Here's the SFGate write-up:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/25/MN9T1D4S4J.DTL&tsp=1
If you've been at sporting events in the Bay Area in the last 40 years, you've probably seen Franklin. He was the dude in The Hat.
Mr. Mieuli's personal mark was made in countless unknowable ways and he had a variety of business interests both in and out of sports. His family owned Navlet's Nursery. But his public life and image were made with the Warriors, first and foremost. If you were lucky, you had some connection to him and his family but, as a Warriors fan, you really didn't need much more than what he gave you on the court. There was no mistaking what he cared about and what he pursued as an owner, and we all know he cared LEGITIMATELY about fan voices. Everyone in the world knows he cared completely about team success regardless of personal profit.
No hyperbole whatsoever here: Warriors Culture has lost a vital soul.
Although the cult of Franklin surely risks some look-the-other-way fancy, at bottom, you'll never find another pro sports owner who revels in joyful absurdity and craps on Big Lie profiteering like Franklin did. The only way to properly remember the man who spent on a champion (mythology in full force now!) for us fans is to continue rallying for the ouster of the profiteering snake oil salesmen wrecking Franklin's fan experience and ours for the last 16+ years. I can't think of a better way to honor his idiosyncratic, infectious style, passion for life, and sheer disregard for the Rules of the Game in corporate stoogery (rich and successful as he was) than to continue tracking the lunatic paranoia of the current Warriors ownership. I mean this in all sincerity.
To that end, Franklin, we miss you terribly already and we hope we get another one like you soon.
Thanks for everything, rest easy. We got this one.
On to the polar opposite ownership culture that still plagues the Warriors:
I've never written anything on Wikipedia, though I understand anyone can. But others have tried to write the People's History of the Golden State Warriors to no avail as evidenced by VERY diligent policing of the Chris Cohan wikipedia page. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Cohan&oldid=357751292
I posted the old version of the page not too long ago:
http://chriscohansucks.blogspot.com/2010/03/chris-cohan-wikipedia-scandal.html
In the last few days, someone tried to re-do the page again and was immediately shot down. This is hysterical bull shit and of course traces back to Flunkster Dude and the fan forum spammers and lurkers still monitoring fan activity as Cohan does NOT sell the team.
So for your viewing pleasure, the recent edits to the still-milquetoast Cohan wikipedia (thin) skin:
1. Christopher J. Cohan is the soon to be EX-owner of the Golden State Warriors NBA. He assumed control of the team in 1995 and has ran the franchise very poorly by taking devoted hard working fans money and in return giving them 13 years of losing seasons and 1 playoff apperance.
2. Christopher J. Cohan is the soon to be EX-owner of the Golden State Warriors NBA. He assumed control of the team in 1995 and has ran the franchise very poorly by taking devoted hard working fans money and in return giving them 13 years of pain and suffering and 1 playoff apperance the 2007 WE BELIEVE team
3. Cohan is frequently listed as one of the worst owners in professional sports.
4. Cohan is frequently listed as one of the worst owners in professional sports and most hated by warrior fans
And the Wiki-Cop response: 15:49, 25 April 2010 Zagalejo (talk | contribs) (1,429 bytes) (just wait until he gets fired (if he gets fired))
All gone.
Strange that our Beloved Owner passes on the same day and I happen to stroll by the Cohan wiki-page. But this is our life as Warriors fans. Deep sadness, inexplicable self-immolation and desperate searching for an answer to the Angel of Death's reign of terror, and ridiculous, possibly inappropriate melding of past pleasure with present agony. There's a Freud joke in here somewhere. Smarter/Smarmier folks can make it. But I'm not ashamed in the least bit. It all connects and Franklin's legacy as a public figure prepared the way for all of this. This is Warriors basketball. It's, apparently, inherently flawed.
Most of us never knew Franklin personally like we'll never know Cohan personally. So in the economy of fandom, we get certain rights to represent our version of these guys and they know they assume the risks attending that wink-nod game with a vastly anonymous fanbase. We rely on them for our quasi-religious/lethargic free time occupants. They rely on us for their... yachts? There are rules in this fan-team economy and Cohan has shit all over all of them.
Mieuli would have let you touch the championship trophy.
The NBA won't even let Cohan into the same room as the trophy.
Cohan won't let you explain the history of his Warriors ownership honestly.
Mieuli would let you say any damn thing you wanted to to his FACE and then he'd buy you another round.
The world lost a trickster and a joker. It sucks.
Keep his spirit alive. Don't be a pansy-ass douche bag.
If you can possibly help it.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Mieuli. Rest in Peace.
Thanks for everything.
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