Four years ago the Golden State Warriors, the No. 8-seeded team in the 2007 NBA playoffs, shocked the basketball world when it upset heavily favored and No. 1-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round.

Led offensively by the explosive trio of Baron Davis, Jason Richardson and Stephen Jackson, the 2007 Warriors embraced the “We Believe” mantra and treated the fanatic Bay Area faithful with a playoff performance for the ages. Davis, Richardson and Jackson never saw a 3-point shot they didn’t like, and that fearless attitude spread like wildfire on the entire roster. Also on that underdog team were the well-traveled Al Harrington and Matt Barnes, and two young players in second-year guard Monta Ellis and third-year center Andris Biedrins.

The architect of the “We Believe” Warriors was Don Nelson, the “Mad Scientist” who was known for his free-wheeling offense and wacky game plans. Nelson had a leg up on the Mavericks because he knows their personnel very well, having drafted the core of the ’07 Dallas team.

Forward Matt Barnes, who now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, enjoyed his finest hour when he was with the Golden State Warriors in 2007. (GETTY IMAGES)

Golden State won the season series against Dallas during 2006-07, and that template fueled the Warriors to the biggest playoff upset since the 1994 Denver Nuggets shocked the Seattle SuperSonics.

Bay Area sports fans have not been excited about its Warriors since ’07, a magical moment frozen in time it seems in the minds of Warriors fans. There is real optimism this upcoming season – once the lockout ends – because the new-school Warriors have the pieces to push for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.

On Saturday, Nov. 5, at the San Jose Event Center the “We Believe” 2007 Warriors will play in an exhibition game against the current crop of Warriors, featuring young “Dubs” Stephen Curry, David Lee and Dorell Wright and one holdover  from the 2007 squad – Ellis. The game tips off at 6:30 p.m. PST.

Scheduled to participate in the exhibition game and play for the “We Believe” Warriors are Richardson, Harrington and Bay Area native Barnes, the game’s host. A few former Warriors who weren’t on the 2007 team (Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, Anthony Morrow and C.J. Watson) are also tentatively on the program.

Jackson and Davis, the two leaders of the ’07 squad, are not scheduled to appear, although there is still a chance that Davis could make a surprise appearance.

“With the lockout, we’re all thirsty to do something,” Barnes told the San Francisco Examiner. “I got the idea from a friend of mine who’s a promoter in the Bay Area. He approached me about doing an old vs. new Warriors game, and then I thought how it’d be cool to do it with 2007 team. That team is pretty legendary.”

A portion of the proceeds will go to Matt Barnes’ Athletes vs. Cancer Foundation.

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Anthony Tolliver's one-minute video on YouTube has been a huge hit. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

If his basketball career doesn’t work out, Anthony Tolliver could have a future as a Hollywood actor.

Tolliver reenacted LeBron James’ over-the-top ESPN special and titled it “The Decision: Part Deux!!” The video has been viewed by more than 250,000 times on YouTube since he posted it Friday. Tolliver, a third-year forward from Creighton, posted the one-minute video to announce that he chose the Minnesota Timberwolves over the Golden State Warriors, spoofing LeBron’s made-for-TV event earlier this summer when he announced that was going to “take his talents to South Beach.”

Tolliver was the director, producer, screenwriter and star, with some help from his sister, who ran the camera, and his girlfriend, who played the reporter. “I like to have fun with a lot of things and decided to have a little fun with this,” Tolliver told the Associated Press. “I didn’t expect it to do what it did. I’m a fun-loving guy. I like to have fun so that’s why I did it.”

Tolliver said he didn’t intend to make fun of LeBron, and that he was trying to poke fun at himself.

“A lot of people didn’t like ‘The Decision.’ They didn’t really like the whole hour special on ESPN and stuff like that,” said the 6-foot-9 forward, who played 44 games for Golden State last season. “They were like, ‘Good job making fun of LeBron.’ They have no idea. I wasn’t making fun of LeBron. I was just having fun with the situation.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Shaquille O’Neal once called Don Nelson’s coaching style as “clown basketball.” Well, who’s clowning around now, Shaq?

Nelson became the winningest coach in NBA history after his Golden State Warriors defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, April 7. The victory gave Nelson 1,333 victories for his career, surpassing Lenny Wilkens (1,332).

“My idol, Lenny Wilkens, I wished we could have stayed tied forever. I would have been very happy just to stay tied with that guy,” an appreciative Nelson said on NBA TV.

Golden State players showered Nelson with water and soda during a postgame celebration in the locker room. Warriors forward Anthony Tolliver said they didn’t have champagne so they went for the next best thing: Sprite and Mountain Dew.

“He said the other night that he hadn’t had a championship yet, so that was like his championship. So we wanted to make it as special as possible,” Tolliver told NBA.com.

Despite not winning a NBA championship, Nelson should be recognized as one of the top coaches in the Association. He is a basketball innovator and his unconventional ways is what separates him from the rest of his peers. He introduced “small-ball” to the league and was responsible for the invention of the Hack-a-Shaq. And even though Nellie was a bit quirky, he had an amazing eye for talent.

“We’ve never had a championship team but we’ve built good teams. They were solid and we won a lot of games,” said Nelson, one of two coaches with more than 1,000 victories without an NBA title.

“All the players who played for me and all my assistant coaches, they all had something to do with achieving this goal. I give my thanks to them,” Nelson said. “Four different times in my career I inherited a team that won 20 games, so it’s your job to get that team to win. You started at the bottom and you move that team along and eventually, if you’re lucky, you get a chance to build that team and you start winning 40, 50 and sometimes 60 games.

“It’s very difficult to win games in the NBA. I don’t care who you are. There are lot of great players and a lot of great coaches in this league.”

Nelson’s Milwaukee teams in the 1980s won 50 games or more seven times in 11 seasons, led by Marques Johnson, Bob Lanier, Sidney Moncrief, Ricky Pierce and Paul Pressey. It was in Milwaukee where Nelson came up with the unique concept of the point-forward, and Pressey was his prize pupil.

Nellie popularized “small-ball” in Golden State during the late 1980s and early ’90s, putting together a terrific trio in Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin – aka Run TMC.

“I could never figure out why 7-footers couldn’t dribble and why 5-foot-10 guards couldn’t post up. I never saw a reason for that. So I gave everyone the benefit of the doubt. You don’t have to be a traditional player,” Nelson explained the origin of small-ball. “As a coach, you always want your best players on the court as much as you possibly can and when those guys are small, guess what, you better play small-ball or you’re gonna lose a lot of games. That’s been kind of my philosophy.”

When he got to Dallas in 1997, he rebuilt the Mavericks into a playoff team in four seasons by trading for a then unproven point guard in Steve Nash and acquired an 18-year-old prospect from Germany named Dirk Nowitzki in 1998.

Nowitzki is just one of many gems Nelson has scooped up over the years. Hardaway was the 14th overall selection in 1989 out of UTEP and he turned out pretty good. Latrell Sprewell was a relative unknown out of Alabama, but Nellie saw something in the 6-5 guard and selected him with the 24th pick in 1992.

In 2005, Nelson took a chance on a high school guard named Monta Ellis, using a second-round pick on him (40th overall). Five years later, Ellis is considered one of the best lead guards in the league.

Last June, six teams passed on Stephen Curry. Nellie nabbed the former Davidson sharp-shooter and the son of former NBA player Dell Curry with the seventh pick. Stephen Curry is well on his way to being named to the 2010 All-Rookie team.

Like him or not, Don Nelson has his fingerprints all over the NBA and his contributions to the game far outweigh all the clownish things he has been associated with.

Winning 1,333 games is no small feat.

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Apparently, Stephen Jackson is not done talking.

After his much publicized blow-up during an exhibition game earlier this month against the Los Angeles Lakers where he picked up five personal fouls and one technical in less than 10 minutes, the former captain of the Golden State Warriors claims that Kobe Bryant is being allowed to play a certain way that affords him an unfair advantage.

“To beat a dead horse, (Bryant) was just playing dirty,” Jackson told the San Francisco Chronicle. “He was getting favoritism out there. I’m not saying the refs were cheating. I’m not saying that at all. I think he was getting away with stuff that I couldn’t get away with, and I didn’t think it was fair.

“So I reacted on it, and if it happens again, I’m going to react the same way.”

Stephen Jackson, left, is not a big fan of Kobe Bryant these days. (GETTY IMAGES)

Jackson added: “I’m not a fan of Kobe. I’m not somebody who looks up to him. I’m a grown man, so when I go out there and play the game, I play the game. I feel like I’m just as good as him. I might not get the publicity or the notoriety he gets, but I feel like I can play with anybody in the NBA.

“I think everybody should feel like that. Everybody should be a competitor, and I don’t back down from anybody. I’ve never been like that, and I’m not going to start today.”

This makes for an interesting Jackson-Bryant rematch next week when the Warriors play the Lakers again Tuesday in Ontario, Calif.

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Golden State head coach Don Nelson recently suspended forward Stephen Jackson for conduct detrimental to the team after the “stunt” he pulled during a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jackson, who has gone public with his trade demands and has not been discreet about his displeasure with the direction the Warriors are heading, committed five personal fouls and was hit with a technical foul in less than 10 minutes. Jackson voiced his anger at the coaching staff when he was taken out of the game at the 2:50 mark of the quarter. Nelson eventually sent him to the locker room to cool off. Jackson never returned.

This is just the latest in a long line of very poor conduct demonstrated by Jackson. The nine-year vet has a rap sheet that would make T.I. jealous.

Stephen Jackson wants to get traded, but the Warriors are not budging.

In 2004, Commissioner David Stern suspended Jackson for 30 games for his involvement in the Palace Brawl that saw him go up in the stands and threw punches at fans. In 2006, there was a published report that Jackson and three other Indiana Pacers teammates were involved in a heated argument with patrons at Club Rio in Indianapolis. Jackson was punched by one of the patrons and was hit by a car, rolling onto the hood. His injuries were considered minor. Jackson says he fired several gunshots from a 9-mm pistol as an act of self-defense. However, prosecutors later said he fired first. He was charged with a felony count of criminal recklessness. He served a seven game suspension at the beginning of the 2007-08 season.

Jackson said he was upset because the coaches left him in the game despite his foul trouble, and he felt they didn’t stick up for him with the replacement referees.

“I felt like I didn’t get handled right in the game,” Jackson told the San Jose Mercury News. “I know I did what I’m supposed to do, being a man. I’m not going to let Kobe throw elbows at me.

“(Things are) always made out to make me look bad. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t disrespect Coach like that. But I was mad at our staff for not having my back. If I’m going to go out there and bust my (butt) for you, I expect you to have my back.”

Jackson reiterated that all of his frustrations stem from his desire to win and his hope that the organization wants to win as much as he does.

“My whole thing is I want to win,” Jackson said. “They should be able to respect that. I want to win. That’s just me. I’m still going to go out there and play hard and do what I do. But I want to win.”

Rumors are swirling that Jackson prefers a trade that would send him to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The question is, do the Cavaliers want a loose cannon on the team?

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