What a difference a year makes. Come opening night of 2006, most of Warrior Nation was just hoping that the newly unretired and rehired Don Nelson could somehow resuscitate the franchise from its 12-year playoff coma. A .500 season was all anybody really hoped for; few dared dream the impossible dream of postseason play.

After starting fast and then fading, the Warriors pulled off a master stroke of highway robbery on January 17 when they unloaded franchise goats Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, and Ike Diogu to some rubes in overalls and straw hats in Indianapolis for starters Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington. After some gettin'-to-know-you time, the club finished the season ablaze, going 16-4 down the stretch to pluck the eighth and final playoff spot from the Los Angeles Clippers.

And then there was the opening round series with Dallas. Ahhggghhh, sweet playoff upset. The Warriors absolutely owned the Mavs, and oh it felt so good. 2006-2007 season: Mission accomplished.

Photo from USA Today

It looks like the Chronicle's two BALCO reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, will not be joining Josh Wolf in prison as they're no longer on the hook. The main reason being the source who they were protecting finally came forward to admit that that he was the leak. The person in question was the lawyer for Victor Conte and BALCO vice president James Valente, Troy Ellerman. Ellerman is being charged for handing court transcripts over to Fainaru-Wade and Wiliams. In a perfectly oily move that gives lawyers the reputation they have (sorry SFist Rita!), Ellerman was busy complaining to the judge about leaks all the while being the one who was leaking. Of course, it could have all been his master plan. After all, who would suspect the guy complaining the most about leaks?

The FBI uncovered who the mole was when a Private Eye Victor Conte hired told the FBI that he suspected Ellerman was the leaker. The PI, Larry McCormack, had some history with Ellerman that went back to the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, and said he did it mainly because he thought what Ellerman was doing was wrong.

We have to admit feeling ambivalent about all this. On the one hand, we believe in freedom of the press and all that. On the other hand, the whole point of a Grand Jury is that it's all secret. If everything that happens in a Grand Jury were leaked, then nobody would actually say anything to the Grand Jury, thus rendering it pretty much useless. Luckily, now that it's all resolved, we no longer have to ponder such ethical dilemmas, freeing up all that mental capacity to try and figure out last night's episode of "Lost"

If you were born after 1994 you have no idea what it's like. If you're a long-time fan, you might have a hazy, vague recollection of it. If you come from places like Los Angeles, Chicago, or Miami, you desperately miss it. We're talking a big game -- more specifically, a Warriors big game. An important game. A game that means something besides wrapping up a Lottery pick or nudging out Seattle or Memphis for the 11th overall spot in the Western Conference.

Tonight the Warriors play the Indiana Pacers in their biggest, most important game of this season or possibly the last 10 seasons. If the Dubs win, their slight hopes for the last playoff spot in the WC remain on life support; if they lose, consider the plug pulled on yet another failed season.

Tonight is also the first game in which the Warriors will face former teammates Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Ike Diogu, and Keith McLeod, players jettisoned from the roster with extreme prejudice last month as part of an eight-player trade. This adds another delicious layer of significance to tonight's game because there is no love lost between the players involved and their former teams.

The Warriors are still afloat, but the season is sinking fast. A loss tonight and they'll have to add a spot for Davy Jones to the team's locker room. Photo from Hydrolance.net.

Why is tonight's game so important to the Warriors? Because if they win tonight, they will improve to 2-3 on the current road trip. As we pointed out last week, it is imperative that the Warriors at least break even on this road trip if they have any hopes of keeping their playoff dreams alive. After extremely disappointing tank jobs against Cleveland (even without LeBron) and Atlanta to start the trip, the Warriors squeaked out a W against the woeful 76'ers, but face-planted to yet another come-from-ahead loss against the Charlotte Bobcats on Friday night.

Late last night, Yahoo! of all sites was reporting that the leak in the BALCO case was Victor Conte's defense lawyer. Or at least that's what the FBI is thinking as they've launched an investigation.

The lawyer in question is Troy Ellerman who was not only the defense lawyer for Conte but for BALCO VP James Valente too. The snitch in question is a former private dick who worked for Conte, Larry McCormack. Both Ellerman and McCormack have a connection other than working on the BALCO case. Ellerman was at one time the executive director of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and McCormack was the commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. McCormack was fired about three months ago but he denies it had anything to do with his tattling. Instead, he said he was doing it because he thought what Ellerman was doing was just plain wrong. This hasn't prevented the board of the board of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association from having to issue a statement saying they can't issue a statement on what appears to be alot of inter-office sniping going on there.

What one has to wonder is what kind of lawyer did Conte hire. It sounds like he hired more of a Barry Zuckercorn than a Bob Lablaw (and yes, we've been watching a lot of "Arrested Development" lately). What kind of defense lawyer leaks a whole bunch of stuff that makes your client seem guiltier? The only thing we could figure is that Ellerman probably just thought Conte was one hell of a schmuck and leaked the stuff so he could still get back at the guy even though he defended the guy. Kind of like what happened in High School when someone would go around saying Tiffany was like their bestest friend in the world and didn't go all the way with Biff all the while being the one who said Tiffany totally went all the way with Biff because like Biff was totally hot and they made out with him at some dance but then Tiffany, that ho, made out with him at that party and now they're like totally going steady and how did we get started on this tangent?

This has to be a bit of good news for Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Fog City Journal interviewee Lance Williams because if the FBI finds the leaker without them having to say who the leaker is, they might not have to go to jail.

Training camp. Whether you're fans of the Chicago Cubs, the Arizona Cardinals, the Boston Bruins, or even the Golden State Warriors, it is a time of hope. A time to believe. A time to go all in with the Karma chips and think the unthinkable. A time to take a flyer on 125-1 odds that the hometown squad can rise up and revel in the glory of a championship.

Last week, the Warriors opened training camp for the 2006-2007 NBA season with much fanfare and dare we say, hope. The Warriors open practice on Monday was well received by the fans, but did little to dampen the media skepticism. For those burned by too many years of woeful results and overarching marketing, this year may seem like more of the same (especially with a roster that doesn't look that much different from last year's 34-48 squad), but if you can't suspend disbelief in favor of some unbridled (and possibly unsubstantiated) optimism during training camp, then why bother caring about the team at all.

OK, we're willing to believe, at least for now. Annointing Mike Dunleavy as the next, uh Billy Owens, may be a bit sketchy, and we're sure that Amare Stoudamire is licking his chops thinking about matching up against the Warriors new starting center, Troy Murphy, but at least new/old coach Don Nelson is doing something. At least you can see the wheels turning. One of the problems with former coach Mike Montgomery was his lack of creativity and vision with regard to personnel. Nelson has vision up the butt, but as Marc Foley's teenage, uh, proteges will tell you, that's not always a good thing.

With Pietrus in the lineup full-time (at least until his first injury of the season), the Warriors may have a fighting chance this year. Photo from ESPN.com.

Unfortunately, the Warriors don't have much of a chance to do well tonight, as they were only the eighth worst team in the NBA. They have only a 2.2 percent chance of getting the first pick and a 7.85 percent chance of getting in the top three. This hasn't stopped people from already putting up fake draft boards and, Jesus people, get a life. In Warriors-fans-Land, they're thinking that there are only six players in the draft who could be impact players, none of whom are J.J. Reddick. You can pretty much guess who it is who is first on the Warriors list of people to tryout. Says Golden State of Mind: "Is anyone else in Warriors Nation worried about a 'deadly' combo of JJ Reddick, Mike Dunleavy Jr., and Troy Murphy? The whole Western conference would be scared senseless to go up against those 'Big 3' (sarcasm)."

Show starts at 4:30 PM.

The War-bloons have basically been treading water for the last couple of months, and like a small-time sucker playing conservative bets at the $5 blackjack tables in Reno, the house odds are starting to take their toll. Yet as their won-loss record sinks further into the red and the playoff dream shrivels up like Adonal Foyle's points per game average, Head Veep Chris Mullett can only watch as opportunities like the NBA trading deadline slip past like Brad Miller blowing by Troy Murphy unabated to the hoop.

All season, Mullethead has been unwilling or unable to make a deal to improve this team. When he did dip his toe into the trade waters, it was only to bumble around the fringes of the Ron Artest trade like George Bush trying to find his way out of a Chinese paper bag, coming away with nothing except increased team disharmony.

On Thursday the trading deadline passed without the team making any move to get better. Tuesday's debacle at the hands of the Sacramento Queens put the War-droops back in familiar territory in the Pacific Division.The number eight playoff position is three and one-half games off and pulling away. After Saturday's loss to the Spurs, they find themselves seven games under .500.

Last night Spot-On's Chris Nolan held a swanky fete at her Russian Hill apartment to introduce folks around. Lots of familiar faces were there -- Nick Denton and fellow Gawker Media minion Boi From Troy (pictured above), PJ, Mary Hodder, SFist Ted, Weatherman and his lovely wife Molly Go Lightly. Chris pulled out all the stops, with caterers serving tasty hors d'ouevres and pouring great Manhattans. Douglas, at right, just arrived from Pennsylvania -- keep an eye out for him at wifi cafes in the mish.

SFist would like to extend a hearty welcome to the kid, and hope Valleywag is a lovably snarky success.

The resolution was kind of a half-joking (although one never knows in this city) attempt to help out sports bars which apparently have been hurting this year due to a lack of good football to be watched. And as a beer-drinking, football fan, all we can say is thanks for thinking of us, Gerardo, as we are definitely an under-represented group in these here parts. If this doesn't work, should we then expect Green's on Polk Street to be declared a landmark and the Bay Guardian to start writing editorials about having the city take over the Connecticut Yankee?

We also like this idea because it just might be revolutionary. Next time some loser sports franchise threatens to leave their city unless a stadium is built or tax breaks given, the city can now just turn around and declare another franchise as the city's team. Kind of the ultimate, "oh yeah, well screw you and the team you inherited from your brother-in-law because he had a little problem with gambling fraud." Not that we're pointing to any teams in particular.

Whatever happens with the resolution, we don't think it'll do much to affect Steelers fans, who celebrated their epic victory over the Dolts by hurling a rock through the front window of referee and Stockton resident Pete Morelli on Monday. Morelli was the referee who made that hooorible call last week nullifying Troy Polamalu's completely obvious interception. Turns out in real life, Morelli is the Principal of St. Mary’s High School in Stockton. Hope the kids were a bit nicer than the Steerlers' fans.