San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
An amazing team, a winning tradition
The Bay Area sports landscape has become a fullfledged museum, with a little something for every taste. It’s a tribute to character, work ethic and, above all, championships. We sort them out like a veritable deck of cards.
Now that the Warriors have joined the 49ers, Raiders, Giants and A’s in the penthouse of dynasties, it’s safe to say that no other major-sports region in the country can match what San Francisco and Oakland have achieved. Take a moment to soak it all in, and don’t ever become jaded by the sweet regularity of it all. We’re dealing here with a sporting version of the Louvre.
“You ask me to compare
the Warriors’ dynasty to all the others,” said Andy Dolich, the longtime Bay Area sports consultant with executive experience in all the major sports. “It’s like asking, who was the greatest painter? Claude Monet — was he better than Seurat? Hey, that Picasso guy was pretty good.”
Roam the halls of this mythical shrine, and legends come to life: Joe Montana, Ronnie Lott, Kenny Stabler, Reggie Jackson, Madison Bumgarner, so many more, and now Stephen Curry at the heart of a Warriors franchise racking up three titles in four years.
What happened in Cleveland Friday night, a 108-85 victory to complete Golden State’s four-game sweep of the NBA Finals, seemed preordained to some. The connoisseur has a different take, steeped in appreciation. And the Warriors would like to think their story is just beginning.
There’s a ruthless nature to successful big-business ownership. As he crafted a 49ers dynasty that spanned two decades, Eddie DeBartolo wanted to crush everything in his path. The Raiders’ Al Davis was a student of warfare and viewed every Sunday as a venture into battle. Joe Lacob, the Warriors’ principal owner, has that quality about him. He sees no reason why his teams cannot rule into eternity, shifting locale from Oakland to San Francisco (the Chase Center in Mission Bay) in fall 2019 and winning one championship after another.
That’s a wildly ambitious stance, but not a soul shouts him down, for this team is built to last. Kevin Durant, voted the MVP of the last two Finals, has told several sources he intends to turn his impending free agency into a new Warriors contract. Curry and Draymond Green are signed through the summers of 2022 and 2020, respectively. Klay Thompson comes up for free agency in 2019, but has made clear his romance with the franchise. Those sturdy components of the bench, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, are working on multiyear deals.
As daunting as all of that sounds to the rest of the NBA, Lacob and his ownership partner, Peter Guber, are looking well down the road. Just as they shockingly lifted Durant off the free-agent market, they’ll pursue every available superstar that fits the team’s mold — all about sharing, humility and a sense of on-court joy. Ruthless, is what they are. It’s the very essence of sustainability.
“I think we’re similar, in a sense,” said Larry Baer, president of a Giants team that won championships in 2010, 2012 and 2014. “We slipped pretty badly last year, and people wanted us to start over, rebuild the team with young players, probably endure a couple more losing seasons. That’s not how we think. It would be a violation of our DNA.”
High-payroll baseball teams find themselves burdened by a luxury tax, “and we’ve been there three years in a row,” Baer said. “We’ve never been afraid of that. We’re going to go hard every year. A lot of franchises are financially focused, and we certainly want to come out ahead on those measurements. But that’s not how we want to represent ourselves to our fans.”
Stability is a common thread among the great Bay Area teams. Charlie Finley was a notorious cheapskate and a raging eccentric, but as the A’s won three straight World Series from 1972-74, he kept together a core group of stars before eventually selling them off. The 49ers fielded two of the all-time great quarterbacks in Montana and Steve Young. Davis had a roguish, tough-minded bunch of Raiders who embodied the team’s pirate logo. The Giants took a risk, signing many established veterans to longterm deals, but they’re right in the thick of the National League West race.
“Fans love to know who ‘our guys’ are,” Baer said. “They don’t like a lot of transition; they get to know players and view them like family. We want the teenagers of today to talk about Bumgarner, Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, guys who are proven winners, because we’re seeing the long game. Our DNA will always be to win.”
In the long history of Bay Area sporting heroes, there has rarely been a character more lovable than Curry. The Warriors know they’ve hit a roadblock of national skepticism from folks grown weary of the dominance, but that’s a tough argument to run past the thousands of fans who jammed Oracle Arena to watch Games 3 and 4 of the Finals on a big screen — or all those kids decked out in their favorite player’s jersey. How does this team rank among the greatest NBA dynasties? The next target is the Los Angeles Lakers, who won three straight titles (2000-02). Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls did that twice (1991-93, 1996-98). When the Lakers played in Minneapolis, they won five out of six from 194954. And the kingpins, perhaps for all time, are the Boston Celtics with eight in a row (1959-66).
Bob Ryan, the renowned Boston Globe sportswriter, followed those Celtics teams in his youth and has witnessed the entire modern history of the NBA. “So much has changed,” he said this week. “Big centers ruled the league for years; now it’s all about the three-point shot. I mean, it’s an astounding difference, which makes it impossible to compare these Warriors teams to the past.
“I’ll say this, though: They’re the kings of the new era,” said Ryan. “They’re as fun to watch as any team, ever. At the council of greats, they’ve got a seat at the table.”
Until further notice, they aren’t asking for the check.