Durant understands eventual critical grade of Chip Kelly

Well, our guests in two weeks’ time, give or take a few days when the border guards aren’t on alert, will come either from Denver, Boston, Charlotte or Phoenix. In other words, it’s time to haul out the soiled towels, the surly demeanors, the crummy traffic and the extortionate hotel and restaurant rates.

Yessir, welcome to Super Bowl 50, where the 50 stands for the minimum tip percentage. We’re going to make up the money we didn’t get when the America’s Cup was run here, and we’ll water down every drink we pour until we make our nut.

Sincerely, Mayor Ed Lee and Your San Francisco Chamber Of Commerce.

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In other San Francisco news, the Warriors have pushed back the scheduled opening of their new arena for another year while the lawsuit trying to prevent them from building said arena meanders its way through the courts.

This is a dangerous strategy because it tempts fate in the guise of Riley Curry, properly aged and spoiling for a fight. I mean, I don’t know about you, but she scares the hell out of me, and she’s three.

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In other cute children news, the girl in Charlotte whose image (ick) went viral (ick squared) after she reacted joyfully to Carolina’s Jonathan Stewart handing her the football after he scored the opening touchdown against Seattle Sunday was hounded by those troublesome medioids and admitted proudly that her favorite player remains Luke Kuechly, who gave his post-touchdown football to someone else.

In honesty, when you’re eight, these things are not nearly as complicated as they become when you’re 28. Besides, she got a football. Jonathan Stewart probably plans on giving out more.

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It may be time for Mary Babers Green, the glorious lady who provided Draymond Green, to have a brief chat with her son about him taking the NBA lead in technical fouls (10), which is one more than his number of triple doubles. With 16 comes a suspension, then additional games at 18, 20, et. al. And this is happening without Joey Crawford on active duty.

Not only that, Green has seven more technicals than Matt Barnes, who just got dinged for 35 large for suggesting that violence is a potentially viable leverage point on the night his Memphis Grizzles were playing the New York Knicks and his personal bête noire, Derek Fisher. Barnes only got a flagrant foul in the game, so maybe he is mellowing.

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Heidi Blake and John Templeton of the BBC and BuzzFeed UK did a fairly comprehensive review of match-fixing in tennis that you should read, but the most amazing thing is that the gambling rings involved were found in Russia and Italy. I mean, Russia I get – tennis is big, and so is crime – but Italians? Why aren’t they fixing soccer matches like they used to? Where’s their dignity?

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Erik Horne of The Oklahoman was there when Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder explained that he actually loves the media. Well, likes a bunch of them but can take or leave others.

“I actually do love you guys. If I hated someone I wouldn’t talk to them. I wouldn’t interact with them. I wouldn’t laugh and joke with them. I wouldn’t talk with them about anything other than what you guys ask me. When I disagree, that doesn’t mean that I hate you guys, so . . . my whole deal is to spark a conversation and hopefully we can talk about the topic, or whatever it is at hand we can talk about, and we all can grow from it. That’s my whole deal.

“My whole thing is when I disagree that doesn’t mean I hate you, that just means . . . what you guys really wanted is someone who’s open and honest with you and who’s opinionated and that’s who I am. I haven’t changed, I’m the same person. I just grew as a man. Hopefully you just appreciate it and know that I don’t hate you. That’s a harsh word and my mom never brought me up to be a hater of anyone. I always believe that if I’m open and honest and opinionated that I can grow as a person and hopefully you can learn that’s what I’m about, and hopefully you all can get better. The main goal is to help the fans know the game a little bit more than they know today, so that’s my goal and hopefully that’s your goal instead of getting headlines and clicks. That’s my take on it, that’s the last time I’ll talk about it, but I had something I had to get off my chest. I appreciate it.”

In other words, he’s asked for the right to grow and think and speak like a man. He’ll find that right comes and goes with the team’s record, because everything costs something.

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And finally, Chip Kelly’s opening press conference as the fifth hire in the Jed York Era is still unscheduled, but it will be graded as critically as Jim Tomsula’s, and all of Jim Harbaugh’s, and all of Mike Singletary’s. It’s what we do.

Somewhere, Kevin Durant nods in understanding.