Warriors embrace platform
It was the on- court story of the NBA calendar year because of how it will resonate throughout the league. Maybe not this season, but it sets up the possibility of another superstar — Anthony Davis? Kevin Durant? Kawhi Leonard? — joining him in Los Angeles next season to restore even more lustre to the Lakers’ brand.
James is already dropping hints that he’d like the Lakers to find a way to add Davis, the freeagent-to-be from New Orleans, while stories pop up almost weekly about this star or that star eyeing the Lakers and the formation of another “Super Team” to take a run at a championship.
But James did more than shift any balance of power on the court by switching franchises. His impact in 2018 went far beyond basketball.
The school he started in his hometown of Akron, Ohio — I Promise — offers tuition, uniforms, meals, transportation and support systems for thirdand fourth-grade students, and will expand to Grades 1 to 8 in 2022.
“For kids in general, all they want to know is that someone cares. And when they walk through that door I hope they know that someone cares,” he said at the opening.
On the court, the year belonged primarily to the Warriors, who beat James and his Cavaliers in the championship series in June — the second title in a row and third in four years for the league’s modern-day dynasty.
With three players — Durant, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson — almost assuredly destined for the hall of fame, Golden State survived a difficult Western Conference final against the Houston Rockets before easily dismantling the Cavaliers. Today’s Warriors may not be as powerful as they were at the end of the 2017-18 season, but to discount their chances for a third straight title would be a mistake.
They, too, have a reach that goes beyond sports and was part of the NBA landscape all year long. From coach Steve Kerr speaking out forcefully on issues ranging from gun control to race relations, to Curry and his statements about the current United States government, to the franchise deciding it wanted nothing to do with a White House visit after the last championship, the Warriors are leaders in so many different ways.
Sports Illustrated made the franchise its 2018 Sportsperson of the Year, as much for off-thecourt contributions to society as on-court success.
“The Warriors — forcefully but civilly — embraced the unique platform afforded them,” the magazine’s editors wrote when making the announcement. “No, they did not change the world and its attendant conflicts and ills, but they did not ignore them either.”
The NBA: more than just basketball.