Talk:Chris Cohan

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Chris Cohan

Christopher J. Cohan is the current owner of the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. He acquired a 25-percent interest in the team in 1991; in 1995, he became sole owner; he sold 20 percent of the team to four Silicon Valley investors in 2005.

Cohan's tenure as owner of the Warriors has been highlighted with the longest playoff drought of any team in NBA history. From 1994 to 2007, the Warriors did not make the playoffs under Cohan. Under Cohan, the team has had nine head coaches and did not have a winning season until the 2006-2007 season, after Cohan rehired Don Nelson as head coach. The 2006-2007 season was highlighted by one of the most memorable upsets in NBA Playoff history when the eighth-seeded Warriors knocked off the heavily favored top-seed Dallas Mavericks in six games in the first round. The Warriors went on to lose to the Utah Jazz in the second round of the playoffs. Cohan was the guiding force behind a completely refurbished arena in 1997 (now the 19,596-seat ORACLE Arena) and the building of a modern practice facilities in downtown Oakland for the Warriors in 1998. Cohan has been intensely criticized for his unsuccessful ownership.[1]

The NBA granted Cohan and the Warriors the 2000 NBA All-Star Game for the second time since the team moved to Northern California (also 1967). The game was televised in over 290 countries around the world and the weekend was highlighted by Vince Carter's still-popular elbow dunk on All-Star Saturday and by the home crowd booing Cohan during half-time of the All-Star game.

Cohan and his wife established the annual Angela & Christopher Cohan Community Assist Award in 2001. The award is presented annually to the player on the Warriors roster who best embodies ownership's commitment to the community. Cohan and his wife also established the Warriors Foundation 1998. The non-profit foundation is dedicated to positively impacting the communities of Oakland and the greater Bay Area.

In 1989, Cohan made a $2.1 million donation to aid in the construction of a Performing Arts Center in San Luis Obispo, California. The venue, located on the campus of Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, was later named The Christopher Cohan Center.

Prior to purchasing the Warriors, Cohan founded Sonic Communications in 1977. It became one of the largest independently owned cable outlets in the country before he sold it in May 1998.

Cohan graduated from Arizona State University in 1973.

Facts

In 1994 just moments after it was announced that the Warriors traded popular center, Chris Webber, Chris Cohan's truck was stolen from his driveway in broad daylight.

Chris Cohan sued his business partners to gain sole ownership of the Golden State Warriors in 1994. The Warriors were a popular, 50-win team at the time, and soon turned into a nationally ridiculed loser. Not only that, there was a long list of parties dragged into civil courtrooms by "Cohan the Contrarian" which included his stockbroker, life insurance agent, and primary attorney. Hard to believe, but all were longtime friends. One was the best man at Cohan's wedding and another a groomsman. Cohan was sued, too, for failing to pay his bills by his landlord -- the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority,[1]

In 2000, Cohan was booed at the NBA All-Star Game, hosted at the newly refurbished Oracle Arena. At the side of Cohan were NBA Commissioner David Stern and Cohan's own son. Soon after getting booed by his own crowd, Cohan and his wife ran away from their seats to avoid reporters.

In 2005, reports surfaced that Cohan rejected a blockbuster trade for Kobe Bryant and Smush Parker in exchange for Baron Davis, Andris Biedrins, Derek Fisher, and undisclosed draft picks. Reports from inside the organization say Cohan, in response to the rejection of the trade, stated, "What kind of f***ing name is Smush?".

References http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-cohanwarriors101209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/02/10/SP74259.DTLL —Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.121.4.169 (talk) 23:38, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Ok, Continued here. No threat to wikipedia whatsoever, other than the one Zagalejo's behavior represents to wikipedias integrity. My hope is that wikipedia will stop the questionable PR behaviors of its users.

I'm saying that Zagalejo's involvement in the Chris Cohan page constitutes astroturfing, which COULD be illegal depending on how it is being done. I've not passed any personal or legal judgment on Wikipedia at all. My hope is that they will not allow Zagalejo's behavior and I am attempting to pursue the correct avenues by posting on the notice boards.FamilyJoels (talk) 01:07, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Anyone is free to edit Wikipedia, so it is definitely not illegal. If you want to improve the article, feel free to. But if you are only interested in making accusations, I will have no choice but to report you. Please read Civility.— Chris! c / t 00:38, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Anyone except those with a conflict of interest. Zagalejo's behavior on this page has shown a vested interest in a positive representation of Cohan's public image. Others have tried to improve the article, but Zagalejo has edited abusively and with disregard for neutrality. Depending on how this manipulation of the page is done (if there is a connection to the league or the team) it could be considered astroturfing. I'm trying to help protect wikipedia from corporate abuse, not make legal threats against it. Should I really be reported or banned for that? If what is on the page now is staying then my end of this dispute is resolved since it seems that some sort of compromise has been reached.

FamilyJoels (talk) 01:07, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
 * What on earth are you talking about? How is editing on a website even be related to corporate abuse? If you have problems against those issues, go someplace else. Wikipedia is not a right place for that.— Chris! c / t 01:57, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

If you followed Warriors' business practices you would know that they have attempted to influence the public discourse via anonymous representations. Commonly this is referred to as astroturfing. I'm not sure that you understand the conflict that I've articulated so I'll cite the specific incident here:

That was just one of many instances. So I hope that you can understand why there is a certain sensitivity and suspicion to the modes in which Cohan and his product are represented. In the end, I was simply trying to preserve the integrity of wikipedia. Just as many fans got a rude awakening to Wikipedia policy by posting on the Cohan page I suppose the Wikipedia community got a rude awakening to Warriors fan politics.

FamilyJoels (talk) 02:41, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

removing POV tag with no active discussion per Template:POV
I've removed an old neutrality tag from this page that appears to have no active discussion per the instructions at Template:POV:
 * This template is not meant to be a permanent resident on any article. Remove this template whenever:
 * There is consensus on the talkpage or the NPOV Noticeboard that the issue has been resolved
 * It is not clear what the neutrality issue is, and no satisfactory explanation has been given
 * In the absence of any discussion, or if the discussion has become dormant.

Since there's no evidence of ongoing discussion, I'm removing the tag for now. If discussion is continuing and I've failed to see it, however, please feel free to restore the template and continue to address the issues. Thanks to everybody working on this one! -- Khazar2 (talk) 00:14, 30 June 2013 (UTC)