Read how the Warriors won their season-opener against the Thunder.
Warriors start final season at Oracle with tough win over Thunder
OAKLAND >> Nearly eight years ago, Steve Kerr laughed at Warriors majority owner Joe Lacob.
Shortly after purchasing the Warriors for $450 million, Lacob proclaimed he would hang a championship banner. Kerr, then a TNT commentator, found it absurd to make a proclamation for an organization that had not won an NBA title since 1975.
“‘Come on, it’s the Warriors!’” Kerr remembered thinking.
Flash forward to the Warriors’ season opener Tuesday, a 108-100 win over the Thunder, when the team handed out championship rings for the third time in four years at Oracle Arena. It all coincided with Kerr taking over as head coach, though he credited Lacob and
star guard Stephen Curry much more.
“When the banner goes up,” Kerr said, “that’s when it hits home.”
But it also hit home that the Warriors had to mark the beginning of another long journey after basking in last year’s trek. Curry led the way with 32 points, and Kevin Durant added 27. Draymond Green pulled down 13 rebounds.
So much for the Warriors talking about how they are much sharper, younger and rested than last year. Unlike last year, the Warriors did not go on a third-quarter blitz. Instead, they allowed them. It might just represent the Warriors’ early hiccups after becom-
ing emotional on ring night.
“You can think you can prepare for it and you think you got all the answers for it,” Green said. “At the end of the day, that night is going to be different. That journey is different.”
Tuesday night played out this way.
The Warriors had members of their past championship teams, including Howie Dallmar Jr. (son of the late Howie Dallmar Sr, of the 1947 team), Jackie Moore (1956), Clifford Ray (1975), Leandro Barbosa (2015), Matt Barnes (2017) and the recently retired David West (2018) attending the ceremony. After each Warriors member shook hands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Lacob and co-owner Peter Guber greeted them with their rings. The players went last since they are the stars. Incidentally, Kevin Durant was named last, which may or may not have been part of the team’s subtle recruiting tactics during his pending free agency.
“The night is about watching that banner go up even more so than receiving the ring,” Kerr said. “The ring is amazing, but it’s gaudy and kind of ridiculous in many ways. It’s awesome to have, but it’s uncomfortable to wear.”
• Draymond Green thinks he’ll
improve his conditioning soon. Here’s how Kerr plans to limit Green’s minutes after playing only three exhibition games with a sore left knee.
“When you look tired,” Kerr told Green, “you’re coming out.”
Therefore, Green joked that “maybe I’ll try to hide it.” Green had missed almost a week’s worth of practices before working on an elliptical bike for eight days leading into the Warriors preseason finale last Friday against the Lakers. He anticipated he will fight fatigue for this week, but no more.
“My conditioning is not where I would like it to be, but it’s basketball. I’ll figure it out, take a break and then get back in there,” Green said. “I wasn’t out for months. It’ll come back pretty quickly.”
• Green is not surprised Paul George re-signed with the Thunder. Lakers fans wished and Thunder fans feared one thing regarding George’s pending free agency once Oklahoma City acquired him last year from Indiana.
“Going into it,” Green said, “you thought this is a one-year rental, and he’s going to the Lakers.”
George’s representatives told the Pacers he wanted to go to the Lakers when he demanded a trade. A year later, George refused to meet with Lakers luminary Magic Johnson, the team’s vice president of basketball operations. Green maintained he “wasn’t surprised at all” partly because of George’s growing relationship with Thunder guard
Russell Westbrook.
“His interaction with Russ and just his whole demeanor,” Green said. “It went from going into ‘I’m here’ to ‘I’m embracing it.’ Once you start embracing it, you can kind of tell where a guy is going to be.”
• Warriors veteran guard Shaun Livingston played against the Thunder and participated in Tuesday’s morning shootaround after missing Monday’s practice with a sore right foot.
• Green filled up his passport this summer with trips to Greece, Israel, Mexico, France and Japan. When he went to an NBA-sanctioned event in Japan, he saw a few signs that he is kind of a big deal there.
First, Green saw “quite a few” of his No. 23 Warriors jersey both in retail stores and on some natives.
“I was shocked,” Green said. “You just never look at yourself how someone else looks at you.”
Second, Green said he felt both flattered and weary about seeing how Japanese fans were committed toward seeing him.
“I was leaving the hotel and I would see somebody ask for an autograph. I would go somewhere else and they would beat me there to and ask for my autograph,” Green said. “‘How do you know where I’m going? And how did you beat me? You were waiting for me when I left.’ That was pretty incredible. It was a little creepy, but it was incredible.”