Warriors owner Joe Lacob attempted to pay tribute to Chris Mullin during the latter’s jersey retirement ceremonies last night, but found himself the targe of verbal abuse from Golden State fans enraged by the recent trade of Monta Ellis. After Rick Barry scolded the paying customers, the San Jose Mercury News’ Tim Kawakami defends Lacob, calling his refusal to run for cover, “stern and determined.”

OK, yes, Lacob probably shouldn’t have chosen that moment to speak; he was again grabbing center stage when it was better left to others, and I believe that led to some of the crowd’s anger.

But Lacob didn’t deserve THAT treatment. He’s not Cohan, and if fans were torturing him for the Monta Ellis trade, he really didn’t deserve that, because it’s a good far-sighted trade.

“I’m not going to let a few boos get me down, and I don’t expect a few boos to get our team down,” Lacob said. “I think everybody has to stay tough, these are tough times, we’re going to go out there and we’re going to compete and we’re going to win.

“And that’s my job as an owner, too, we’re going to do everything we have to do. Not going to let a few boos stop us. I obviously think whoever was booing is incorrect in their assumptions, but we’ll just let time heal all wounds. Winning will solve all things.”