Warriors need one more title for legacy

Championship will help legitimize Golden State’s run.

Legacies are all about championships. Just ask the Atlanta Braves. Or the Buffalo Bills. While the Golden State Warriors may be on the greatest three-year run in NBA history — at least during the regular season — they need another title to solidify their place as one of the best teams ever.

Sorry, one championship just doesn’t cut it.

“We want to redeem ourselves,” Klay Thompson said, remembering that crushing loss to Cleveland in last year’s finals. “It’s a new slate, and we’re chasing that trophy. We want it back oh, so badly.”

The Warriors’ success over the past three regular seasons is unprecedented for the NBA, and is challenged by only a handful of teams in the other major U.S. sports. The NHL’s Montreal Canadiens of the mid-1970s are certainly in the mix. And you can throw in a few teams from the NFL, though having by far the shortest schedule skews those numbers quite a bit.

Back to the NBA, where not even Michael Jordan and all those great Chicago Bulls squads of the 1990s posted an .841 winning percentage over a span of 248 games. That’s what the Splash Brothers & Co. have done, putting up a pair of 67-15 seasons and a record-breaking 73-9 mark a year ago.

Of course, Jordan’s Bulls won six titles over a remarkable eight-year run, and it might’ve been eight-for-eight if Jordan hadn’t decided to take an ill-timed swing (and a miss) at baseball right in the midst of his prime.

When it comes to the dynasty power rankings, the Warriors aren’t close to Chicago.

Maybe they will be someday — Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Thompson are an astonishing accumulation of talent, and all are still in their 20s — but the defending champion Cavaliers have one big edge.

The same edge that Jordan’s Bulls enjoyed over everyone else.

The greatest player in the world.

Like Jordan, LeBron James is capable of almost single-handedly carrying a team to the title. He certainly proved that in last year, willing the Cavaliers back from a 3-1 deficit — the last two victories coming on the road — for a shocking triumph over the record-breaking Warriors.

To its credit, Golden State shook off that defeat with another stellar season, the blow softened not long after Game 7 by the signing of Durant.

So here we go again. If the Warriors get past the wily San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference final, they will likely find King James in their path again.

A daunting challenge indeed.

Both teams cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs, sweeping each series in four straight games. The Warriors have been especially dominant, winning by an average of 16.5 points with all but one game decided by double-digit margins. But Cleveland is right there with them, blowing out Toronto in the second round after four muchtighter wins over Indiana.

James has been nothing short of spectacular, averaging 34.4 points, 9.0 rebounds and 7.1 assists in the postseason.

He’s got his Jordan-like gaze focused squarely on a second straight championship.

The Warriors seem equally determined.

“We’re chasing something. We’re not protecting anything this year,” Curry said. “Obviously we have the best record, but we’re not defending a championship. There’s really no pressure.”

Tony Romo is with CBS, Jay Cutler has a gig at Fox and Colin Kaepernick has moved to New York while still searching for employment. At this time a year ago, all three were No. 1 on the depth chart of NFC teams. They may have little more in common than that they throw footballs righthanded, but there may be one other element that has led to their lifestyle changes. The rookie wage scale. There are any number of ways players associations can negotiate bad deals with sports owners, and the NFLPA has pretty much shown all of them through the years. But nothing that seems quite as well-intentioned and harmless may do as much damage as putting a lid on rookie salaries.

The premise seems reasonable, from a veteran’s viewpoint. Limit what these kids are getting coming into the league, and there is more for me. Sounds great. But it doesn’t work that way.

Running backs have felt the pain for some time. How many teams even want to talk to backs after their initial contract? DeMarco Murray broke Emmitt Smith’s team record in the final year of his rookie deal, and the Cowboys essentially said: “We can go find another.”

You saw how long it took for Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles to land short-term deals this offseason as players near the end of their careers. Well, it’s happening for quarterbacks, too, which brings us back to Romo, Cutler and Kaepernick.

As I indicated, each case is its own. Romo is 37, has barely played in two years and had a punitive contract. That last part was negotiable, though, and still no one really rang the Cowboys’ phone in search of a deal, eventually leading the quarterback to move to the CBS booth alongside Jim Nantz.

Romo’s last full season (2014) was his best in terms of passer rating. The same was true of Jay Cutler in 2015 before missing most of last year. Cutler is three years younger. He can match Romo in arm strength but little else. There are attitude questions. The Bears let him drift away. No one latched on. Cutler landed at Fox.

The primary quarterback moves of this offseason were Mike Glennon to Chicago and Josh McCown to the Jets. Glennon got $18 million guaranteed for a move that now looks like a one-year hold-the-fort plan for rookie Mitch Trubisky. It’s the Bears, so there’s no rational way to explain it, but in quarterback terms, this was not a lot of money. It’s just a lot for Mike Glennon.

McCown got $6 million — or less than safety Barry Church received from Jacksonville — to go to New York. McCown’s deal also sounds like a one-year rental, although it’s hard to say who’s on deck for the Jets.

Blaine Gabbert, who competed with Kaepernick for time in San Francisco, signed with Arizona and caused some outrage from Kaepernick supporters. But Gabbert signed for the league minimum to compete with Drew Stanton for a backup role. Anyone really think that’s the job and the salary Kaepernick is seeking?

Still, it’s clear that paying for veterans of any kind in free agency has lost mass appeal. It’s now mostly the work of desperate teams. There are exceptions, but more teams are stuffing their rosters with players tied to those rookie contracts while sprinkling a few star players with big salaries around them.

That’s one reason Kaepernick remains on the market. He’s eight years younger than Romo and has been to two more NFC championship games than Romo. But his game disappeared when Jim Harbaugh left for Michigan, and last year’s solid passer rating on a bad team paints an enhanced picture of a quarterback in decline. His seven fumbles do not count against that rating.

There has been much discussion of a leaguewide blackballing of Kaepernick and his now-famous national anthem protests, but that suggests a level of collusion that isn’t necessary. Unless he was willing to play for less than McCown — and no one really knows that — there’s no reason to think he should have landed one of these jobs. A quarterback who once excelled in a particular style but has since declined isn’t likely to attract many offers. If a marginal starter also comes with what owners see as baggage off the field — no matter how noble some might view Kaepernick’s convictions — then those conversations with general managers are going to last about five minutes.

Whether you think that’s fair may depend upon where you live. If an owner thinks a particular player is going to alienate a significant number of fans and season-ticket holders, then that player had better seem like he’s bringing an automatic increase in win total to compensate. No one would see Kaepernick in that light.

But in other ways he’s simply paying the same price that Romo and Cutler did this spring. Being a quarterback with a nice track record or a Pro Bowl trip or two on his résumé isn’t what it used to be.