Steph Curry: Not  an Afterthought Glenn Dickey

 In May 2009 I was invited to a pre-draft meeting with Larry Riley, then the Warriors general manager. I was the only one in the room who was not covering the NBA. The others were either writers or TV commentators specializing in the NBA. Every one of them was convinced that the Warriors would draft Jordan Hill if he was available because they needed a power forward.

I had no opinion, but I wanted to hear what Riley had to say because he'd been a scout before being promoted and had not entirely given up his earlier profession, going on the road to scout the players who might be available when the Warriors drafted 10th.

In the meeting, I was struck by how much Riley talked about Steph Curry. The conventional wisdom at the time was that they didn't need a guard because Monta Ellis was going to be a star -- but Riley just couldn't stop talking about how much he liked Curry. He liked everything about him, including the fact that his father had been an NBA player. Mostly, though, he talked about Curry's skills and how he could become an outstanding point guard in the pros.

The more he talked, the more I became convinced that if Curry were there when the Warriors' pick came up, they would take him. The others in the room, though, were convinced they'd take Hill. In their reports later, they all said that.

When the Warriors' turn came up on draft night, Hill was available but they passed on him to take Curry. Picking next, the Knicks took Hill.

Hill is now with the Los Angeles Lakers, his third team, and they're not happy with him. You know how Curry's career has gone.

The lesson: If you're going into a meeting with a man who knows more than you do, it's smart to listen to what he's saying.

Glenn Dickey is a graduate of UC Berkeley (1958), where he majored in journalism. He was the sports editor of the Daily Californian before joining the San Francisco Chronicle in 1963. He left in 2006 and is currently writing freelance columns for the San Francisco Examiner. Dickey has written 15 books, including team histories of the San Francisco 49ers, San Francisco Giants and Oakland Raiders. He and his wife, Nancy, have been married for 48 years and have one son, Scott, who is married to Sarah (Osowitz). Both are attorneys and live less than a quarter of a mile from Glenn and Nancy in Oakland. 

Visit Glenn at GlennDickey.com.

Baseball's back. I realize a lot of people don't care. To them, sports fans are knuckle draggers who probably also read comic books while chewing gum with their mouths open.

But baseball isn't called "the grand old game" for nothing; it's been a staple of American popular culture since the 19th century. Renowned authors from Ring Lardner to Bernard Malamud to John Updike have sung its praises.

But now let's talk about Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean -- because not many people do anymore. The Hall of Fame pitcher from the Deep South would have been 106 years old this past January. "Ol' Diz" was a tall, rangy right-hander who was discovered on a Texas sandlot. During the Great Depression, an era of fearsome sluggers and high-scoring games, Dean dominated with an unhittable fastball and unshakable self-confidence. Of his cockiness he once said, "It ain't braggin' if you can back it up."

From 1933 to '36, Dean put together four spectacular seasons. He won 30 games in 1934, a feat that has been accomplished only once since. Diz was beaned in the '34 World Series by an infielder's throw while sliding into second base. A newspaper headline the next day said, "X-ray of Dean's Head Shows Nothing."

He went on to become a popular radio and TV sportscaster who visited mayhem upon the language to the delight -- sometimes outrage -- of his listeners.

The St. Louis Board of Education tried to yank Diz off the air. His response: "Let the teachers teach English and I will teach baseball. There is a lot of people in the United States who say 'isn't,' and they ain't eating."

Dean's calculated simplemindedness led to on-air pronouncements such as: "He nonchalantly walks back to the dugout in disgust" and "Don't fail to miss tomorrow's game." Both sentences are variations on his clueless-rube routine: In the first one, he uses "nonchalantly" in place of "slowly" (the logical choice). Since both can mean "unhurriedly," he figures they must be interchangeable. In the second, he makes us all dizzy trying to navigate three negatives ("don't," "fail," "miss") -- whereupon we realize he just told us to miss tomorrow's game!

One of Diz's most infamous butcheries was "He slud into third." Dean vehemently defended "slud"over "slid," insisting the latter "just ain't natural ... 'Slud' is something more than 'slid.' It means sliding with great effort."

In his prime, Diz once said, "I know who's the best pitcher I ever see and it's old Satchel Paige, that big, lanky colored boy." And this: "If Satchel and I were pitching on the same team, we would clinch the pennant by July fourth and go fishing until World Series time." Dean made these statements a decade before African-Americans integrated major-league baseball in 1947. Reading those two quotes, I was heartened by the generosity of spirit peeking out from behind Dean's shroud of buffoonery.

Maybe Ol' Diz knew the score in more ways than one. Later in life he said, "I ain't what I used to be, but who the hell is?" Could that there Shakespeare fella have said it any better?

Tom Stern is a longtime Bay Area writer-editor who is on the staff of the grammar website GrammarBook.com. Tom has also worked for Bay Sports Publishing/Ultimate Sports Guide for over 20 years.

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