Housekeeping

And how the Warriors remind me there's no secret sauce

A bit of a break this week because I’m doing an article on yet another fascinating NBA power broker and I’m waiting on a couple interviews. The piece will come out next week and I’m excited for it.

In the meantime, congratulations to the Golden State Warriors on making the NBA Finals again after a couple seasons in the wilderness. It’s a feat that feels normal now that it’s happened, but was unimaginable for much of the pandemic period.

I wrote a book on why the KD/Warriors broke up, where I also tried to answer why the Warriors were so good in the first place. That latter question was so much harder to approach, at least in a digestible way. The short answer to it is that the Warriors Dynasty was this highly unlikely confluence of talents, circumstances, and will. There wasn’t any one philosophy that I could credit for the greatness and sell in a business book for the ages. And trust me, I looked for it, often desperately, in the wee hours. I wanted something like Moneyball, some novel managerial tactic that had unleashed the semi-dormant talents of key actors.

Instead, the reality was complicated and just didn’t lend itself to easy packaging. It mattered that Joe Lacob was a smart owner who gave a shit and it mattered that Steve Kerr was a new coach, with a charismatic approach. But obviously, the most important element was that Steph Curry realized his potential to such a degree that it changed the sport, an outcome nobody could have foreseen early in his career. Something similar would happen on the defensive end with Draymond Green, which was an even more unlikely outcome (Draymond wouldn’t have started in Kerr’s first season if not for an injury to David Lee).

The Warriors’ systems improvements (new ownership, upgrade at coach) helped the team get full potential out of the the talent involved, such as Kerr’s ball movement offense unlocking Klay Thompson. There were lessons there, yes, but you could apply those lessons to other teams and never get anything like the Warriors in a million tries.

I mean, try to follow this path. You simply start with a guy whose elite skill will eventually define league trends, underpay him on a contract because it’s assumed his ankle is fucked, draft spectacularly, hire the ideal coach after hardass Stan Van Gundy spurns you, and boom. Something something Andre Iguodala trade, yadda yadda Kevon Looney’s salvaged career after old-man hip issues, blah blah Jordan Poole starts as one of the worst rookies before going to the G League and becoming an All-Star level talent.

What I’m saying is, so much of what happened from 2014 on was right place, right time and right anchoring superstar. There’s no secret sauce, only an unfathomable amount of ingredients. I’m enjoying this Warriors run because I’ll never see anything like it, ever again, so long as I live. Unless, of course, they make it back next season. See you next week.