I was peacefully running on the bike path not too many weeks ago when a gaggle of teenagers zipped by me on their bikes and I heard one of them yell, “get going, old man.” I looked all around before I realized they were talking to me.

I did manage to offer a snappy retort that, as I recall, included a stern use of the word “whippersnapper,” before picking up my pace and finishing in a sprint. I didn’t let on that I was completely gassed until I got in the car and didn’t have enough strength to press on the accelerator. But I’m sure those kids will remember me as the second coming of Usain Bolt and not as the dottering old target of their insults.

And so it is with the Golden State Warriors.

When both Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler — two outstanding free throw shooters — left the ball short on their first attempts of the evening my mind immediately went to: This is an old and tired team.

The plodding continued into the second half when Steve Kerr realized that a nap was going to be easier to get for his star players than a win.

They will try and dispose of the thuggish Rockets on Friday night on the Warriors’ own playground. I think what the Rockets did to the Warriors on Wednesday was the big boy version of the kids on the bikes calling me an “old man.”The good news is they won’t leave free throws short on Friday. The rested old legs should still have a sprint in them. I think they’ll close the deal at home.

The bad news is, if they don’t — I think they’ll lose in Houston.

Out of the draft and into the unknown >> I don’t know what it is about the NFL draft that makes me wish it could just simply come and go. Maybe it’s that there’s just something eerily surrounding it that has the feel of flesh peddling in the smarmiest of ways. And yet I fall on my sword here: I keep watching it.

Never, in the history of mankind, have there been more “experts” assembled in one giant room as during the three days of the draft. Everybody knows everything about every player whose name might possibly be called, and everybody who knows everything agrees that the selection that had just been made was wrong. And I’m including the 140,000 “experts” who stood behind the anchor desk for three days booing everybody.

The weekend was highlighted by Mel Kiper, who had strongly made the case that Shedeur Sanders was “clearly” the second-best quarterback in the draft and would be snatched up before the first commercial break on Thursday.

Of course we all now know that Sanders had a watch party somewhere in Dallas that lasted three days before his name was called.

This incensed Kiper who ended his on-camera stint eviscerating the NFL for its 50-year stupidity in evaluating quarterbacks. Kiper, for his part, has spent 35 years largely being wrong on his “sure things”.

I’ve had more than one NFL executive tell me that Mel Kiper is an information collector who often gets “used” by management, agents, and coaches to bloviate information they want other teams to believe.

In the case of Sanders, he is clearly a better talent than a fifth round choice. But, talent is only a part of the equation these days. And when distraction levels reach the same as ability levels, NFL management is quick to say, “give me someone who comes without baggage”.

“We’re not talking about that”

So, let’s talk about that >> Those were the words of Jordon Hudson. If by some strange chance you’re not one of Jordon Hudson’s 91,000 Instagram followers, well I fear there is no longer a reason to live.

Jordon Hudson just happens to be the Chief Operating Officer of Belichick Productions. What, might you ask, is Belichick Productions? Well just ask Bill Belichick. Or, better yet, don’t ask Bill Belichick because he doesn’t know either. In fact there is no Belichick Productions. Except in the mind of Hudson, who is the 24-year-old girlfriend of the 73-year old Belichick.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Belichick and Hudson are entitled to be whatever they choose to be out there in the romantic world. They announced their “togetherness” by posting a picture of themselves, he in fishing gear and she in a mermaid outfit beside him. Nothing wrong with that. My wife wanted to do the same with me until I firmly declared I didn’t feel comfortable in the mermaid’s outfit.

The issue here is that social media savant Hudson wants Belichick to join her in the 21st century. In fact, she insists on it.

Belichick, for his part, leans more Neanderthal than Influencer. So, Hudson has decided to insert herself into every portion of his existence to the point that even he is looked upon as a victim.

Part of Belichick’s new deal at North Carolina includes a clause that Hudson be included in all emails, and that her voice is to be heard on all matters concerning the coach and his football team.

Then on CBS Sunday Morning, Belichick was interviewed to promote his new book on coaching. Hudson sat just off camera. When the interviewer routinely asked how the two had met, the off-camera Hudson said sternly, “we’re not talking about that.”

Mind you, Sunday Morning is a soft and fuzzy kind of show, so the question was innocent and legitimate. It wasn’t an expose. She was promptly tattooed by no less of a bastion of journalism than the New York Post. And others. A lot of others.

That led to HBO cancelling a planned “Hard Knocks” series on Belichick and the North Carolina Tar Heels football team. It seems that the relationship with HBO became untenable when Hudson requested to be “heavily involved in production,” as the COO of Belichick Productions. Which doesn’t exist.

I don’t know Belichick personally and I wish him well in putting together a successful team at UNC. I do, however, have one suggestion as to who might be one of his first cuts.