Magical return to Golden glory: Warriors' legacy hits new level
With 6 trips to the NBA Finals in 8 years, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Steve Kerr join elite company, take a permanent place among basketball's greatest teams ever
SAN FRANCISCO >> The Warriors' rise to prominence came in a flash all those years ago.
Golden State's run to the 2015 NBA Finals stunned the sport's establishment and ushered in a new era of basketball in the process.
Many at that moment believed it was just luck, a flash in the pan.
How wrong they were.
The Warriors won three titles amid five consecutive trips to the NBA Finals. How's that for staying power?
Then the Warriors' fall came just as fast as their rise. A 15win season and a play-in tournament loss followed in the two campaigns after the 2019 Finals.
In that dark time, many people thought the golden era of Warriors basketball was over, the team's peak had been reached and its time as contenders was over.
How wrong they were. Did the Warriors' dynasty die during that two-year lull? Think about that, and call this what you want. A continuation?
A restart? A whole new thing? It doesn't really matter what it's called, because it's happening in real time.
Golden State is back atop the Western Conference once again.
So here's a better question to ask amid this return to glory for the Dubs: Which trip to the Finals was more surprising?
Was it the first one, or this one?
There's no clear answer, and that goes to show how magical this era has been.
And who is to say that another banner — or more — won't go up in the new arena built on the successes of this team's dynastic core?
Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and head coach Steve Kerr — a quartet that has never lost a Western Conference playoff series — had an unimpeachable résumé before Thursday night's Western Conference finals clinching win over the Dallas Mavericks. They now have a permanent place at the summit of basketball's Mount
Olympus.
For a core to go to six Finals in eight years and win multiple championships in the process is a clear-cut threshold of greatness, matched only by three other teams in NBA history.
Bill Russell's Boston Celtics, Magic Johnson's Los Angeles Lakers and Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls need to make a bit of room for the Dubs atop the mountain.
And that status of greatness will remain true regardless of what happens in the upcoming NBA Finals, which start Thursday at Chase Center.
For a team that at one point was expected to win the title every year, there's a heavy symbolism in Thursday's win.
This squad once ascended to a point where it was above reproach. It was a juggernaut — nay, a supervillain. One that didn't have use for a full name anymore. No, it became a definite article, known worldwide: The Warriors.
But the last three years — with Thompson sidelined by two catastrophic leg injuries — those Warriors have been just another fallible team trying to once again compete for a title.
There were times when such a concept seemed downright fanciful. One could even argue that was the case heading into this postseason.
Yes, while the Warriors' core might have understood the success of the first five years under Kerr was fleeting and rare, having to live the alternative — sometimes in front of an empty building — gave this core true perspective.
That's why Thursday's win carried a weight that hasn't been seen around the Bay for years. It was catharsis.
“These last couple of years have been difficult with the injuries, the worst record in the league,” Kerr said. “(I'm) really proud of our guys for being resolute … (they were) getting in their work every day on the court, in the training room, knowing that it was the only path back here, and not knowing if we could do it.”
“It's an incredible sense of accomplishment for our group.”
This group, it should be noted, is not just the 10year core. There are some new faces along for this latest ride. Younger faces.
Jordan Poole's emergence was a crucial component to the Warriors returning to title contention. He's 22 years old.
The Warriors played two 19-year-olds, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, in the Western Conference finals. Early draft picks that would not have been available to the Warriors had they never fallen.
The transformation of 27-year-old Andrew Wiggins — arguably the Warriors' playoff MVP this spring — no doubt helps, too.
It all adds to the legacy of Curry & Co. It's a legacy that gives the Warriors a chance to continue this incredible run of form, even as this core fades.
That's not today, though. Not by a long shot.
Even if the Warriors can keep the success going years from now, know that there will never be another group like this one.
For nearly a decade, this Warriors core has boasted the Midas touch, gilding nearly everything they touch. First and foremost, the organization itself — once a laughingstock, now one of the strongest sports brands in the world.
Who else could have done that?
Who else could have created a love affair between a region and a team like the one that exists between the Warriors and the Bay?
This run of success has made it impossible to tell the story of the sport of basketball without mentioning the Golden State Warriors. Without citing the contributions of Curry, Klay, Dray and Kerr.
“It's a beautiful story,” Wiggins said.
One that is, somehow, still being written.