Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 at 9:00 am  |  76 responses

Video: Warriors Fans Boo Owner During Chris Mullin’s Jersey Retirement


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

During what was supposed to be a joyous occasion for Chris Mullin and the Golden State Warriors, an ugly and surreal scene developed last night in Oakland, with fans raining boos down on relatively new team owner Joe Lacob. They were angry with the ownership group for having traded away Monta Ellis, and seemingly having thrown in the towel for the rest of the season.

Chris Mullin and a very angry Rick Barry tried their best to reason with the crowd, but the boos would not stop whenever Lacob took the mic.

After the game, which the Warriors lost to the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves, Lacob and his employees gritted their way through the embarrassment, and tried to spin the whole fiasco in a positive light.

From the Mercury News:

“Obviously, probably has something to do with the recent trade and some of the fans being upset with that,” Lacob said after the game. “But I think that they will love us, the ownership group, that is, when we win. And we will win.”

“I’m not going to let a few boos get me down, and I don’t expect a few boos to get our team down,” Lacob said. “I think everybody has to stay tough, these are tough times, we’re going to go out there and we’re going to compete and we’re going to win. And that’s my job as an owner, too, we’re going to do everything we have to do. Not going to let a few boos stop us. I obviously think whoever was booing is incorrect in their assumptions, but we’ll just let time heal all wounds. Winning will solve all things.”

Right. Good luck with all of that.

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  • bravo

    Lol shudnt have traded ellis than

  • King David

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

  • Jzakoni

    Piss off the fans, and this happens…

  • L Dribble

    Way to ruin the night of one your best players ever. Mullin dealt with it really well, Barry less well. The announcer shouldn’t have made the comment about ‘saving the best till last’ that must have made matters worse. BTW how many players made it into the Hall of Fame before they had their jersey retired???? Isn’t that like getting the Finals MVP and then being voted onto the NBA First Team?

  • http://www.boogiewilliams.com Boing Dynasty

    Holy sh*t, this is the best/worst video ever, put that poor b%stard suicide watch.
    “Hey wait a second, C’mon people…THIS IS A MAN, that ive spent some time talking to”

  • rlz

    Stay classy, Warriors fans.

  • http://www.boogiewilliams.com Boing Dynasty

    “The warriors owners, the current warriors owners urhasdhafkjerOWNERS”

  • http://www.slamonline.com spit hot fiyah

    he looked so sad i started feeling sorry for him. And rick barry has the juice in oakland

  • roman

    Sorry for Mullin, but it was a way the fans got to tell the owner what a f up deal they thought it was. It comes with the territory. Maybe next time he will put a little thought into who he deals. I loved how the owner couldnt finish his speech and then Rick Barry of all people told them to stay classy. Take a look in the mirror sir.

  • MUBWAR

    as a raptors fan this is 1 of the greatest video ever.

  • SMIK

    just disgusting. that is the word. Warriors fans just showed a unsettling truth to small market teams, after this why would any player in there right mind represent and play for this organisation if there cant even be respectable to a Warriors great. shameful.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Slick Ric

    lmao

  • Lloyd

    I started to feel bad for the guy right after he made that noise at 1:34. That’s a noise of a man defeated. Sucks for him, but I can understand the frustration from fans.

  • LA Huey

    They’ll go back to their lives at the end of the day and face the same problems…

  • http://slamonline.com GotHandles?

    OWNED

  • Heals

    I dunno L, given Barry’s reputation I found it equal parts entertaining, unintentionally funny and little sad (show Mully some respect folks)…

  • http://www.dimemag.com Royal

    I heard that his wife is also mad at him for trading Monta….I think she was good friends with Monta’s wife or something.

  • http://www.fullc0urtpress.com KHOLIDAY

    Have a new found respect for Chris Mullin! Definitely handled that well… Rick Barry was on some Gangsta ish tho… You told 20,000 fans to have some class? Surprised he made it through the game and back home safely!

  • http://www.fiba.com Darksaber

    Wow, what a disaster.
    My lady was at this game. Her very 1st Nba game, during her business trip to SF.
    She doesn’t follow the Nba as closely, cause as she says ‘bambi eyes Iverson’ doesn’t play anymore (women, tss) but she found this situation hilarious.
    Some people in her section (and i via I’M) were kind enough to explain the booing and she joined in.
    My wife-to-be keeps just got her Nba arena initiation….big time.

  • Bt

    Explains why the suns haven’t retired any jerseys lately

  • Mike Mihalow

    I thought GS had some of the better fans in sports. Guess not.

  • thetalkingcomb

    Rick Barry was, and always will be, an asshole.

  • BuzzerBeater

    A samurai who never loses does not mean he’s undefeatable; he just picks the right fight.

  • Tempest

    Its like he’s Vince MacMahon when he’s the villian in the WWE!

  • LP

    THE REAL QUESTION: Why are the Warriors JUST NOW retiring Chris Mullin’s number?????? Thats the real reason to boo…

  • shaolin23

    really? Now this?

  • iLL-P

    I still think that the Ellis trade was good for the Warriors. Ellis is very good at what he does, but on a team like the Warriors he was a dead end. He’s trying to be Kobe on a team that isn’t the Lakers. If he didn’t get traded than the Bay Area will have more of the same, hardly making the playoffs and if we do, we’d be lucky to get past the first round. I like the new changes. Sacrifice a losing season anyway now for what will be a loaded guard heavy draft on June. I’m glad that the pieces are moving, it’s about time the Warriors made some changes.

  • shaolin23

    yih, I’b do mvp

  • tomtom

    If you pay ur money you pay for the right to express yourself, end of story. Props to Chris, he knew that he was getting his Hawaii tix so he had to speak up for the guy, haha.

  • Dale Wittig

    It wasn’t just the matter of trading Monta for an injured big-man and throwing in the towel for the season. Lacob also plans to move the team from Oakland to San Francisco. These people who say that they’re all about winning are usually all about making as much money as they can. The Warriors have had the most loyal fan base in the NBA; it was one of the most profitable, year after year, despite all the bad management of the previous owner. The problem with the future is that it doesn’t exist, those players, Steph Curry and Andrew Bogut, may never heal properly. The fans in Oakland have been told to wait until next year. There’s always something to look forward to. Sure. I have to say it did my heart good to see that self satisfied clown get booed off the floor. Chris Mullin didn’t really seem to mind all that much. He’s been around here for some time and knows what his fans are like.

  • http://www.dimemag.com showtime

    No trade doesnt make sense. I like bogut alot but he’s injury prone and in the last three or four season missed chucks of the time. Ellis was exciting to watch because on any given night he gave buckets & highlights. Plus curry is MR. Glass.So now you have 2 injury prone players. Also this year is not guard heavy its Sf and PF heavy .Which makes since because of inconsistance Sf put u were gonna get that pick regardless with ellis.

  • robb

    you have the right to express yourself, I agree, but people should understand this is a business and it’s not easy to make it work.

  • Charles

    Rick Barry=DOUCHE. Fans have a right to boo him!

  • Kablamo

    Well since I wasnt there BBBBOOOOO

  • http://slamonline.com nbk

    Well he did throw the towel on this season. Which is understandable, finishing 10th in the conference is never a good thing. And the Warriors are better. Bogut is clearly a better player then Ellis when he’s healthy. And he is not nearly as un-healthy as people are led to believe, he’s not “injury prone” – his injuries are FREAK injuries, not like Greg Oden or someone like that who has structural issues. Joe Lacob maybe did deserve to be booed for throwing in the towel on the year, but trading Monta Ellis has been the only solution, and the obvious solution for a long long time.

  • L Dribble

    @Dale “Chris Mullin didn’t really seem to mind all that much.” Yeah, I bet he was really happy that the headlines the next day said “Owner booed on Chris Mullin’s night” rather than “5 time All Star Warrior has jersey retired”. Self indulgent fans “paying for the right to express themselves” and to disrespect one of the best shooters that played the game. Classy stuff indeed.

  • riggs

    they were right but that was not the time for it.

  • Groves

    GSW fans are just awful, some of the worst in the NBA

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    The rudeness of booing appears to be decided on a strictly case by case basis.

  • bike

    Lacob was seen later exiting the parking lot on a moped with a nappy wig as disguise.

  • Dale Wittig

    Interesting how the term class keeps coming up. I would say that it does indeed have something to do with class, as in class warfare. And despite what Lacob had to say after the game about Mullin being upset by the booing, Mullin looked pretty well amused at the time. Mullin may have grown up in Brooklyn, but he used to go to the Bronx and Harlem to play. I suspect that he knows pretty well on which side of the class divide he belongs, especially given his treatment by the former management of the Golden State Warriors (some of whom remain in power under the new ownership.) It is most often the obscenely rich who admonish others to stay “classy.”

  • AQWORD

    ^^ WORD ^^ Booo these (unts.

  • Otis

    Bogut’s not injury prone. He’s just been unlucky. There’s a difference.

  • http://www.slamonline.com TADOne

    That was painful.

  • http://slamonline.com The Philosopher

    I love the NBA.
    I love Rick Barry.
    I love Chris Mullin, too.
    BUT, Dominique Wilkins should have had Mullin’s spot on the Dream Team…

  • derby

    wasn’t he french ?

  • http://slamonline.com The Philosopher

    He was born in Paris, yes.
    Figured he’d still be a U.S. citizen, though.
    Maybe he wasn’t.

  • Flight

    On the side note, you really don’t think Chris Mullin can’t afford his own Maui vacation?

  • OTB

    I have new respect for Rick Barry. That needed to be said. Seriously Warriors fans, you can do better.

  • Justin G.

    Philosopher, you must be thinking of 1988 Dominique and not 1992. Plus, with knowing they would probably be playing against a fair bit of zone they needed a shooter. Dominique did not fit that description

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