let him quarterback the team? For the A’s, letting Marcus Semien go last offseason was a stroke of genius. Imagine if the A’s had Semien at shortstop all last season (45 HR/102 RBIs/ .873 OPS, Gold Glove finalist at second base) instead of Elvis Andrus (3/37/.614). The A’s win the World Series, then let their hero walk away to cut costs, while John Fisher plans his $12 billion project. Here’s your latest Pro Sports Commissioner Abuse-of-Power rankings, in reverse order, with scores on the 1-10 Abuse-o’Power scale (10 being worst):
5. Cathy Engelbert of WNBA. Gets rid of a toxic team owner, allows players freedom of expression and protest, presides over super-high vax rate without using coercion. Score:
0.
4. Adam Silver of NBA. Solid and steady. Score: 0.
3. Roger Goodell of NFL. Suspicion grows that he granted anonymity to so many witnesses in the investigation of the Washington Football Club so that he could justify not releasing the report, which probably would expose many high-level hounds and hypocrites. Score: 9.
2. Gary Bettman of NHL. Let Sharks’ Evander “Typhoid Harry” Kane off with a wrist slap after he illegally endangered the entire league with a counterfeit vax cert. Let Blackhawks off with $2.7 million wrist-slap fine for their wretched mishandling of sexual abuse case. Score: 20.
1. Rob Manfred of MLB. Racism is now a function of MLB marketing strategy, per Manfred’s stupefying comments on the validity of Atlanta fans’ chop-n-chant. Summary: Big Chief Chop-a-lot protects Atlanta’s steaming pile of wampum. Score: 20. (Manfred wins tie-breaker with his support of Fisher’s mistreatment of Oakland fans.) Fans ask, will Jon Gruden ever get another job? Humans have an enormous capacity to forgive and forget, but Gruden dug himself a hole with a steam shovel. His next TV job: Selling pillows.