Andrew Bogut endured hostile reception but could now lead Warriors to promised land

THE very bloke they booed in 2012 could be about to help Golden State Warriors to their first NBA title in 40 years. An NBA icon has given an amazing insight.

Andrew Bogut, Dante Cunningham

SO unpopular was Andrew Bogut’s trade to Golden State that it prompted a large section of the Oracle Arena crowd to hijack Chris Mullin’s jersey retirement ceremony and heckle team majority owner Joe Lacob.

Three short years later, that same trade is being credited as the primary reason why the Warriors are positioned to claim their first NBA championship since 1975.

NBA icon Jerry West provided a revealing insight into the anguish suffered by Warriors management in the wake of the 2012 trade that saw popular guard Monta Ellis sent to Milwaukee for Bogut.

During an interview with San Francisco radio station KNBR this week, West — a hall of fame player known as “The Logo” given his silhouette is the centrepiece of the NBA’s world famous logo — spoke in his capacity as a Warriors executive, head consultant and minority owner.

“I remember when this trade was announced and Joe was being introduced, or something, at our game,” West said this week. “Our fans booed him. I called him the next game and I said to him, ‘Joe, I honestly believe that this moment is going to help set this team apart from other teams.

Chris Mullin is a Golden State legend whose jersey retirement ceremony was hijacked by a hostile crowd.

You made a very difficult choice to trade a player who was extremely popular’. But they did not know how good Klay (Thompson) is going to become because they hadn’t seen him play very much. And we needed a player that could anchor our defence in the middle, one of the smartest players in basketball.

“That night, our fans, the ones that booed, they’ll look back and say to themselves, ‘Maybe I don’t know basketball as well as I should’. Bob Myers has hired people there to do a job. Everything has worked really well for us. It’s just one of those things that we feel was an incredible moment for us when we got him. I think if you look at our team right now we’re pretty well balanced. That trade made it possible.”

West reflected on the moment Golden State hero and fellow hall of famer, Rick Barry, took the microphone from Lacob to defend him from the boos that were raining down from the Oracle Arena crowd in the immediate aftermath of the Bogut-for-Ellis trade.

Jerry West rates the trade for Andrew Bogut as a pivotal moment in Golden State’s history.

“Rick is a basketball person, he knows about the game,” West continued. “I think he understood that for us to get better we had to get out of that mode of falling in love with our players because this team was going nowhere the way it was. That trade was a huge moment for us.

“It doesn’t take much to see that you need size in this league to win. You also need players that fit in with what we’re trying to do from an offensive and a defensive perspective. I think if you look at this team, the balance of it ... the number one offensive teams and the number one defensive team, that would not be the case unless that trade had been made.”

Marcus Thompson III, writing in the San Jose Mercury News this week, presented a long list of statistics that demonstrated Bogut’s true value to the Warriors this season.

Aside from the fact Bogut ranked second in the NBA for individual defensive rating this season (95.2), Thompson noted: “the Warriors are now 62-9 with him on the court. That’s a .873 win percentage — which is just shy of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ record win percentage.”

Ethan Sherwood Strauss, writing for ESPN, also presented a long list of statistics detailing Bogut’s impact at both ends of the court this season, including: “+16.6 Net Rating — the Warriors’ net rating (offensive rating minus defensive rating) when Bogut is on the floor. That’s more than double what it is when he’s on the bench and is the top mark among NBA centres this season.”

According to West, the Warriors’ decision to trade Ellis for Bogut is one of the critical factors behind Steph Curry’s evolution into perhaps the most potent offensive threat in the league.

“Steph needed a new running mate and not because Monte Ellis is not an accomplished player,” he said. “He’s a very accomplished player. You have two people who are the same size, who need the ball to be effective. Particularly in Monte’s case, he has the ability to attack the rim, to create thing for himself. (The trade) really freed this team to allow Curry to become what he has become.

Klay Thompson and Andrew Bogut bump bodies after a basket from the big Aussie centre.

“Trades like that are not made unless you know you have a player over there that’s capable of being a terrific player. All of us felt all along that Klay had the ability to shoot shots. I think his defensive play has gotten a lot better. We can switch everywhere with of him, because of his size. It’s just a better fit for Steph.”

Curry, for his part, was effusive in his praise of Bogut following the Warriors’ 4-0 playoff sweep of the New Orleans Pelicans.

“This is a big moment for him,” Curry said. “Obviously, the last two years have not been ideal when it comes to his health. ... You can look at the stat line and make a judgment. But if you’re watching our game, the guy is impacting both ends of the floor. There is a reason he’s doing what he’s doing. He’s been waiting for this a long time.”

Originally published as Andrew Bogut endured hostile reception but could now lead Warriors to promised land