Cohn Zohn

The meaning of Michael Crabtree’s injury

CohnZohn — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:31:34 +0000

Here is the opening of my Thursday column about the serious injured sustained by 49ers receiver Michael Crabtree:

Tuesday was quite a day for the San Francisco 49ers, all things considered.

They received the good, approaching glorious, news that they will host the 2016 Super Bowl in their new stadium. And during a routine offseason practice, wide receiver Michael Crabtree tore his Achilles tendon.

Talk about bittersweet, or in this case, sweet bitter. The Super Bowl still stands, but Crabtree apparently isn’t standing all that well and neither, frankly, are the 49ers. What does this injury mean to the team that would be a Super Bowl champion if it could be a Super Bowl champ?

To read the entire column, please click here.

Strange/interesting moment at Giants

CohnZohn — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:23:46 +0000

I was in the Giants clubhouse early this morning, there to interview players for my Sunday column. While I waited, I chatted with a cameraman from a local tv station — I won’t name the station. His camera was on a tripod pointed in a certain direction — it has to be pointed somewhere — but the photographer was not behind the camera looking through the lens. He was talking to me.

One player — I won’t name the player — walked over to the cameraman and said, “Would you mind pointing the camera in another direction?” The cameraman pointed the camera in another direction.

The player was polite, but at first I thought he was making a fuss over nothing. The cameraman obviously was not using the camera, although the camera was indeed pointed right at the player maybe 20 feet away.

But then I thought it wasn’t so obvious, not so obvious to the player. Look, the cameraman was a good guy acting in good faith. He was not secretly filming this player or any player.

But player did not know that. And this reminded me how weird our culture has become. This player might have thought from sad past experience it was possible the camera was running, recording him getting undressed or doing something private. And that could have gone viral on the internet.

Who knows?

So, I came away respecting the player and respecting the cameraman and thinking how much things have changed for the worse.

49ers to host Super Bowl

CohnZohn — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:57:52 +0000

Here is the opening to my Wednesday column about the 49ers hosting the Super Bowl in 2016:

All praise to Jed York and his father John for bringing the Super Bowl to the Bay Area. The 49ers will host the 2016 version in their soon-to-be-completed, state-of-the-art football palace due east of Great America in Santa Clara.

If you’re counting, it will be Super Bowl “L.” That’s the number 50 in Roman numerals. And it will be known as the San Francisco Super Bowl — just as the Niners still will be the San Francisco 49ers even though Santa Clara is vastly different from San Francisco. Or maybe it will be called the Bay Area Super Bowl. But it will be Santa Clara’s. So, yes, all credit to Santa Clara.

To read the entire column, please click here.

Who is the Warriors’ superstar

CohnZohn — Tue, 21 May 2013 05:14:13 +0000

Here is the opening to my Tuesday column about the Warriors:

OAKLAND

If the Warriors have a superstar, who is it?

You probably answered Stephen Curry. It is a reasonable response, and a certain amount of information backs it up. As a point guard, he is coming along real fast. He is a great shooter, flat-out great. And he is exciting and he is the Warriors’ best player without a doubt.

But the Spurs managed to shut him down some of the time and contain him some of the time, and when you think superstar, you don’t think shut down or containment. This is no knock on Curry. It is stating the facts.

Let’s just say Curry is a superstar in the making, and let’s just say he’s not the Warriors’ superstar.

So, who is it?

To read the full column, click here.

Art Agnos and proposed Warriors arena

CohnZohn — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:55:38 +0000

I didn’t realize you couldn’t open the link to Art Agnos’ editorial in the Chron. Some of this online stuff baffles me. Agnos basically bemoans the location of the proposed arena, says it will be a blight on the waterfront and also bemoans a proposed a luxury high rise condominium building across the street along with a ten story hotel. Just the kind of clutter that clutters a neighborhood.

Mark Purdy’s argument for San Jose is all wet.

CohnZohn — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:07:55 +0000

Mark Purdy, sports columnist at the SJ Merc, is a friend of mine. We’ve been friends since we were young men and I generally admire his work. As you know, the NFL will decide on Tuesday whether the Niners will get to host the 2016 Super Bowl. And I sure hope they get it.

What I’m writing has nothing to do with the Niners. It has to do with a small-minded, narrow South Bay point of view exemplified by Purdy’s most recent column. He writes, among other things:

“The game will be played in Santa Clara, where the stadium is being constructed. Most of the pregame parties and hoo-hah will be held 40 miles away in San Francisco, because that’s where the most naïve tourists always hang out and it’s where the hotel rooms and clam chowder are much more expensive, creating more trickle-down ancillary revenue.”

Look, I write for a Santa Rosa paper and I live in Oakland, so I have no ax to grind between San Francisco and San Jose. But come on. Would less naive tourists really go to San Jose and Santa Clara instead of San Francisco? Do you think citizens of Paris planning a vacation say to each other, “Francois, do you think we should visit San Jose or San Francisco? Oh, let’s go to San Jose. It has the Mystery house and the Sharks.”

Please. San Francisco is a world destination, and San Jose/Santa Clara is not. Purdy’s snide put-down of San Francisco sounds like someone with an inferiority complex about the city he writes for. To read Purdy’s full column, click here.

Say no to Warriors’ proposed arena site

CohnZohn — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:42:23 +0000

Former San Francisco mayor Art Agnos wrote a powerful piece that appeared in this morning’s San Francisco Chronicle. He argues against the proposed waterfront site for a new Golden State Warriors’ arena and he offers cogent arguments to back up his argument. He is in favor of the Warriors moving to San Francisco from Oakland — I am not. But Agnos and I certainly agree that the proposed waterfront site is a horrendous idea that is being pushed through too quickly and without proper oversight. To read Agnos’ editorial, please click here.

Warriors’ question

CohnZohn — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:39:08 +0000

Here’s a question for you. After two more seasons, who will be the Warriors’ big star? Vote for your guy.

Stephen Curry

Klay Thompson

Harrison Barnes

Andrew Bogut

Festus Ezeli

Jarrett Jack

Name someone else

Warriors eliminated

CohnZohn — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:04:22 +0000

Here is the opening to my Friday column about the Warriors’ elimination by the Spurs in the playoffs:

OAKLAND — With 37 seconds left, coach Mark Jackson took Stephen Curry out of the game. It was fitting. The Warriors weren’t going to beat the Spurs and force a seventh game in their semifinal series, and now the crowd could cheer their great star and he could wave. And they cheered and he waved.

When it ended, the score 94-82, Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich and Jackson hugged at courtside, two worthy opponents, two men with deep mutual respect. Curry and Andrew Bogut embraced the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili, his face red and sweaty from all-out effort. The players on both teams lingered at midcourt, co-conspirators in a wonderful playoff series.

To read the entire column, please click here.

Five tips for the Warriors

CohnZohn — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:47:58 +0000

Here is the opening to my Thursday column, offering five constructive tips to the Warriors if they want to beat the Spurs tonight:

SAN ANTONIO – I offer these challenges to the Warriors. They better meet these challenges if they don’t want their season to end tonight.

Enlarge

Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) drives on San Antonio Spurs’ Tony Parker (9), of France, defends during the second half in Game 5 of a Western Conference semifinal NBA basketball playoff series, Tuesday, May 14, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

To Stephen Curry: You’re the Warriors’ star. Play like it.

On Tuesday night, Curry was pathetic, played like some junior varsity walk-on. Sorry for the harsh words, but they’re true. Nine points? Come on. The Spurs controlled Curry, and when they weren’t controlling him, he was out of control. Like when he dribbled the ball off his foot for no good reason and it went out of bounds.

To read the full column, click here.