Golden State

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Golden State Warriors are getting a man of many parts in top draft choice Chris Webber, only some of them readily apparent, despite his menacing stature on a basketball court.Listen to what columnist Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press has to say about the 20-year-old Webber: "In all the time I've written sports, I've very rarely come upon a guy with his sort of thoughtfulness and intelligence, his take on life."He's done endless interviews with black newspapers and TV stations so small they don't even warrant his time.

It's said in politics that timing is everything, that success depends on picking the right time to make one's move. When Barack Obama decided in early 2007 to launch a presidential bid as a freshman U.S. senator at age 45, the naysayers wondered why he was in such a hurry. He proved them wrong. Three decades earlier, another young political comet named Jerry Brown, freshman governor of California at age 38, similarly had reached for the presidency in 1976. However, despite a late-surging campaign, he lost.

LANDOVER -- Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson made a big issue of giving rookies Billy Owens and Victor Alexander their first start, but it was All-NBA forward Chris Mullin and sixth man Sarunas Marciulionis who burned the Washington Bullets XTC last night by combining for 67 points in a 127-119 victory.Mullin led the way with 38, but Marciulionis proved unstoppable in the fourth quarter, as he scored 11 of his 29 points, consistently beating a slower Ledell Eackles for layups.The game was tied at 105 when Mullin and Marciulionis accounted for 11 of the Warriors' next 13 points for a 118-113 lead, and they were never headed in boosting their record to 5-1.It was the third straight loss for the Bullets, who opened with two victories after going through a winless preseason.

TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS MLB Texas@Boston MLB 8 NBA sum. Atlanta vs. San Antonio (T) NBA 7 a.m. Detroit vs. Miami (T) NBA 10 a.m. Chicago vs. Clippers (T) NBA 1 Lakers vs. San Antonio NBA 4 Golden State vs. Phoenix NBA 6 Dallas vs. Washington CSN, NBA 8 Clippers vs. Portland NBA 10 Dallas vs. Washington (T) NBA 1 a.m. Lakers vs. San Antonio (T) NBA 4 a.m. Boys bask 2010 Jordan Brand Classic (T)

Chilling in front of a teammate's locker before a recent home game, Golden State Warriors guard Gilbert Arenas looked the part of a man in complete control of his basketball destiny, which he is. Barring something unforeseen, Arenas is poised after this season to take advantage of a quirk in the NBA's salary cap system that could get him a big payday a lot sooner than most second-year players. For now, Arenas is playing it cool and calm, just waiting for whatever comes. "I don't really think about it," said Arenas.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Washington Bullets turned the ball over enough last night to let the Golden State Warriors play turnabout for a 114-94 victory at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.Nine days earlier, the Bullets had dealt the Warriors their most lopsided loss of the season, 138-111 at the Capital Centre. Eight Bullets scored in double figures in that game; seven Warriors had 12 points or more in this one. Reserve forward Jud Buechler led the winners with a career-high 17 points, and starters Tyrone Hill and Sarunas Marciulionis added 15 each.

WASHINGTON - The tapes Doug Collins had watched of the Golden State Warriors showed a team that reflected the playing personality of its coach, Dave Cowens. In the 10 years he spent with the Boston Celtics, Cowens was one of the best rebounders in the NBA. "If we don't match them on the boards," Collins said an hour before last night's game, "we'll get overrun." The tapes didn't lie, and the Wizards didn't work. It proved to be a difficult combination at the sold-out MCI Center, where the Warriors dominated the boards at both ends and Michael Jordan, showing his age for longer stretches than at any time this season, dominated at neither.

WASHINGTON - Ask Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas if he has tonight's date circled on his calendar and he reflexively spouts the normal athlete cliches about how no one game means any more than another. But then a sly grin slowly crosses his face, and you realize that Arenas, in his first game against the Golden State Warriors since leaving the Bay Area in August for a six-year, $65 million free-agent contract with the Wizards, is going to be a little stoked to meet the Warriors.

HOUSTON -- Joe Smith was talking with his uncle late Thursday in his hotel room about his NBA debut with the Golden State Warriors. It was then that Willie Brown brought up his nephew's last official debut."

OAKLAND, Calif. -- It's an off-day public appearance, and Golden State Warriors forward Joe Smith is able to fulfill most requests: an autograph that an older woman wants for her grandson, a family portrait with a couple and their two children, and the promise to get back to a woman who would like him to make an appearance at her church.When the crowd thins, a woman in her 20s, who had been standing on the fringes, approaches with a wrapped lollipop. Extending her hand she says, softly, "I'll trade you my sucker for yours."

The Washington Wizards' backups were more than enough to eliminate the very sub-.500 Indiana Pacers from the playoff race, 117-110, last night in Washington. Wizards coach Eddie Jordan went to his bench early and often, getting 31 points from Roger Mason, 14 from rookie Nick Young and little resistance from the Pacers' defense. The Wizards, who have won five of six, entered the game with a chance to gain home-court advantage in their coming first-round playoff series against Cleveland.

WASHINGTON -- The reserves for the NBA's Eastern Conference All-Star team will be announced tonight on national television, and Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas did his best last night to make a few people second-guess the decision if he is not selected. Arenas scored 45 points, two shy of his career high, but he needed a season-high 34 points and a career-high 15 rebounds from Caron Butler, as well as some much-needed defense from backup center Michael Ruffin, to help the Wizards beat the Golden State Warriors, 129-124, at MCI Center.

As Americans purchase more and more wine, something else is attracting plenty of eager buyers: California vintners. weeks alone. The trend, analysts say, is being driven in large part by a sharp increase in U.S. wine consumption and the likelihood that consumers' tastes for all sorts of reds and whites will keep growing. "We are seeing a lot of people discovering wine and making it an everyday beverage rather than saving it for special occasions," said Tiziana Mohorovic, an analyst at Adams Beverage Group.

WASHINGTON - As Golden State Warriors teammates during the 2001-2002 season, Antawn Jamison, Larry Hughes and rookie Gilbert Arenas were supposed to turn one of the NBA's perennial doormats into a playoff team. That never happened, and all three went elsewhere. Eventually, elsewhere became the Washington Wizards. Hughes, who was replaced as Golden State's starting point guard by Arenas toward the end of that season, was the first to sign as a free agent with the Wizards in 2002. Arenas, who in his second year with the Warriors was named the league's most improved player on what became the NBA's most improved team, came to Washington before last season after signing a six-year, $65 million contract.

Once Al Attles started hearing about how great the Los Angeles Lakers were and how they were going to make short work of the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals, he knew the Pistons had the Lakers right where they wanted them. That's because Attles, who coached the Golden State Warriors past the Washington Bullets in the 1975 Finals, has heard all that talk before, namely 29 years ago, when the chatter centered on how the heavily favored Bullets would make short order of the Warriors. What happened, of course, was that Golden State swept Washington in four games, in one of the biggest upsets in professional sports history.

WASHINGTON - All it took for the Washington Wizards to halt a five-game losing streak was to reinvent the game on their own terms. Instead of thinking of the game as a contiguous 48-minute unit, the Wizards broke it down into four mini-games, and took three of them, and a 97-79 win over the Golden State Warriors last night. The Wizards (9-21) had been struggling for the past month, winning two of 13 games in December. But a new year, a lineup shuffle and this new approach apparently was enough to break the spell.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- As P. J. Carlesimo approached the microphone at the end of the Golden State Warriors' holiday party for the homeless, it seemed that the club finally -- after two weeks of intense media scrutiny -- was going to get through a public event without hearing about Latrell Sprewell.But seconds after Carlesimo thanked the more than 500 people in attendance, a chant was starting in the back of the room: "Sprewell, Sprewell." Carlesimo later said he didn't hear it. However, it was a sign that the Warriors' scars are far from healed.

BasketballGolden State Warriors -- Released C Steve Johnson (3.8 points in 24 games).SoccerCleveland Crunch -- Named Trevor Dawkins coach, replacing fired Kai Haaskivi.

WASHINGTON - Ask Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas if he has tonight's date circled on his calendar and he reflexively spouts the normal athlete cliches about how no one game means any more than another. But then a sly grin slowly crosses his face, and you realize that Arenas, in his first game against the Golden State Warriors since leaving the Bay Area in August for a six-year, $65 million free-agent contract with the Wizards, is going to be a little stoked to meet the Warriors.