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Monday, December 27, 2021 SECTION B Paul Farmer . Sports Editor . 427.6926

Report: Green fifth Warrior to enter protocols

tribune content Agency

An already shorthanded Warriors team lost another key player Sunday as forward Draymond Green has reportedly entered the league’s health and safety protocols.

The Athletic first reported that Green entered protocols a day after scoring eight points and adding eight rebounds and 10 assists in the Warriors’ 116-107 victory over the Suns in Phoenix.

Green is the fifth Warriors’ player to be placed in protocols over the last nine days as he joins Jordan Poole, Andrew Wiggins, Damion Lee and Moses Moody. All four players were unavailable for Saturday’s Christmas Day matchup in Phoenix, but head coach Steve Kerr has not indicated whether any players currently in protocols will return for the Warriors’ next game, which is scheduled for Tuesday evening at the Chase Center.

Poole was the first Warriors player to enter protocols ( Dec. 17) and was followed by Wiggins ( Dec. 19), Lee ( Dec. 22), Moody ( Dec. 24) and now Green. The Warriors were also without five members of Kerr’s coaching staff in Phoenix on Saturday as assistants Mike Brown, Chris DeMarco, Leandro Barbosa and Dejan Milojevic are all in health and safety protocols while Kenny Atkinson, who is recovering from a leg injury, has not yet been cleared for travel.

According to NBA rules, a player who tests positive for the coronavirus must isolate until 10 days have passed from that test or the onset of symptoms or until a player tests negative on two PCR tests 24 hours apart.

The Memphis Grizzlies, who played against the Warriors at the Chase Center on Thursday, announced Sunday that forward Dillon Brooks and De’Anthony Melton were placed in health and safety protocols.

Another sign Klay Thompson is nearly back: He’s on the road with Warriors

PHOENIX — The Warriors got a nice little treat Saturday afternoon at Footprint Arena, with a Klay Thompson sighting during warm-ups. The shooting guard’s return after two years of injury recovery is nigh, as signaled by his inclusion on a road trip.

“He’s getting closer and closer,” head coach Steve Kerr said before Golden State’s Christmas Day showdown against the Suns. “It’s great for him to be with the team, get used to the rhythm of the road again. It’s a good sign that he’s here.”

See Warriors, Page B7

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS file

San Francisco Giants’ Buster Posey, center, celebrates with LaMonte Wade Jr., left, after a two-run home run during the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oracle Park, Oct. 8, in San Francisco.

Bay Area’s biggest sports moments of 2021:

Buster Posey, Steph Curry and beyond

Jon Schultz

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Sports returned in full force in 2021 after the pandemic wiped out much of the 2020 calendar, and Bay Area teams and athletes delivered an unforgettable year. Here are 10 of the most memorable moments.

GIANTS’ STUNNING SEASON

A franchise-record 107 wins. Edging the Dodgers in an NL West race in the season finale, then pushing them to five games in the Division Series, only to lose onWilmer Flores’ checked swing that wasn’t. All for a team widely projected to finish third in their division. Two plays embody the Giants’ improbable season: Mike Tauchman’s leaping catch at the Dodger Stadium wall of Albert Pujols’ would-be walk-off homer, andKevin Gausman’sgamewinning, pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the 11th inning against Atlanta.

BUSTER POSEY RETIRES

After sitting out 2020 over Covid concerns, the Giants’ iconic catcher added to his legacy by earning multiple Comeback Player of the Year awards in what would be his final season playing baseball. Posey, at age 34, announced his retirement Nov. 4 to spend more time with family and give his body a break after a career in which he was Rookie of the Year in 2010, NL MVP in 2012, a seven-time All-Star and three-time World Series champion.

STANFORD WOMEN WIN NCAA BASKETBALL TITLE

The Stanford women’s basketball team won its first two national championships in the span of three years. The third would come 29 years later. At the helm for each was Tara VanDerveer, who earlier in the season passed Pat Summitt as the all-time winningest women’s coach. The Cardinal edged Arizona 54-53 for the championship on April 4. Haley Jones, aSanta Cruznative and Archbishop Mitty graduate, was named most outstanding player of the tournament.

‘BRING BACK STANFORD’

After Shane Griffith won Stanford’ssecond-ever wrestling national title on March 20 in a match broadcast onESPN, he pulled a Keep Stanford Wrestling shirt over his all-black singlet to chants of “Bring backStanford!” Griffith became the national face of the movement to reverse the school’s decision to cut the program and 10 other teams after that season. Two months later, Stanford’s administration announced its decision to reinstate the sports.

CURRY STAKES HIS CLAIM

That Stephen Curry is the greatest shooter in the history of the NBA is a notion not many would dispute. But the man himself resisted staking his claim until dethroning Ray Allen for most career 3-pointers alltime. “Now I feel comfortable saying that,” Curry said after passing Allen’s mark of 2,973 onDec. 14in an emotional moment that electrified Madison Square Garden. It capped a calendar year in which he won a scoring title for the 2020-21 season at 32 points per game and passed Wilt Chamberlain(17,783 points) as the franchise’s all-time leading scorer on April 12, when he exploded for 53 points. All this at age 33.

RETURN OF THE FAN

Goodbye, cardboard cutouts. The stark, surreal and somewhat unsettling backdrop to sports would be tossed to the recycling bin and replaced by the real thing. Fans returned to a Bay Area sports venue for the first time on April 2, when 10,436 took in the A’s Opening Night game against the Houston Astros at the Coliseum, which was still hosting a vaccination clinic. As Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler wrote: “In the parking lot: Medicine for the body. Inside the ballpark: Medicine for the soul.” The A’s 8-1 loss would not dull the spirit.

OLYMPIANS MAKE HISTORY

Stanford’sKatie Ledeckyearned her fifth and sixth career individual gold medals inTokyo, giving her more than anyU.S.female athlete, and the most of any female swimmer, in Games history. The U.S. women’s water polo team, buoyed by Bay Areaathletes, beatSpainfor its third consecutive gold medal, earning Stanford’s Maggie Steffens (Danville) and Melissa Seidemann(Walnut Creek) the distinction of the first women to win three water polo golds. Steffens also set the Olympic record for career goals.

DRAFTING TREY LANCE

Trey Lance has received more headlines than snaps in his rookie season after the 49ers drafted him with the third overall pick April 29, all but anointing him as the future of the franchise and setting the stage for a quarterback controversy, no matter how good of a sport Jimmy Garoppoloproved to be about it. The 49ers invested heavily in the dualthreat quarterback from North Dakota State, trading two future firstround picks and a third-rounder to move up in the draft. Head coach Kyle Shanahan stuck with Garoppolo as his starter, despite much clamor for his benching during a 2-4 start.

SANTA CLARA’S 2020 TITLE . . . IN 2021

After playing just seven regularseason games due to the WCC postponing its fall season, the 11th-seeded Broncos women’s soccer team won its first national championship in almost two decades, beating top-seededFlorida Statein penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw onMay 17.Kelsey Turnbowtied it for Santa Clara in the 84th minute, and Izzy D’Aquila made her shootout attempt to seal it at the bubble in Cary, N.C. “This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. It feels so surreal,” Turnbow said of the team’s first title since 2001.

FAREWELL, BOB MELVIN

The last decade-plus inOaklandhas seen many stars flash only to abruptly exit the A’s orbit, but one constant has remained: the guiding force ofBob Melvin. That era ended onOct. 28, when on the manager’s 60th birthday he agreed to join the Padres on a three-year deal. In his 11th season with the A’s, Melvin became the franchise’s winningest manager, passing Tony La Russa’s mark of 798. Melvin departed Oakland with an 853-764 regular-season record, seven winning seasons and six playoff appearances — three ending in the Division Series, three in the wild-card round.

NOT FORGOTTEN • “Parallel paths” entered the Bay Area sports lexicon courtesy of A’s President Dave Kaval. That’s how he described the team’s search for a new ballpark site. It’s “ Howard Terminal or bust” . . . or leave for Las Vegas. The future is uncertain entering 2022, but key votes are on the horizon. • Running back Najee Harris made the next big leap in his football journey, from Antioch High School to Alabama to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The 24th overall pick broke Le’Veon Bell’s franchise rookie record for total yards. • Jalen Lewis, at 16 years old, became the youngest basketball prospect to turn pro in the U.S. when he signed a contract with the new Overtime Elite professional league. He departed Oakland’s Bishop O’Dowd High School for a two-year deal worth a reported $1.2 million to play in the Atlanta-based league. • Three days after playing in Grand Canyon University’s first-ever NCAA Tournament game, Moreau Catholic-Hayward graduate Oscar Frayer died in a March 23 car crash on Interstate 5 near Lodi along with his sister, Andrea Moore, and Caley Bringmann. • Sharks forward Patrick Marleau passed Gordie Howe for the NHL’s all-time record for games played, reaching 1,768 on April 19 in 3-2 shootout loss to the Golden Knights. • Cal alum Collin Morikawa became the second golfer since 1926 to win two majors in eight or fewer starts when he seized the British Open championship July 18. • Stanford’s football team stunned No. 3 Oregon in a 31-24 come-from-behind overtime victory in front of 31,610 spectators at Stanford Stadium – a bright spot amid a bleak 3-9 season. • Serra’s Patrick Walsh and De La Salle’s Justin Alumbaugh engineered an effort to salvage a 2020 football season that otherwise might have been lost to the

Did the 49ers fail to plan what to do if The Plan failed?

Scott oStler

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Maybe the 49ers’ plan all along was to draft Trey Lance for the sole purpose of inspiring Jimmy Garoppolo to have a Super Bowl season.

This theory, which I just made up, is based on coach Kyle Shanahan saying after the draft that Garoppolo is most effective when he’s mad. Some guys need a jolt of creative tension to bring out their full potential.

Maybe that was The Plan, although the 49ers could have achieved the same goal by giving Garoppolo’s parking space to a team intern. They would have saved themselves three first-round draft picks.

Sure, this is a half-baked theory, but at least it would explain a lot of things that are otherwise not being explained by Shanahan or general manager John Lynch.

Starting with draft night, this has been a mystery season for the 49ers, regarding their quarterback situation.

What is The Plan? Is The Plan so mysterious that even Garoppolo and Lance don’t know what it is? Has The Plan changed since it was initially planned? Who planned The Plan?

At least we headscratchers on the outside got some clarity Thursday night, when it became obvious that the Trey Lance Era has begun. Whatever confidence Shanahan might have had in Garoppolo, coming off six pretty darn good games, rode off into the sunset in Nashville.

The party was over before halftime. The 49ers had the ball on their own 33 with 19 seconds left in the half, and two timeouts. They needed about 30 yards to get into field-goal range, but Shanahan, fearing a turnover, had his guys sit on the ball.

That’s Shanahan’s MO as head coach, to go conservative in those end-of-half situations,

ANALYSIS

See 49ers, Page B7

Sharks get some good Covid news, but will likely have to play Coyotes shorthanded

tribune content Agency

The Sharks are preparing as if they’ll play a home game Tuesday night and it appears at least one of their players in the NHL’s Covid-19 protocol, defenseman Brent Burns, will soon be able to rejoin the team.

Coach Bob Boughner is anticipating that Burns will be able to practice with the Sharks on Monday and be available to play Tuesday against the Arizona Coyotes at SAP Center. Burns first entered protocol on Dec. 17.

However, it is unknown when the Sharks’ three other players in protocol – forwards Tomas Hertl, Jonathan Dahlen and Jasper Weatherby – can skate with the team again. Hertl and Dahlen entered protocol on Dec. 21 and Weatherby entered Dec. 22, after he was assigned by the Sharks to the Barracuda.

Boughner said both Hertl and Dahlen are likely going to miss the Sharks’ game with the Coyotes, although symptomatic players – which Burns, Hertl and Dahlen seem to be – can test out of protocol before the end of their 10-day isolation.

Boughner was hopeful that more than one player in protocol could rejoin the team before Tuesday, he still has to plan as if they could be without Hertl and Dahlen for the game against the Coyotes and beyond.

The Sharks recalled forwards Jeffrey Viel and Jayden Halbgewachs from the Barracuda on Sunday and will be bringing up forwards Nick Merkley and Scott Reedy on Monday, Boughner