The narrative arc of the Warriors dynasty
And the historical comparison staring us right in the face.
Good morning. Free Brittney Griner. Let’s basketball.
Fortitude, Sandro Botticelli, 1470
The Golden State Warriors are on the verge of returning to the NBA Finals. Should they win on Tuesday, and there’s no reason to believe they will not, the Warriors will enter the Finals having gone 12-3 through the West bracket, having vanquished the two-time reigning MVP, the No. 2 seed and a universally respected generational star on the rise. (I’m talking about Josh Green, of course.) I’m making some sacrifices to the Basketball Gods to beg for a competitive Finals series … but it’s not clear exactly what’s going on in the Eastern Conference right now, so we’ll see. I’ll just say that 16-3 is definitely on the table for the Warriors. And that was not something that appeared to be remotely on the table a few months ago.
This is to say that the Warriors are not just on the verge of being back in the NBA Finals, but they are on the verge of — if they haven’t already — retaking their throne as the undisputed best team in the league. Consider this: playoffs included, the Warriors are 39-11 (.780) when both Stephen Curry and Draymond Green play this season. They only got two games with Klay Thompson during the regular season, but the results have been good in the playoffs with the third classic star of the program in uniform. It’s really hard to beat a team with a healthy Steph and Draymond.
Even last season, considered one of the Warriors’ lost campaigns without Thompson — and rightfully so since Golden State missed the playoffs — the team went 34-24 (.586) in games in which both Curry and Green played. Had that been their winning percentage for the season, they would have been the No. 5 seed instead of subject to the vagaries of the play-in. The biggest differences between last season and this one are that Andrew Wiggins elevated his game on both ends and Jordan Poole evolved into eBay Curry.
Ramona Shelburne, who is great, wrote about the Warriors and their dynasty, and pulled an interesting quote from Green (an interesting quote machine) about why we should consider this Golden State run just an extended edition of what we have already witnessed.
"None of these people really removed us from this space," Green told ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk of the team missing the playoffs the previous two seasons. "Toronto beat us, but no one really came and said, 'All right, the Golden State Warriors' time is up.'"
To be fair to the other teams, they didn’t really have an opportunity to take the belt from the Warriors because the Warriors couldn’t make the playoffs in either season. Had the Warriors’ return to glory come a season earlier, and had Giannis Antetokounmpo crushed Golden State as he did the Suns, would that cheapen the Warriors’ dynastic continuation? It’s best not to lead your brain through that wormhole.
Instead, the comparison I was begging Shelburne to make in her piece was the 1990s Chicago Bulls. Consider it a failure of my imagination to go immediately to that trope. I’m a kid who came of age in the ‘90s; sue me. But the comparison seems obvious: a dominant team rattles off some championships, something happens to knock them off the throne for two years, the stars re-align and the team is back on top in the end.
The Bulls’ dynasty is cleaner, because you have three straight titles in three straight Finals appearances, then Michael Jordan’s retirement for 1.5 years, leading to two successful but not championship seasons, then three more titles in three more Finals appearances, then a final break-up. It’s a terribly clean narrative.
The Warriors are messier, even right now before the denouement. You have the five straight conference championships, but they lose the second Finals appearance, enter the cheat code to help win two more, and then get MFed in the fifth Finals to lose that one. The cheat code get nerfed via Patch #KI-11.21.7. Thompson, a victim of the MFing, misses two-plus years. In Year 1 after The MFing, Curry breaks his hand, which breaks Green’s spirit and causes some roster shuffling. And now finally, after two years irrelevant to the league’s upper echelon, they are back on top and ready to reclaim their throne. It’s really messy, especially compared to the Bulls’ double threepeat. But I would argue it’s a perfectly valid comparison to this point at the equivalent of the 1996 playoffs.
Steph Curry is a year older now (34) than MJ was in that postseason (33), by the way. MJ’s two most important co-stars, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, were also in their early 30s, as are Green and Thompson. The second threepeat Bulls didn’t have a key player as young as Jordan Poole, but Toni Kukoc was the same age as Andrew Wiggins is. If only there were someone on that Bulls team who has a good vantage point on these Warriors and could provide some perspective …
Steph is not MJ (have two modern superstars had more different apparent personalities?), the game is not the same, so on and so forth. I’m just saying that if anyone is having trouble imagining a world in which the Warriors are THE WARRIORS again, we have a pretty excellent example of a dynastic team with an abnormal mid-reign dethroning that marches their way back on top when the causes of that mid-reign dethroning are resolved. This isn’t to say that the Warriors are going to reel off three straight titles, or even three straight conference titles. Maybe they won’t even win this championship.
But considering how incredibly good the Warriors were before the 2019 Finals and all the fall-out that ensued, and how incredibly good they were even before Kevin Durant arrived to twist up the narrative, and how good they look now …
This isn’t a matter of no one taking the throne from the Warriors, this is a matter of the Warriors’ interregnum being over. The kings are back.
(Not the Kings. They are not back.)
Scores
Heat 82, Celtics 102 (Series tied 2-2) — Not much to say here. Jayson Tatum was great. Robert Williams III matters a lot; if you don’t believe me, ask Bam Adebayo. Max Strus might have had the worst box score line of all-time in the conference finals (0/7 FGAs, 3 fouls, -33 in 15 minutes … no rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, points, anything — a 15-minute Snell). The Celtics started the game 18-1 and the closest the game got after that point was 13. With 2 minutes left in the first quarter (twooooooooo minutes … DOS … MINUTOS) the Heat had 4 points (fooooooooooooour points … CUATRO … PUNTOS).
Sparks 76, Aces 104 — Much has rightfully been made about old Aces coach Bill Laimbeer running a retrograde offense that did not respect the three-point explosion, and new coach Becky Hammon changing that perspective immediately. Here’s a factoid for you: the Aces are currently averaging 26 three-point attempts per game. Last season, the Aces never took more than 23 threes in a single game. They took 38 on Monday and buried 18 of them in an easy win.
Schedule
All times Eastern.
Warriors at Mavericks, 9, TNT (GSW leads 3-0)
Wings at Sun, 7
Dream at Mystics, 7
Fever at Sky, 8
Liberty at Lynx, 8
Links
Reggie Bullock was named the winner of the 2022 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar NBA Social Justice Champion award for his work supporting the LGBTQ+ community. He’s a strong advocate for transgender rights and support. Noted newsletterist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar presented the award over Zoom.
Marc Spears reports that Bullock has also bought an island in Belize. Helluva flex.
On Wednesday Brittney Griner’s wife Cherelle will appear in her first interview since BG’s detainment in Russia three months ago. Robin Roberts will have it on GMA.
Bill Oram of The Athletic reports on Slava Medvedenko taking up arms in the defense of Ukraine. ($)
I continue to believe that front office machinations are far more important than the coaching carousel, so the news that the Timberwolves successfully poached Tim Connelly from the Nuggets is legitimately a blockbuster. Connelley’s front office has been spectacular in the draft and he’s done some interesting things in the trade market over the years. (Jury’s out on Aaron Gordon.) The Wolves will likely be active in the trade market this summer, so there’s that. Woj is reporting that an ownership stake is involved in Connelly’s new deal. No word on what’s next for interim Wolves GM Sachin Gupta. It appears Calvin Booth will take the reins in Denver.
All-Defense teams were announced the other day. We should be getting the All-NBA teams before the Warriors-Mavs game.
Katie Heindl on a world in which the Nuggets could be content with where they are.
Marc Stein on why the Lakers, if they really are going to hire one of the three names bandied as finalists, have to choose Darvin Ham. ($) In related news, Juwan Howard has apparently told the Lakers he’s not interested.
6-foot guard Allisha Gray is leading the WNBA in blocks. Definitely one of the more underrated players in the league.
Jeremy Woo on the takeaways from the NBA draft combine.
Alright, that’ll do it. Be excellent to each other.
Reggie Bullock seems like a guy who knows what's important. He's never been a star in the league, but by the time he retires, he'll have made $40-$50 million dollars, and will be able to enjoy his life on a tropical island with his family.
What happened to his sister is truly awful, but his decision to create something positive from it attests to what kind of person he is. All the best to him, his family, and the cause he supports.