San Francisco Chronicle Sports - Spoken Edition

It’s five o’clock Friday evening, tip-off time for the Warriors vs. Pelicans playoff game from New Orleans. Bobby Ray Wright is trying to get the radio broadcast of the game on his phone. Wright, in his 70s, sits in front of his tent in Lafayette Square, a little park one block from the Warriors’ headquarters and practice facility in downtown Oakland.

When the Sons of Riches, the NFL team owners, meet this month, they will get down to some serious verbal mudwrestling. It will be a great opportunity for Jed York, the 49ers’ CEO, to take a stand. At their spring meeting, the owners will discuss what to do about the national-anthem protests, which, as you know, have led the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation.

Draymond Green has established his lofty reputation as a man who does many things. He inspires his teammates, puts points on the board, brings up the ball like a point guard, rebounds like a madman, and proves himself capable of guarding any position on the floor. That’s a lot to ask of someone. “Bring it on,” he says. And there will be piles of responsibility on his table when the Warriors-New Orleans series resumes Sunday.

“I tell ya, I don't get no respect. I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous — everyone hasn't met me yet.” Rodney Dangerfield would love the Warriors. They get no respect. Two titles in three years. Three straight trips to the Finals, with another on the way. Record-setting win totals. Multiple MVPs. Four All-Stars. You think everyone would just admit it.

No matter how smart you are, if you talk long enough, you’re bound to say something stupid. Thus it was that TNT analyst Chris Webber said of the Warriors’ Draymond Green, as the first round of the playoffs were ending, “Yes, if he was on other teams and expected to score, he may not be in the starting lineup on certain teams.” Thirty NBA coaches did spit takes, with assorted beverages.

When Stephen Curry checked into the game with 4:20 left in the first quarter, the crowd at Oracle Arena roared. They hadn’t seen the man play in five weeks, and they wanted to give him a hearty welcome. Eleven seconds later, when he curled around a screen, took a pass and hit a three-pointer on his first shot, the place went into rapture. King Curry was back. Long may he rain. “That was a special moment when Steph checked into the game,” said head coach Steve Kerr.

Stephen Curry’s return: It’s like Christmas morning for the Warriors Tuesday night is Christmas morning for the Warriors. At 7:30 p.m. or shortly thereafter, the Warriors will see what they got from Basketball Santa. Did he bring them Stephen Curry, or a cheap knockoff? The rest of the NBA will also be watching very anxiously as the Warriors face the New Orleans Pelicans.

The rains started as a light mist in the night. The tiny flecks peppered the jungle flora with a light patter. The air was filled with sweetness. An hour later, the first lightning bolt of the storm lit up the blackness like a strobe. The thunder that followed was ear-splitting, a high-pitch crack that fractured the sky for nearly 10 seconds. It sounded like the earth was cracking apart and we might fall into the fissure.

Quinn Cook is the New Orleans Pelicans’ gift to the Warriors. The Warriors can thank Pelicans’ coach Alvin Gentry for Cook. Call it another turn of the NBA’s Great Wheel of Life. When the Warriors hired Kerr, he immediately hired Gentry as his top assistant and offensive strategist. After one season helping Kerr mastermind a new offense, Gentry was hired to coach the Pelicans. Last season Cook, undrafted out of Duke and an NBA nibbler for a couple years, wound up with the Pelicans.

Lydia Ko turned 21 on Tuesday. She’s spending her birthday week playing at Lake Merced, where she pocketed her first LPGA victory as a professional in April 2014 and where she won again a year later. Ko has 14 wins in all, including two majors. She has spent 104 weeks, exactly two years, at No. 1 in the world ranking, and her career earnings are nearing $8.7 million. That’s an impressive resume for any player, let alone a freshly minted 21-year-old.

The Warriors-San Antonio series was contested in an atmosphere of dignity and respect. So many other first-round confrontations have been bitterly contested, skirmishes erupting like brushfires in an atmosphere of pure hatred, but not here. In the end, there was so much more to the Oracle Arena scene than basketball.

Notes on an airline cocktail napkin ... •I didn’t see Brandon Belt’s 21-pitch at-bat. I’m waiting for it to come to Imax. The soundtrack should be great, including “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, and the quirky old country tune, “Foul Owl on the Prowl.” •The 12-minute at-bat is the worst idea in sports since A’s President Dave Kaval’s ski gondola for transporting fans to Howard Terminal.

Don Nelson is Hawaii’s biggest Warriors’ fan. Nelson, who coached the Warriors for 11 seasons total—seven seasons starting in 1988, and four seasons starting in 2006. He lives on Maui, where he and his wife Joy first bought a home when Nelson was a player in the NBA. Since he was fired by the Warriors in 2007, Nelson and his wife have split their time between Maui and Texas, where Nelson has business ventures.

Coming down the home stretch of the regular season, the Warriors’ center position was like a used-car lot, with plastic flags fluttering from the antennas of the beaters, to distract buyers’ attention from the bald tires. It was a collection of guys not quite ready for prime time, and guys a bit over the hill. It’s not that the centers were the Warriors’ only problem over the last month, when the Warriors’ team cruise-control stuck in first gear.

The Warriors unleashed their full repertoire Monday night against the Spurs. First, it was defensive intensity and surprising offense from Andre Iguodala. Then came a stretch of putrid basketball, marked by sloppy turnovers and short naps on defense. Finally, it was time for the real Warriors to show up and all was right at Oracle Arena. But make no mistake.