Chasing a unique brand of history
Well into the third stage of their NBA dominance, the Warriors carry a different feel this season. Fans are now well accustomed to the penthouse. They’ve come to expect a wildly entertaining show, something you can’t get anywhere else, and when it doesn’t happen — well, it’s just the regular season. It’s no longer such a pressing issue to watch every moment of every game.
Monday evening arrives like a long-awaited film premiere. The Cleveland Cavaliers are in town, riding a four-game winning streak against Steve Kerr’s club dating to last season’s Finals. And it calls into focus the Warriors’ latest flirtation with history.
They’re trying to win an NBA title in unprecedented fashion.
In the league’s long history, no team reached the pinnacle behind three phenomenal outside shooters and only marginal inside presence. Draymond Green is a marvel on the break and people love those lob passes to JaVale McGee, but no: When a big shot is absolutely required, it will come from Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson, almost certainly from 15 feet and beyond.
Plenty of championship teams had unlimited scoring potential, but always with that inside option: Tim Duncan, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin McHale, Kareem AbdulJabbar, Willis Reed. Or maybe there was an inevitability to that do-or-die shot, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant coming quickly to mind.
Figuring out a halfcourt set with three of the greatest shooters the league has ever seen, only rarely even considering a down-low option, minus that vital element of rim protection on defense? Kerr is all by himself in that regard.
Somewhere on Maui, between his fine cigars and a lively card game, Don Nelson can relate. The 1990-91 Warriors played to uproariously jubilant crowds at (what was then called) the Oakland Coliseum Arena with Chris Mullin averaging 25.7 points, Mitch Richmond 23.9 and Tim Hardaway 22.9. Oh, how they fired away without conscience. My, what a show. It’s just that Nelson wasn’t going terribly far with so little presence (Alton Lister and Rod Higgins) around the basket.
The times have changed, and that’s why Monday night’s game bears such special flavor. The Cavaliers think they can rough up the Warriors, play with their instincts, inflict some more self-doubt. They might also get blown off the court by 25 points. Such high intrigue in the brave new world.
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And remember, if you’re a “Millennial,” you won’t really be watching. You’ll be on your phone, leaving the room, doing 18 things at once. Because, you know, you’re a Millennial. And you are all exactly the same person.
Is anyone else getting tired of this stereotype? Appalled by last week’s disgrace in Oklahoma City, where the last 24 seconds of the Thunder-Rockets game took nine minutes to play, Commissioner Adam Silver called for change be-
cause “obviously, people, particularly Millennials, have increasingly short attention spans.”
In reality, the Millennials joined Baby Boomers, children of the Great Depression and the Ben Franklin Fan Club in complete disgust. How about streamlining the replay system, currently a colossal drag? How about no timeouts allowed when the teams come out ofa timeout?
And how about that Millennial who studies a sporting event with undivided attention, drawing fresh and intriguing conclusions? That can’t be right. Must be something amiss with her birth certificate.
The last time the Cavaliers visited Oracle, it was Game 7 of the Finals and a seminal moment for coach Tyronn Lue, only months into the job. As reported by Sports Illustrated, Lue lit into LeBron James during a second-quarter break, telling him, “You’ve got to be better than this! Stop being so passive!” Then Lue repeated those words, in essence, in front of the team at halftime.
LeBron was astonished and furious, but this was the first time he’d really been challenged by a coach — and he loved it. Lue later admitted, “I didn’t really think he was playing that bad. But I used to work for Doc Rivers in Boston, and he told me, ‘I never want to go a Game 7 when the best player is on the other team.’ We had the best player. We needed him to be his best. We had to ride him. And he had to take us home.”
What’s going to change, exactly, if the Kings and DeMarcus Cousins follow through with their planned contract extension through 2023? He’ll torch several games a season with his inexcusable temper tantrums. Free agents won’t want any part of Sacramento. The team won’t accomplish a damn thing, while the sadly overmatched owner and GM, Vivek Ranadive and
Vlade Divac, enjoy some sort of “stability.” Hilarious.
1 It started with a fairly endearing remark from Durant, calling the Knicks’ Kristaps
Porzingis a “unicorn” because he’s a 7-footer who defends, handles the ball and can shoot from anywhere. A unique individual, in other words. But it’s out of control now. It’s unicorn this, unicorn that, and let’s make up the “all-unicorn” team.
Expand your minds, people. Who are the badgers in this league? The wildebeests? And who most resembles the speckled hen?
Not sure, but I think TNT’s
Charles Barkley said, “Come on, man” 118 times on Thursday night’s “Inside the NBA.” Sharp, penetrating analysis at its very finest.