The reason people watch basketball: in a meaningless game one can still see plays that mere mortals could not perform in a million years.
Today's exhibit: Blake Griffin of the Brooklyn Nets intercepts a Cavaliers throw-in and fires a long behind-the-back pass. The sequence ends in a Kevin Durant dunk from a feed off the backboard.
the highlight of the year - with replays. check this Blake Griffin pass from the above the rim camera. pic.twitter.com/sguHkNIDf9
Like other bandwagon riders, I started following the Golden State Warriors again when they made the playoffs in the 2012-2013 season and had one player, David Lee, named to the All-Star team for the first time in 16 years. Under new head coach Steve Kerr the Warriors won the NBA championship in 2015, lost in the 2016 Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and signed superstar Kevin Durant after the 2016 loss.
Entering the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons, they were prohibitive favorites to win the title and did. Kevin Durant's last committed season was 2018-2019, and, while the Warriors were again the championship favorite, most of the discussion around the NBA water cooler for the past year was about Kevin Durant and other free agents' next teams, changing the balance of power in the league and likely ending the Warriors era.
In Game 6 of the Finals last night, the Toronto Raptors dethroned the Warriors, who, beset by season-ending injuries to Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, refused to make excuses and praised the winners.
Though the final result fell short of pre-season expectations, the Warriors' performance during the playoffs displayed character and drive under great adversity, drive that few suspected was there after five years of continued winning.
Just as the loss in 2016 led to the signing of Kevin Durant and the disruption of the NBA, so will the Raptors' victory, the Warriors' loss, and the injuries to K.D. and Klay cause changes that no one can foresee. No one knows anything, and we find that strangely comforting.
When I see the Golden State Warriors, I think of the Beatles: individual talents who came together to produce magic that will be talked about 50 years after it's gone.
When the Warriors are at their finest, such as the 51-point first quarter against the Nuggets last month, or when they made 24 of 25 shots in the the middle of the Spurs game last week, Warriors basketball is beautiful. All five men are constantly in motion, the ball flits around the court until it finds the open man, and the shot is buried, either from 3-point distance or from above the rim.
But as with the Beatles in the late Sixties, the joy of playing together is dissipating. Superstar forward Kevin Durant didn't sign a long-term contract at the beginning of the season, which will prompt half the teams in the NBA to bid for his services in July. Sports reporters are hectoring him weekly about where he will go, creating cracks in the team's camaraderie. Other key players are also not locked in to long-term contracts and could well leave.
Basketball has made them rich and famous, and without joy it's increasingly tempting to pursue individual goals, whatever they may be.
John, Paul, George, and Ringo went on to varying degrees of success in their subsequent careers, but none achieved the acclaim they had as a group. The young men who comprise the Golden State Warriors have many choices to make and conflicting goals to prioritize in the months ahead.
Not even on their list is the regret they could feel at age 60 if they break up the band too soon. Fans, appreciate them now; sometimes you don't know it's the last performance until it's come and gone.
I thought I was a sports fan, but it's become clear that I'm a front runner, aka bandwagon-jumper (on when my teams are winning, off when they're losing).
I followed the 49ers and Raiders through the 1980's and mid-90's, after which both became perennial losers (the Raiders somehow made it to the 2002 Super Bowl but were blown out 49-21 by the Buccaneers). I didn't regularly watch football again until Jim Harbaugh coached the Niners to three straight Conference championships and one Super Bowl in 2010-2014.
Klay Thompson and fan in 2014
I first went to see the Giants in the Oughts to see Barry Bonds hit home runs in the new AT&T Park. I continued to attend games during the championship runs in 2010, 2012, and 2014 but gave up on the Giants after 2016.
As the football and baseball teams faded, the Golden State Warriors picked up the slack by winning an NBA title in 2015. After losing in the 2016 finals, the Warriors astounded the basketball world by signing Kevin Durant, one of the top-three players in the NBA.
The Warriors were champions in 2017 and 2018 but this year seem to have found another gear. Their two superstars and shoo-in Hall-of-Famers, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, have regained their MVP-level form.
Thompson’s 52 shows what the Warriors can do when they are singularly focused on maximizing their talent on a night-to-night basis, and not taking a long-term view about saving it for the postseason. We aren’t even two full weeks into the NBA season, and we’ve already seen top-level performances from Curry, Durant and Thompson.
The Warriors appear to be fully living up to the hype placed on them in 2016, and at a more sustained level than we’ve seen in the past, at least during the regular season, and certainly never this early. We don’t even need to discuss what that means for the rest of the league. It’s the same as what they feared the moment this team was put together.
Experience has shown that I can't be a fan the entire year; work and family (sigh) have their own demands. Thank you, Warriors,--and 49ers, Raiders, and Giants, too-- for allowing this front-runner to strike the right balance.
Monday morning quarterbacks are saying they've known this would happen since last year's Finals, but winning it all looked far from certain to this non-expert. Stars Iguodala and Curry missed playoff games with injuries, and the mighty Houston Rockets for a while seemed to have their number in the Western Conference finals.
Kevin Durant repeated as Finals MVP.
At the highest level of any sport a "minor" injury or a family issue or jealousy of a teammate or a problem with a coach is like a grain of sand in the gears of a Porsche. The finely tuned engine easily loses its edge and becomes entirely normal. In other words the Warriors are human beings, and nothing is guaranteed.
Just ask Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, or Hillary Clinton.
Warriors superstar Kevin Durant almost single-handedly won Game 3 of the NBA Finals as he scored 43 points in Golden State's 110-102 victory over Cleveland. The Warriors have won the first three games of the Finals.
"Chippiness": "The Cavaliers’ Tristan Thompson challenged [Draymond] Green to a fight after the two engaged in a brief skirmish in the final seconds."
Blunder by Cavalier J.R. Smith in the final seconds of a tie game:
Only good things could happen, and Smith had three obvious options. He could attempt a game-winner, by lofting a quick put-back or dribbling into a turnaround jumper. He could call for timeout and let coach Tyronn Lue draw up a play. Or he could pass out to LeBron James, who had already scored 49 points on Thursday and who had hit two game-winners earlier this postseason.
Instead, J.R. Smith, thinking the Cavs had the lead (according to his coach), dribbled out the remaining seconds, and the Warriors won in overtime.
Overtime.
Great performance by Stephen Curry, who rained in 3-pointers and took it to the rim with balletic grace.
One of the all-time greatest Finals performance by one of the all-time greatest NBA players, LeBron James, who scored 51 points. The Warriors threw everyone at him but couldn't stop him.
Art imitates life. LeBron James is the super-being Thanos, who an army of super-heroes couldn't take down in Avengers: Infinity War.
I’m not saying LeBron James and Thanos are the same person, but have you seen them in the same room together? #StayWokepic.twitter.com/gGKWfcGOE8
This isn’t just a signing, this is a league-shaking coup....
The Warriors have done nothing short of constructing a superteam, and they deserve full credit for the execution of their successful recruiting pitch, which reportedly included owner Joe Lacob, the team’s star players, and even a phone call from Hall of Famer Jerry West. As a result of landing Durant, Golden State’s roster now represents 25% of USA Basketball’s Olympic team and it features two MVPs, two scoring champs, four All-Stars, and four All-NBA selections (all of whom are 28 or younger). The Warriors’ fourth-best player once scored 37 points in a single quarter and their fifth-best player was named Finals MVP. Give me a break.
With all of that in mind, the best-case scenario for this experiment is a word not often spoken in the modern NBA: Dynasty.
The Warriors are not only the 2017 favorites to win the NBA title, but their odds are an unprecedented better-than-even ("the Warriors have a better chance at winning next year's title than the other 29 teams combined").
