Nellie ready for Warriors' season

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Sep 28, 2007 | by Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Don Nelson settled into a chair at the Golden State Warriors' training complex, adjusted his blue-and-gold polo shirt and heaved a happy sigh.

There's clearly nowhere else the 67-year-old coach would rather be at the start of another NBA season. But Nelson acknowledges he was reluctantly willing to walk away from the once-woeful Warriors this summer over a few million dollars.

Nelson said he would have been just as heartbroken as Warriors fans if he hadn't reached a compromise on his contract stalemate earlier in the month so he could return for the next period in probably the final revitalization project of his career.

"I hate negotiations," said Nelson, whose summer also included legal wrangling over his contract with his previous employer, the Dallas Mavericks.

"They're never fun, but they're necessary, so I was ready to go," he said. "I was hoping for two (guaranteed years), but you don't always get what you want in life, and I felt the right thing to do was accept their terms and come in. I thought it was time for somebody to blink first, and it was me."

Nelson's new deal raised his salary for this season and 2008-09 from $3.1 million to $5.1 million -- but now the final year of his original three-year contract is at the team's option.

WESTHEAD JOINS SONICS: Paul Westhead is leaving the WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury to return to the NBA, accepting an assistant coach job with the Seattle SuperSonics on Thursday. Westhead's move to join the staff of friend P.J. Carlesimo was not unexpected after the Mercury won their first title two weeks ago. The WNBA crown was the second title for the 68-year-old Westhead, who also won the NBA championship in 1980 as a rookie coach with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is the only coach to win titles in both leagues.

CELTICS SIGN BATISTA, JONES: The Boston Celtics have signed center Esteban Batista and swingman Dahntay Jones to round out their training camp roster. The 6-foot-10 Batista, who is from Uruguay, averaged 1.5 points and 2.3 rebounds per game in limited playing time with Atlanta last season. The 24-year-old led last month's FIBA Americas Championship in rebounding with 12.4 per game. Jones, 26, was drafted by the Celtics with the 20th pick in 2003 and immediately sent to Memphis as part of a deal for Marcus Banks. The 6-foot-6 Jones played four years for the Grizzlies, averaging 7.5 points and 2 rebounds per game last season.

KNICKS' BALKMAN OUT: Forward Renaldo Balkman will miss at least four weeks because of a stress reaction in his right ankle, leaving the Knicks without a key reserve just days before the start of training camp. An MRI exam performed this week also revealed a small cartilage injury in the ankle, the team announced Thursday. Balkman will be fitted for a walking boot and will be re-evaluated after resting for four weeks.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS: The owner of the New York Knicks dismissed a top female executive solely in retaliation for accusing head coach Isiah Thomas of boorish behavior and to scare other unhappy employees, a lawyer said Thursday in closing arguments at the sexual harassment trial. Madison Square Garden "completely fabricated its reasons for firing" Anucha Browne Sanders, the plaintiff in the $10 million lawsuit, said her attorney, Anne Vladeck. In their closing arguments, defense lawyers argued Browne Sanders was doomed by her own failure to adapt to an organizational shake up that began with Thomas's hiring in 2004. Vladeck argued the firing was meant "to impose fear in every Garden employee who may want to complain, particularly about a star" and send the message, "You will be attacked on every level: your integrity, character, honesty and competence." The jury was expected to begin deliberations Friday.