Darting here and there …
–So, it’s going to be a “splashy” press conference for Jon Gruden? So big that even Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson will be coming?
–Won’t Gruden be surprised at the Warriors. The year he left in 2001, they finished 21-61 and Dave Cowens and Brian Winters split the coaching duties.
–Nah, it didn’t make sense that Gruden would be taking an ownership stake in the Raiders. Would you want a piece of Mark Davis’ debt load?
–If Gruden’s coming to coach for 10 years and $100 million as rumored, believe it: He owns this team now, even if it’s not written into the deed.
–Gruden and the Raiders both won their last playoff games in January 2003 — 15 years ago – so it’s a perfect match. Gruden went six seasons in Tampa without a postseason victory after winning the Super Bowl, but he also didn’t have anything remotely close to Derek Carr. Now he just has to find his Carr keys.
–The 49ers play the Raiders at Levi’s Stadium next year, but do you think Kyle Shanahan is worried? Gruden went 1-9 coaching against Kyle’s dad Mike Shanahan, 1-7 with Oakland and 0-2 with Tampa.
–Yikes, that’s even worse than the Pac-12 in bowl games this year (1-8). We didn’t think that was possible.
–So now that we know Gruden’s coming back to Oakland, what about the other Jon Gruden? That would be Deuce Gruden, Chucky’s son, and a strength and conditioning assistant with Washington under his uncle Jay. Heck, let’s make it a Gruden family affair!
–Must-see TV: Gruden doing commentary on the Kansas City-Tennessee playoff in his booth finale. Might as well just openly root for the Titans, Jonny.
–You would hope Jack Del Rio left at least one rotting banana in his otherwise cleaned-out desk for Gruden to discover.
–Sorry, even if the NFL says they complied, the Raiders turned the Rooney Rule into the Mickey Rooney Rule. Or maybe the Mickey Mouse Rule, which is what it has become.
–Thanks, ESPN.com, for virtually guaranteeing a sixth Super Bowl victory by giving the dysfunctional, crumbling, in-fighting New England Patriots a reason to galvanize.
–Completely on board with our Dan Brown: Terrell Owens seemingly a lock for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and not Roger Craig? To hell with the numbers, something’s really off-kilter with that.
–Craig: winner. Owens: whiner.
–We’re all for Steph Curry taking even more time off from the Warriors if he’s going to come back like he has for the last three games. Let’s start with 20 for 36 on 3-pointers, including a game-winner against Dallas and a finishing dagger against Houston. Sick stuff.
–Now keeping track of Warriors’ “Without” Records: Curry 10-3, Kevin Durant 5-1, Draymond Green 6-0, Zaza Pachulia 8-1, Andre Iguodala 5-1, Omri Casspi 4-1, Shaun Livingston 6-1, Patrick McCaw 3-2. So it’s pretty easy to see, as long as the training staff can keep McCaw healthy, they’re in really good shape.
–Klay Thompson? Klay hasn’t missed any games this season, so he’s still at 0-0. We checked last year, though, and in the four games he didn’t play, the Warriors went 1-3. So maybe there’s another guy they need to keep upright.
–Warriors after 39 games the last four seasons under Steve Kerr: 33-6, 36-3, 33-6, 31-8. That totals out to 133-23, or victorious 85.2 percent of the time. Go ahead, laugh out loud like we did.
–It appears Pachulia’s strong connections in the Democratic Republic of Georgia for All-Star voting have abandoned him. Come on, not even in the top 10?
–You can vote for the NBA All-Stars via Amazon Alexa now, only ours keeps wanting to vote for DeMarcus Cousins and she gets all moody when we say no.
–Just what the Giants needed to hear: Lights-out closer Wade Davis is now in their division with Colorado.
–Meanwhile, Gorkys Hernandez is still holding down that starting center field job for the moment. Yo, Bobby?
–The A’s moved their offices from the Coliseum to Jack London Square this week, so they are now much closer to their two least likely ballpark sites, Howard Terminal and Laney College.
–In honor of their 50th anniversary, the A’s are granting free admission to their Tuesday April 17 game against the Chicago White Sox. Last season on April 17, they drew 10,406 against the Rangers, so we’re boldly predicting they might actually double that letting people in for nothing.
–Finally, Auburn beat Alabama and Georgia. Central Florida beat Auburn and also went unbeaten at 13-0. Pretty simple to us, Nick Saban: Knights No. 1!
