The first thing Gregg Popovich told Eric Mussleman about the Golden State Warriors was X-rated.

"USA Basketball had two practices out there at our facility" last summer, the Warriors' first-year coach recalled, "and coach Popovich (an assistant on the U.S. team) comes in. I was in the weight room and he goes 'Change your (bleeping) lights in here. It's too dark.' And we did that. We changed one side. And I went to management and said 'Guys, we can't change half this floor. We have to change everything.' Little things that seem so simple needed to be changed."

	Eric Musselman, left, has the Warriors believing in themselves.

Willy Loman had some tough sales to make in his day, but few could have been as tough as the one that Musselman has in his first NBA head coaching stint. It is an uphill fight, chasing the dust that has become losing out of Golden State's collective hair. Every time you sweep away some of it, more gathers in the corners, in the nooks and crannies of players' minds. And here came Musselman -- quite successful in the CBA, but that's like an out-of-town badge; it doesn't cut much up in the big city. Coming from the assistant's chair in Atlanta, he has had to be the primary agent of change for a franchise that has careened for a decade.

"I grew up in San Diego," the 38-year-old Musselman said, "and the Warriors, when I was growing up, you followed them. You liked them. I don't know if these guys understand that. And our fans are really good. They need to be told if we show a little progress, the fans understand basketball and respect it."

As the first half of the season closes, you'd have to say Golden State has shown a little progress. After a 1-6 start out of the gate, the Warriors have essentially played .500 ball. It's not going to get them to the playoffs, probably, but it's a start. When Golden State beat Washington last week, it raised the Warriors' record to 15-20 after 35 games. That was the fastest the Warriors had won their 15th game of the season in seven years. (In '97, for instance, it took them until game 70 to get win 15, which tells you how bad it's been around there.)

Like his father, the late Bill Musselman, Eric Musselman has rules for his team. Unlike his father, though, Musselman has sought more of a democratic bent. Before training camp, he sent a questionnaire to each player, asking for suggestions on how the team should be run. What should the dress code be on the road? What time should practice start at home? The questionnaire was followed up with phone calls, asking for more input. It gave the players at least some sense that they were employee-owners.

"We brought these rules up based on what they were saying," Musselman said. "Every time we enforced (a) rule, and we talked about it, we told them, 'You guys mentioned last year that you had some guys walking out as practice began with their shoes untied. So now you have to be out here five minutes early, suited up, ready to roll.' I think a lot of them wanted change. Antawn (Jamison) mentioned it early in the year. He said, 'Even though we're losing, coach, keep treating us like you are. You're treating us like winners. We've always been told that we're not winners.' "

Musselman sought more than cosmetic changes to the weight room and a fresh coat of gold paint to replace the dark, depressing blue. He reached out to Rick Barry, the Hall of Famer who has felt estranged from the franchise for years. He had a huge banner put into the practice facility honoring the 1975 championship team, to try and impart to his players that the franchise does have, overall, a storied history. The bobbleheads given out to fans are of former franchise stars like Al Attles and Chris Mullin.

ALDRIDGE'S RANKINGS

THE TOP 10 1. Sacramento 2. Dallas 3. New Jersey 4. Indiana 5. Detroit 6. San Antonio 7. Phoenix 8. Portland 9. Utah 10. Houston THE BOTTOM FIVE 25. Atlanta 26. Miami 27. Chicago 28. Denver 29. Cleveland THE MIDDLE FOURTEEN 11. Boston 12. Philadelphia 13. Minnesota 14. New Orleans 15. Washington 16. L.A. Lakers 17. Seattle 18. Orlando 19. Milwaukee 20. L.A. Clippers 21. New York 22. Memphis 23. Golden State 24. Toronto

None of that would matter if the Warriors didn't win some, and Musselman quickly established a rotation that has had success. Management seemed to believe Jamison was more power forward than small forward, and opted to draft Mike Dunleavy Jr. out of Duke with the third pick overall last spring. It took Musselman about five seconds to conclude that Jamison was a three, incapable of guarding fours on the block. He moved Jamison back to three, inserted second-year forward Troy Murphy at the four (Murphy is currently seventh in the L in rebounding) and has essentially told Dunleavy he's got to wait his turn. And he's turned the ball over to 5-foot-5 Earl Boykins in the fourth quarters of games, with amazing success.

But it was that kind of decisiveness and planning that sold the Warriors on Musselman. He had a binder full of stats and ideas when he interviewed for the job, ideas gleaned from a life in basketball. A general manager and coach at 24 in the CBA with the Florida Beach Dogs, Musselman's coaching record was the second-best in the league's history, behind George Karl's. (Musselman then hired Flip Saunders for Florida's job.) Assistant stints in Minnesota while his father broke in the expansion Wolves and in Orlando got Musselman to Atlanta and Lon Kruger's bench. When he interviewed at Golden State, he also had recommendations from a Who's Who of the pro coaching fraternity, from Chuck Daly to Saunders to Doc Rivers.

He's tried to talk to all his players, including those that don't get any burn. It's something Bill Musselman didn't do much. But Muss 2.0 is the updated version.

"We had Bobby Knight speak with the team," Musselman said. "His message has stuck with us, and we're kind of reinforcing it. It's not going to be about wins and losses this year. It's going to be about changing the culture. It's about having a team that people respect. And the one thing that we talked about in our opening meeting was, will the referees respect us at the end of the year? Will the opposition players, will the media, will the other GMs around the league, will they now think that we are a respected group that plays hard, that competes, that has the will to win and takes the job seriously? I said if we get to that point by the end of the year, then we've made heavy progress."

Brick by brick, they are getting there.

Around the League
The second guard spot behind Jason Kidd on the U.S. Olympic team may come down to Mike Bibby over Allen Iverson. Sources say USA Basketball's selection committee currently is discussing Bibby, Michael Finley, Elton Brand and either Jermaine O'Neal or Pacers teammate Brad Miller as its next group of players for the squad. Kidd, Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady, Tim Duncan and Kobe Bryant are already penciled in. ... Expect Terrell Brandon to make his retirement official next month. The veteran point has just about abandoned any realistic comeback hopes. By waiting until February, he also allows the Wolves to pursue a salary-cap exception that would last until Oct. 1 for half of his salary. If he'd retired during training camp or early in the season, Minnesota would have only had 45 days (as the Knicks did with Antonio McDyess) to use any exception it received for Brandon. The Timberwolves may now intensify their pursuit of Jamal Crawford from the Bulls. ... The Warriors will almost certainly deal Danny Fortson before the deadline; the question is where. Staters deny that they'll deal Fortson to the Great White North for Hakeem Olajuwon, who has retired but is still on Toronto's payroll. Why, you may ask, would the Warriors trade for a player who isn't going to play? Because Olajuwon would come off their payroll in a year and a half, whereas Fortson -- who's not part of Mussleman's rotation -- has four years and $24 million still coming to him after this season. ... Shawn Bradley's metamorphosis into a full-time (well, 26 minutes per game) stopper for the Mavericks is due to his finally dedicating himself in the offseason. Bradley worked out five days a week in Dallas with the Mavs' new strength and conditioning coach, Robert Hackett. Hackett implemented "contrast training" for Bradley, which meant as much sprinting and stretching as lifting. As Bradley is never going to approach Schwarzenegger status muscle-wise, Hackett worked instead on strengthening Bradley's trunk and hips, so that he would be able to get in defensive stance without fatiguing. "He's never going to have 500 pounds on his back," Hackett said. "But he is going to have to squat down, over and over." Bradley sprinted at intervals in the morning before lifting, then did isometric exercises in the afternoon if he wasn't playing. Hackett would have Bradley hold a medicine ball over his head for stretches before putting him through tip and dunk drills. Reason? To make holding a basketball over his head seem easy, so that Bradley wouldn't bring the rock down to waist level when he boards or posts up.

David Aldridge, who covers the NBA for ESPN, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.