This actually happened to us-- we were walking down 16th street wearing our trusty baggy Giants sweatshirt (we like our sweatshirts baggy) when we walked past a homeless guy who actually said, "I like your sweatshirt. It looks good on someone as big as you."

Yes, some homeless guy called us fat. Needless to say, we did not give him any spare change.

Warriors 129 Suns 114- So the Phoenix Suns, a team that many pick to win the title this year and a team that was possibly one horrendous David Stern judgment from winning the title last year, came into the Oracle riding an eight game winning streak. So what happened? The Warriors whumped 'em. Monta Ellis had 31 points, including 15 consecutive points in the fourth quarter, and Stephen Jackson had 32 to beat PHX. The Warriors have now won six out of seven, leading to the inevitable joke about how they've totaled the amount of victories of both football teams, but as everyone's in a good mood about football, we'll leave it better off alone.

-It looks like the Raiders victory over the Chiefs is going to delay the Coming of JaMarcus at least a week as "Long Balls" Lane Kiffin has already announced Duante as the starting QB next week against the Broncos. We're not sure what the point of all this is either, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Raiders are technically only three games behind division leading San Diego.

-Is Sabean going to trade Tim the Enchanter for Miguel Cabrera? Were the A's really interested in Barry before the whole indictment thing? Read it for yourself.

Image by Jose Carlos Fajardo of the Contra Costa Times.

" . . . and with the 18th pick, the Golden State Warriors take . . . Marco Belinelli."

Uhhh, come again?

Damn, we hate being this good. Was there ever any doubt that Don Nelson would use the Warriors first round pick on a guard? With big men Jason Smith and Tiago Splitter still on the board, the Warriors went with Belinelli, a 6'6" shooting guard from team Climamio Bologna. Belinelli, who looks like he's about to hit puberty any day now, has good size for a shooting guard and a nice shooting touch. He has drawn some comparisons to Ray Allen, but Draft Express lists Mike Miller as a best-case comparison, so . . .

Fresh faces and fresh hope for the Warriors after a draft day that had more action than a Warriors-Suns game. Now, who are these guys again? Photo from Golden State Warriors official website.

This pick would make absolutely no sense, using the team's only first round pick to further strengthen their only undisputed strength, the backcourt, if not for the real move of the day. And by move, we're talking about a wicked, slashing, crossover into the lane for a double-pump two-handed tomahawk of a move.

The Warriors have traded Jason Richardson to the Charlotte Bobcats for the rights to Brandan Wright.

An undisputed crowd favorite and heart and soul of the team, JRich will be sorely missed by Warrior Nation. However, it was evident from the beginning that Richardson was not one of Nellie's favorites. Add in his decent trade value, the $11 mil he's owed next year, and the fact that he plays a position at which the Warriors are stacked, and the writing was on the wall.

Far be it for us to be the voice of optimism, but, are you ready for this Warrior nation -- the playoffs are doable, this year. Just as others seem to be abandoning ship, we step in to illustrate how miracles can happen.

If not for some unkind scheduling that left the squad trying to keep up with Phoenix on the tail end of a home-and-road back-to-back, a surprisingly frequent scenario that has not been kind to them this year, the Warriors would most likely be sitting at 19-17 right now, two games over .500 this late in the season for the first time since 1993-1994 and in a virtual three-way tie for the seventh and eighth playoff spots. Unfortunately, it's hard to get respect when you haven't even sniffed the playoffs in 12 years.

It's hard to beat the Suns, period, let alone on the road with tired legs. So please overlook Sunday night's 128-105 sleepwalk through the Valley. It is just one minor setback, . . . on the way to the playoffs?

Yup. Check yourselves, but if the playoffs were to start today, the Warriors would be the first alternate (#9 seed). That's a moral victory right there. Yes, there are four more months of the season to play, but it's heartening to know they're still in the hunt. Many's the January of yore that Warrior fans wistfully pined for the lofty scent of .500 and just the faintest whisper of hope.

The number eight seed is so tantalizing close, we can almost feel it. And if you think that's hard to believe, we can even see a way for the Warriors to grab that spot in time for May. Standings grid from ESPN.com.

Let's crunch some numbers, because as weird as it feels to write this during the middle of a season, the Warriors' future is not unbright.

Let the PR horns boldly announce it from the highest rafters: The second Don Nelson era is off to a flying start.

Last night, the Warriors beat up on Turkish squad Efes Pilsen in their first preseason game of the 2006-2007 season. The final score was 120-66, and it wasn't that close. The Warriors were already up 28 at half time -- ah, that has a nice ring to it. The Brewers, from the vaunted Turkish First Division, aren't a premier European team by any stretch, and that's even if they had key players Baris Ermis, Antonio Granger and Nikola Prkacin, none of whom made the trip from Istanbul. But and yet, they lost by only 16 to Denver on Tuesday, and they did just nab their seventh Presidential Cup, so . . .

. . . so it's better than losing, but let's just keep things in perspective. This is the equivalent of USF scheduling Division II cupcakes like Cal State Stanislaus and Sonoma State to puff up their confidence before heading into conference play. No complaints here -- the Warriors can use all the puffing they can get -- but this game should in no way be used to validate the return of new/old coach Don Nelson or his small-ball system.

Before the game though, Nellie wasn't seeing it that way. "This is called an ass-whooping game" Nellie boasted, "we're going to open up a can of ass whoop and see what happens." (Note to Nellie: We believe the proper phrase is, "open up a can of whoop-ass.") And ass whup they did. Killer Warriors blog Golden State of Mind was in the house last night and reported that team looked sharp and fast, with Monta Ellis, Andres Biedrins, and Dujuan Wagner looking particularly good. Even franchise centerpiece Mike Dunleavy looked competent. In fact, seven Warriors scored in double digits as Nellie used more different combinations and looks in the first half of this game than former coach Mike Montgomery used in the last two years.

If only Efes Pilsen was in the Pacific Division instead of the Suns and Lakers. Image from the Türkiye Radyo Televizyon web site.

On Wednesday, the War-terloos were worn down and overmatched by the Miami Humidity, losing at home 110-96. Last night, they sleepwalked through their game with the Phoenix Sunburn like it was a preseason scrimmage, losing at Phoenix 112-99 and dropping below .500 for the first time all season. At one point during the Suns game, the War-bricks were 3-18 from the three-point line; they could muster no offensive energy or discipline at all in the second half. It was one of their more lackluster performances of the season.

And despite a good deal of clumsily generated buzz out of the War-wiggums front office about being in the market for Ron Artest or some other significant new piece of the puzzle (note to Chris Mullin, if the Artest deal doesn't work out, Steve Francis might be available), the recent mini-break came and went with nothing to show for it except Gwen Knapp's backhanded attempt at hometown support for garment-less player personnel emperor Mullin.

By the Truthmaker, contributing

For the Warriors, the future is a Rubik's Cube.

The War-winks have done the first part. They've got talent and chemistry, but not in enough quantities to get past the first round of the playoffs. This was clearly evident last week when the War-wizhows lost to division leaders the Suns and the Pistons. True, the games were very close and very exciting, but as with all the War-womps' games with division leaders this year (vs Suns, vs Clips, vs Spurs), they lost.

The Truthmaker Contributing