Dubbed Dynasty as a production of iHeartMedia and the NBA.
Good vision was always in my repertoire, my repertoire, my repertoire, my repertoire.
The internet was so worldwide.
You congratulations, missus Principessa.
I love seeing those engagements here.
That's always special.
I'm tired, Jared, I want to go eat a sandwich and this will be in the past.
I could call me tail.
I don't know if I was born for it, but I definitely worked my butt off to get to this point. And I mean, I guess you could say I was born for it. I might go see the swamps or something. I'm trying to catch an alligator.
I don't know, man, I'm not gonna lack a lot.
I just blanked out ball.
To see it in real time.
Oh it's crazy.
That was a collection of quirk from none other than Clay Thompson, the far more eccentric half of the Splash Brothers. I'm Israel Gutierrez and this is dubb Dynasty. Clay's is a unique NBA existence. His jump shot is one to envy, not just for casuals, but even for NBA greats. But it's the second most discussed jump shot on his own
Warriors team. He's considered one of the best two way players of his time because his defensive efforts often matched or surpassed his offensive output, but he'd make just one NBA All Defensive Second Team in his Golden State tenure.
He's largely considered to have been snugged left off the NBA's Greatest seventy five Players of All Time list, Yet he was also fortunate to have played alongside teammates who'd be considered possibly top ten all time, rarely requiring him to carry his team for extended stretches.
If I could do it all over again, I would be Clay. I mean that I want to be Clay. He's got it figured out, just wants to play hoop and have fun and play with his dog. The most low maintenance guy on Earth.
And while he has saved his Warriors team at times and put together some of the more impressive scoring performances basketball has ever seen, Clay has always been arguably the greatest luxury there's ever been in the NBA. He's the second yacht that rarely makes it out of the marine. He's the Rolls Royce Phantom that only rolls out of the garage when family visits. He's a game six. Savor a postgame interview, Jim, He's sixty points in three quarters.
More on that momentary. But when Clay Thompson wasn't even through a championship and another run to the finals was enough, last week left you. The Warriors were still experiencing the rebound effect of losing a three to one lead in the finals to Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was as much as it could be for a team that had just set their regular season winsmark a moment
of international embarrassment. As a result, the Warriors would attempt to woo the biggest free agent available, Kevin Durant, and so far, through a series of sales pitches in the high Faluton Hamptons, the Warriors had at least contributed to the possibility of Durant changing teams. Durant possibly going to Golden State was a topic on ESPN's The Jail with Rachel Nichols, Zach Lowe and Tracy McGrady.
I think he's talented enough to bet on a team to win a championship, to carry our team to a championship. That's the type of talent that he has. Go team up with Chris Paul and Los Angeles, Go team up with you know, Melo and New York.
So I go somewhere where at no.
You team up here, but don't team up there, team up in some places.
And I go to say, team up with a team that hasn't won a championship. I mean that will be more gratifying for filling.
And On our nation's Independence Day twenty sixteen, Durant announced via The Player's Tribune in an article titled My Next Chapter, that he would sign with the Warriors. The article featured a photo of Durant in a white sleeveless T shirt looking off to the right at nothing in particular. It's an image and headline combo that still gets the mean
treatment to this day. In the article, Durant announced his decision to join the Warriors given the level of hatred spewed at Lebron James after he chose to leave his first organization in free agency in twenty ten. Durant made sure to mention his appreciation for the Thunder organization and its fans. Durant wrote, quote, it really pains me to know that I will disappoint so many people with this choice, but I believe I'm doing what I feel is the right thing at this point in my life and my
playing career. It wasn't just thunder fans would feel disappointment. Fans of competition would also the idea that a team that just set the all time wins record for a single season and was just one more win away from also winning the championship just added a player who might be better than anyone else on the roster. It just didn't sit well in the eyes of many. In twenty ten, after Lebron signed with the Heat, Jeff Van Gundy predicted that Heat team that also had Dwayne Wade and Chris
Bosch would break the wins record. The Warriors had already done that and now added an MVP in his absolute pride. The immediate backlash was so strong it felt as if Durant was getting attached from all angles, not just his former teammates.
Team and a the news again coming in moments ago, Kevin Durant heading two the Golden State Warriors.
How are you viewing this move from Durant?
Well, I'm viewing it as the weakest move I've ever seen from a superstar playing as simple.
That's just how I look at it.
It's not that he's leaving Oklahoma City. If you're not happy, then you want to move on and you want to grow as a player, or you know, there's nothing wrong with that. He's one of the top three players in the world. He's a quit essential superstar. He deserves all the credits in the world, but the talent that he possesses.
But the flip side is this.
They were up three to one in the Western Conference finals, not one, not two, but three different times. He was forty eight minutes removed from getting to the NBA Finals by winning the Western Conference three times. He failed, particularly in Game six. And you depart for the team that beat you when you're on the cusp of getting to the finals yourself ultimately winning the championship with a franchise that you've been with since you've come into the NBA, I think it's incredibly weak.
His most famous teammate, Russell Westbrook, did post a response on Instagram that would consolidate the nation's thoughts on Durant into one sweet, patriotic image. Westbrook posted an image of cupcakes decorated for the holiday with the caption Happy Fourth y'all. It turns out another former Durant teammate, Kendrick Perkins, used to call teammates cupcakes if they were playing soft. The cupcake response from Westbrook would be the one Thunder fans
would cling to. From the outside looking in, it was easy to pick sides here. Westbrook was the teammate left behind as Durant left to join the big bad favorites. Even Slater felt the venom from the Thunder fans after he left the Oklahoma to cover the Warriors.
So much of the Durant backlash felt like you're going to the enemy, like the team that really, you know, just kind of slayed you. I think there was a lot of people at the time that really wanted to see Thunder Warriors again the next year. Right, it was like but it also I mean, people in the league viewed it, and I guess you would say the same about the Miami one. But people in the league viewed it like, man, you just ruined the league for the next four years. We know who's gonna win the title.
You're gonna be massive favors. In some ways, they were kind of proven correct.
At this point in our NBA experience, the media and the public had already learned their lesson about critiquing a player's free agency choice too vigorously. The hyperbolic reactions to Lebron James leaving Cleveland for Miami taught us to calm down a little bit when a player simply exerts his own free will and chooses where he wants to work. But there was something especially off put about Durant joining the enemy that defeated him in the most recent playoffs.
Forget about an unfair talent advantage for the Warrior. Amateur psychiatrists everywhere, we're trying to examine Durant's mentality. Why not run it back and try to beat the Warriors after being so close in the conference finals? Was Russell Westbrook really that difficult to play with? What it really satisfied Durant to win a title with this turnkey championship ready team. Rachel Nichols has examined the Durant conversation from every angle.
Upon reflection, she believes Durant's decision isn't a shocking when you look back at the circumstances.
And we all acknowledge it now. And by the way, I happen to like Russell Westbrook. I think he'said a lot of community stuff people don't give him credit for. And I also think the way that he uplifted that Thunder team after Kevin left really reset the course of the franchise and enabled what is happening now, because without that belief he provided for them, I'm not sure that they are what is this in our Year of Our Lord twenty twenty four to twenty five the title contender.
But he can wear on you, man, He can be hard to play with.
And also Kevin in a small market that wasn't maybe naturally the sus from Texas, but maybe wasn't naturally aware and who he saw himself at that stage of being an adult year a lot different at that age seven years into your career than you are when you first came in. And by the way, he started in Seattle and then they go to Oklahoma City and all of that stuff, So I think his decision to leave Oklahoma City is a little separate.
There was one financial detail that allowed for this to even be a conversation. After the NBA signed a new television deal in twenty fourteen, the league was set to experience a spike in revenue beginning in the twenty sixteen offseason, setting up for the largest salary cap increase the league had ever seen. There was an attempt by the league to avoid the big spike and spread out the revenue over multiple years so that more free agents benefit, not
just the twenty sixteen group. That attempt was rejected by the players Association, setting up the possibility of Durant signing with Golden State and setting up seemingly endless debate of should Durant have even considered the Warriors.
Here's Nicholas, I think he was ready to be somewhere fun. Kevin Durant loves basketball. I think if you know Kevin at all, if you followed his career at all, you know he says a lot of the time, I just want a hoop man. And it's easy to take that is a cliche or casually it is the building block of who he is. He will get out there with a basketball and annette wherever he is, he wants to play. He's most comfortable with himself and who he is on
the court. He just wants to play ball man. And it's a little reductive but it's also true, and I think the fact that this team was able to offer him not only a chance at a title and a ring and all the things the public focused on, but the chance to have this sort of environment where basketball was the main thing and it was supposed to be fun.
I think that was really appealing for him. On top of oh yeah, I could finally win a title, Oh yeah, I get to play with Steph, and the fact that Steph behaved in a way that, frankly, we just haven't seen modern superstar and any sport behave. Willing to say to someone who maybe was in some ways, in some ways, in some ways better than him in certain areas, to come onto the team and be at the very least a Coh headliner, I think was remarkable.
This just didn't fit the story arc that we all projected. After the phenomenal twenty sixteen playoffs, the thunder were supposed to get another shot at the Warriors. Lebron was supposed to have ended the Warriors run the same way he stopped Eastern Conference teams from ever starting THEIRS. Teams like the Rockets and Grizzlies were supposed to emerge as true challengers o West, Durant's choice would eliminate all those as possibilities and we would all have to accept the inevitable
Avengers endgame type finale that was to come. Despite the cinematic setup, people hated on Durant for creating leading this offensive genius to be on the defense from the start of his time in Bothen State.
Nothing in this league is easy, and I know it's going to be ups and down throughout a season.
I know we expected to be perfect every single day, but I know that's not realistic.
I think the Warriors were so dominant throughout the twenty sixteen season. I think the fact that Steph Curry felt like a little bit unbreakable and unbeatable, and we just as if you're a fan of any other team, you're thinking, we just went through a decade of Lebron James doing whatever he wanted. I mean, Lebron dismantled what three different organizations in the Eastern Conference in the time that he
was in Cleveland. I mean, you look at the rise and ball of the Boston Celtics at that time, or the Pacers, or we could talk about the Bulls that there's so many teams that the Rafters that he just destroyed, and that the feeling among fans was, way, We're about to go through this all over again, You're kidding me.
I think there was a little bit of that. I think that this sort of radio talk show host narrative of oh wow, you lost, so you're going to go join the winner, and it spoke to this idea of manliness in some way that caught a lot of fire with a lot of people. I think was an ingredient in all of that.
The drama of the season had been removed by this decision, so all the dramatics would be focused on Durant and his free agency choice. The Warriors would also need to adjust their roster to fit Durant. Goneweror Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogitt, Maurice Spates, and Festus A. Zili In were veteran forward David West, rookie Patrick mccau and big man Jajah Peculia.
The veteran center had just experienced his thirteen season in the NBA, but before he was able to join the star studded Warriors, Peculia was just like the rest of us, wondering why Durant made the NBA, possibly the most top heavy it had ever been.
I can tell you how mad I was when Katie signed with the Warriors, already amazing team. I lost to the final in the finals to Clivement, already great team, and guess what breaking breaking news, Katie signs, but I'm gonna. I was so mad. I said, who is going to beat them? I said, this is not fair. I mean my wife, my kids said, Dad, why are you angry? I said, it's not fair. It's not fair. I said, what Katie just signed with? Like, because my mind is like okay, because I was in Dallas. I just had
my career year in Dallas. I really bonded with Dirk and you know Darren Williams and played for coach Carl. I said it was great. I really liked it. But I was free agent and I didn't care about free agency. All I cared about, like why Warriors sign Kevin the Red So two days later, so after being mad and disappointing, frustrated for forty eight hours, my agents called me because
I was free agent, so and he goes Zaza. We've been working together for a pretty good amount of time, and I had a lot of offers for you during your career, but nothing like this.
Peculia had offers from the Trailblazers, Mavericks and of course the Warriors. Suddenly his complaint stopped.
No brainer, that was a lifetime opportunity.
You know, to.
Forget about winning it first, like winning is a huge part, but just to experience, I need to play with the guys. So I just mentioned you know, Steph clay KD Drama and the center spot was open. And but you know, the like they were very open about, like, you know, we want we looking at you as your number one option for us to be a starting center. So I was joking with my friends. Actually I never made an All Star, but hey, there you go. I'm playing with
the all Stars. So four all stars, I say, and right away I told him yes.
Filling out the roster around Durant, the Splash Brothers and Draymond would seem like a relatively easy task, But remember the center position had been held by Andrew Boget the previous few years, a former number one overall pick with defensive player of the year type of ability and a selfless approach that fit right in. Replacing him wouldn't be as easy as taking the first free agent center available.
Peculia's role would be critical, and he recognized that early on as he was adjusting to Golden State's faster style of play.
I never played in this system before, so it was quite adjustment. It took some time for me, a couple of weeks, a couple of months to really keep out with the pace, keep out with you know, the movements. And you know he's not like you know you have windows right, No, like jump ball back and forward, like not only is north and south, also like east to west,
you know, so like ball should have been moving. You could not hold the ball and understand, I mean, well Staff needed a ball right where Clay like where Kad needed the ball right. So all this smolding little things, I think that's the differentiates good and great. And as a starting center, I had to be good. I had to be right on in point and I could have messed it out.
The Warriors thought they were done building the team around the core of Curry, Clay, Draymond Durant and Iguadala, but Agwadala suggested one of his former teammates also be brought on board. JaVale McGhee was on the Mavericks the previous season, just like Jajah Paculia, but he was teammates with Iguadala on the Nuggets team that lost to the Warriors in the twenty fourteen playoffs. Iguadala pushed the Warriors to give the uber athletic seven foot McGee a chance. McGee would
give Golden State a lab option. They didn't quite have a vertical threat in the half court and a big man who runs the floor. Well, it was the first time McGee teamed with Curry, but it wasn't the first impression he had of Steph. That came when Steph debuted one of his signature celebrations against McGee and the Denver Nuggets.
I mean, the only thing that really lingered was, I believe a game against US Denver was the first time he had done a shoot in the corner three and turn around to look at the bench before it goes in. So it was like a spark for his swag to go up one hundred x. And I hate the fact that we were a part of that, or I guess I was a part of that.
Curry with the whisker tree getting in back three on the way, Yes, Sir, turned around two. That was dirty.
My goodness, this dude is ridiculous.
Eight unanswered curry off a drive curry for three cats.
God, Steph Curry from way downtown. There's step three pointer of the night.
And it wouldn't take long for this center with the reputation of being somewhat goofy, to play a very serious role with the loaded dumps.
I feel like I realized that once I started realizing how Draymond played and how he was more of a pass first player but would always have the ball in his hands. So I believe a couple of practices, a couple of preseason games, I'm realizing, like, Okay, he's throwing
the live no matter what. So it was really helping me just with my timing and with my role of knowing, Okay, if he got the ball in his hand, be ready for a live and just dunk the ball and get back down the court and just focus on that because they don't need you shooting breeze, and it needs you posting enough, and it's a whole different type of team or whatever we got going. You got to be great at that certain roles so each person can do what they have to do so that we win this championship.
The team was complete, and all that was left in the regular season was to acclimate Durant to his new teammates and for his new teammates to effectively shield him from the hatred that was to come. That would be at its most intense when Durant played in Oklahoma City for the first time as an opponent, but that wouldn't happen until February. Until then, the team's concerns were minimal. There was perhaps no better display of just how much scoring talent was on this team than on December fifth,
twenty sixteen, in Oracle Arena. That's when Clay Thompson did his best Will Chamberlain impression, scoring sixty points in just twenty nine minutes and three seconds of playing time. It was a game against the Indiana Pacers, who happened to be starting old friend Monte Ellis opposite Thompson. Unlike the game in which Thompson scored thirty seven points in the third quarter, Clay was hot from the beginning of this one.
With so much attention paid to Curry and Durant, Thompson scored an easy seventeen in the first court, all within the flow of the offense, all without much If any dribble can play.
Himself twenty Thompson, your son, he's having a life. Play want to get three quarter?
The events has gone nuts twenty seven for twenty. I'm twelve of sixteen.
Shooting midway through the second period, with the Warriors leading fifty six to thirty nine, Thompson caught a pass from Sean Livigson. While crossing the floor from left to right. He turned over his left shoulder and shot a fading three pointer that landed him in the front of his own bench as the ball switched through the net.
Thirteen not the Warrior run Let's they figured to play next time.
That shot sent the Warrior's bench into a friends It was a celebration just as jubilant as any of the title celebrations. Steph Perry even left the bench momentarily darting to the hallway leading to his locker room, unable to contain his joy. This was based strictly on reaction, one of the happiest moments of this entire Golden State run. The Warriors were coasting and their third option offensively was putting on a scoring display for the Ages. By halftime,
Clay had forty. His last three pointer of the half didn't even draw much of a celebration, just three fingers directed to the floor.
And a bit of a meaning.
And the first halt, and with twenty more points in the third quarter, Thompson had sixty. He left the game with one twenty two remaining in the third quarter and the Warriors leading by thirty five place.
Ray light Top said, warners are having fun clad.
For thy.
Guy's gotta go up to sixty play quarter three sixty sixty for play top set.
Had the Pacers managed to stay close, Clay would have had a chance to reach Kobe's famed eighty one tote. But fittingly, Golden State was just too done, And just to show how much of a sixty point game can truly be a team effort, Clay only needed eleven dribbles for the entire game. I counted fourteen. But whatever, the whole performance, save for one or two difficult shots, was a display of just how well oiled this machine really was. Here was Thompson after the game.
With ros goold On Moude.
It was fun. I was in a great rhythm, took all good shots most part, still.
Miss a few while the threes or what she got back.
But it was a fun night, say the least at halftime.
You had forty points.
Usually at halftime people cool off. How were we able to stay hot in the third quarters.
Not getting caught up and having forty just trying to play every possession like it matters were Bay and.
It did.
I mean, we're trying to build great habits.
Since the turnover ratio tonight was phenomenal, we got to keep that up.
You had sixty and three quarters. What do you think would have happened if you played in the fourth? Who knows? Hopeyah, I don't know.
I don't know.
That's a great question.
Who knows.
Thompson's personality, a laid back approach to life that includes taking his boat to work as often as possible in the Bay Area, was just what this pressure cooker of a team needed. It wasn't just Curry's joyful demeanor that set the tone for the Warriors. It was also Thompson's lovable personality. At this point in the process, Captain Clay, as he was nicknamed, wasn't affected by the extra attention. Kareth Burke had been a Warrior's sideline reporter since twenty seventeen.
She recognized the benefit of Thompson's work life balance fairly earth.
Who could you think of that would leave his house in Tiberan. She would drive a boat to work, park it at this marina and then ride his bike to the arena like he would do Instagram lives. As he was captaining his boat listening to Bob Barley Michael Jackson, like he really liked the old Motown stuff especially, and yeah, he's just out there.
He was like, hey, guys, water's fine today.
Like Clay was always himself, He never changed with the spotlight. Clay was very fortunate that Steph commanded the attention and that Kadi commanded the attention, because Clay is actually, especially during those years, pretty shy. You could see it in the way that he talked to media. He looked down a lot, He stumbled a little bit. He always knew what he wanted to say when it comes to talking pop. But I think he just didn't like the glare of
the attention. As they kept winning championships, there was more and more and more media and more demands on their time, and I could see him retreating into himself a little bit. Yeah, not everybody is a public speaker, and when it comes to Clay, he's a very simple person, and I want to make sure this does not come off as simpleton. He is a very intelligent guy, but he likes three things, basketball, his dog.
And the water.
Guys, that's it.
It doesn't take a lot to make him feel fulfilled. So he was really living this dream and then doing his best to be incognito and left alone with his dog out in the Oakland Hills.
Incognito was impossible, of course, for a player on this highest of profile teams. In fact, the Warriors had become so high profile after the Durant signing, just dealing with the constant pressure of expectations was among the team's biggest challenges. According to ja Jah Peculia, who was experiencing his first year under this scorching spotlight, it took a conversation with Steve Kirk for him to learn how to properly managed overly eager fans in Meetia.
So when I I'm with the Warriors, suddenly my following go on to social media just just started increasing like crazy. It's a good thing, but also there's some bad thing came with it. Suddenly lots of negativity came. We were winning games left and right, nothing was stopping us. We're having good time, fun, smile, highlights, sports centers, top ten, you know, maybe half of us us. You know, so
so many good things are happening. But like with the increase of following, also there was an increase of the negativity. You know, the comments and this and that. So I couldn't share with this anymore. Right, so going home, I would always thinking, I said, hold on, like it really doesn't add up. I don't understand it. Like we playing well, I fit perfectly. I think we're gonna be even better, like you know, once we get into the middle of the season, so you know, and by the playoffs and
you know, most likely we're gonna win the championship. We stay healthy. I don't understand why so much negativity. So one day, Coach Kirk calls me after the practice. Everything was going just fine. But that's all Coach, I don't understand why so much negativity around it. Like we're playing good and I think I'm doing whatever you asked me to do, Like you know, I'm pretty good with my role.
Everything is going fine. I don't understand why so much negativity around and he goes, who is your head coach? I said, you are? What about assistant coaches? I said, well, Mike Brown, Ron Adams, you know, Q Jaron Collins stay around. I mean, because there was up right after the practice, so still a whole team and you know, the whole staff was there. And he goes, how about your teammates? I said, where are you trying to go with this?
I said, well, Steph is shooting half court shots clays like making ten in a row, thro from three's, Draymond is beating up someone over in the dgotic corner. Katie is working on his mid moves.
You know.
I say, like this, that's how my teammates and he goes, exactly, that's what matters the most, you know. So that was such an important moment, you know, in my life. Driving back home, I say, you know what, He's so right.
It was Kerr's most challenging job keeping together a group that had so many possible distractions, but on a team this loaded, he had the added challenge of making sure
the stars were engaged on a nightly basis. Also, with this established a winning formula, even Kevin Durant can fade into the background on occasion in his first Warrior season, Durant would often say as much that he was just hooping, figuring out where he fits and occasionally picking his spots to be a killer, like in the fifth game of the season, his first again his old team, when he had thirty nine seven three pointers.
West books past foot off by prittolia. There's purry behind a boy. Yes, they are all join us in an Olklahoma center.
It's putting up prick golf Ran pulls it off. He is a quiet.
That's ridiculous.
Welcome the Golden Steak.
Or his second game against his former team, which happened to be his best game of the season, when he had forty twelve rebounds and three blocks.
Durrect for three access fifth to the game and a forty point outing season high for Kevin.
D'lan book goose by the way, We're an Oak. It was quite the contrast to the start of Lebron James's tenure in Miami, when he infamously bumped into head coach Eric Spolster early in the season and was tossing hints that he wanted pat Riley back on the bench for Steve Kerr. This was as close to basketball nirvana as there could be, and he happened to be the director of it all.
So we would wrap up practice and I would go to the side of the court and at one end was Staff going through his routine. At the other end was Kevin going through his routine. And you know, it's like we're watching Mozart and Bach, you know, at the exact same time composed music. He was stunning. These are the guys who, you know, the most talented people in the world at what they do and maybe of all time.
And I got to witness that day after day. So I just admired Kevin's his work ethic, but how much he would zen out within the work. You know, you could see how much it meant to him, even if he didn't talk about it a whole lot, who's a pretty private guy. You could just see how much the game meant to him. And it was It was beautiful. It was mesmerizing to watching more.
And by the time the Warriors did face the Thunder and Durant's old stomping ground of Oklahoma City, the team was forty five and eight and Durant had already experienced the awkwardness of playing against his former teammates and coach. The game began with the expected level of hatred, as thunder fans wore t shirts with cupcakes on calling back to Westbrook's post after Durant's free agency decision thirty five Kevin Duran. Durant would effectively silence all of them, scoring
thirty four points on fifty seven percent shooting. The Warriors won easily, one thirty one fourteen.
Durant Way Downtown sign Kevin Durant drills a three pointer.
Westbrook did have forty seven points with eleven rebounds and eight assists in what would be his MVP season and his first averaging a triple double, but he also had eleven turners. Durant talked with Lisa Salters after the game.
Now, you said you thought that you were going to get food, but actually hearing it, seeing the cupcake signs, hearing the fans that used.
To cheer you, What was that like for you?
I actually go to a bit a little louder, But you know it was fun. You know, I was on the other side of it, you know, So to become one of these guys now whenever Brewy.
Was kind of fun.
So, you know, I got ambrasing it.
That's all I can do and keep playing my game, and keep preparing away up a fair and enjoy every game as well.
So you know it was fun.
Now, you and Russell seemed to exchange words.
At one point you were had to haggard with Andrey robertson what were your former team makes, saying to you, I don't remember. So once again, none of the players exchanged how MUDs or anything like that?
Does that mean something to you at all?
To this point, the projections were proving true. The Warriors wouldn't face much resistance. How could there be any real suffering if Durant and Curry were in uniform every game, well, there was always friendly pile. When Jasha Paculia crashed into Durant early in a February twenty eighth game in Washington, d C. Near Durant's hometown, it would result in a Grade two MCL sprain that kept Durant sidelines for more than a month. He'd return with a few games remaining
in the regular season. In the nineteen games he missed, the Warriors went fifteen to four, including a three game losing streak and a thirteen game winning streak. The viewing audience would take that Warrior's success without Durant has further evidence that Golden State never needed him to begin with. Durant also missed two games in the warriors first round sweep of the Portland Trailblazers. Curry averaged thirty in that series,
including forty two percent from three point range. The Warriors won by an average of eighteen points in that seek a.
Waller the Blazers one twelve O three.
Golden State with the four games close out.
Over the Portland Trailblazers.
In the next round, with a healthy squad, the Warriors swept Gordon Hayward, Rudy Gobert and the Utah Jazz.
The Golden State Warriors, I've swept the Utah Jazz.
Another great round.
Everybody contributive what we do and looking forward to what's a compace spot.
This is probably as good a time as any to mention the Warriors were doing most of this without Steve Kerr on the sideline. The complications from his back surgery so bad Kerr missed eleven playoff games, with Mike Brown serving as acting head coach. JaVale McGee said Kerr's absence, which lasted until Game two of the NBA Finals was a clear source of motivation.
It was definitely sad to seeing him in pain and not being able to do what he loved with his coach. He definitely gave us some inspiration though, knowing that he's out here fighting real life things as in back pain and if anybody knows back paint, No, Joe, I don't care if it's serve you back pain or you've been golfing for eighteen holes back man.
Back pain was old Joe.
So the fact that he had to sit out that really pushed us to Okay, we to this receivee just in case he didn't come back, just because he's been leading us this whole time and going through where he's going through, but not letting that way for him from being a great coach.
Waiting for Mike Brown and the Warriors in the Conference finals was a San Antonio Spurs team that looked quite different than it did the last time these two teams met postseason. Gone was Tim Duncan. Unavailable was Tony Parker, who'd gotten hurt in the previous series. Still, the Spurs were riding big brother vibes when it came to the Warriors. They were the last Western Conference team Golden State lost to in the postseason. They even blew out the Warriors
in Kd's Golden State debut to start the year. They'd replaced Duncan with LaMarcus Aldridge, who'd come over as a free agent from Portland, and Kawhi Leonard had fully developed into a superstar, coming off two consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards and finishing second to Steph Curry an MVP voting in twenty sixteen. Danny Green was on the Spurs for the twenty thirteen playoff series and would face Golden State three more times in the playoffs before his
career ended. Green said those revamped Spurs didn't view the Warriors the way the rest of the league did.
I'll approached Pop always keep kidding and just me being young, being competitive. It didn't matter who was where. We always they were vulnerable or they had vulnerable spots, and nobody was invincible to us. You know, Pop was like, I don't see Michael out there. I don't see Larry and Robert part you know, I don't see you know that team.
Those they're good, but they're not These guys Boston back into the Lakers back in the day, He's like, or Michael Jordan was Chicago Bulls, They're not that good, So we was put it in our minds like they're beautiful.
To this point in the postseason, the Warriors hadn't lost a game. No team in NBA history has gone undefeated throughout a championship. Golden State had a real opportunity to be the first, or at least that was the discussion around this group that had won all but one of its first eight playoff games by double figures. The Spurs weren't trying to hear any of them. It's behind a dominant Kawhi Leonard. San Antonio led Game one by as
many as twenty three points in the third quarter. The Warriors shot just thirty four percent in the first half, and Leonard looked like the best player on the floor.
Curry comes up with the steel, crows it, Leonard with the ball, drives and finishes.
Leonard gets away.
Drives eight side and finishes again. Leonard fake screen, goes fort Leonard drives, look up, oh, he floats to the rim using the left hand.
If we were to pause time and examine the NBA at this very moment, Kawhi Leonard could actually stake the claim as the best player in the league. He had already won a Finals MVP in his third year, largely because of defense he played against Lebron James. He'd been given the reins to the Spurs and had led this team to sixty one wins. Leonard was the perfect foil for these Warriors, given that he could defend anyone on Gordon State, but was also becoming an efficient offensive threat.
In essence, Kawhi was just as devastating as Lebron had been the previous two finals, and in the opener of the Western Conference Finals, Leonard was giving the Warriors PTSD. Danny Green had beaten the Warriors in the playoffs before he knew that team was questioning itself, maybe for the first time since coming together.
We were hooping first half, who were killing LaMarcus was playing well, like there's some games like we weren't sure how well he's gonna be offensively, defensively, like if.
He's gonna get rhythm.
He's trying to find his rhythm, and him and Kawhi were trying to figure it out. He was bawlin him and Kawhi were in attend I'm going to like two man game was working well and they were in good rhythm. I didn't wasn't scoring a bunch, but I hit two shot like we were up good at half. It was like okay.
You could see it in their face.
You could see it in Katie's face, like damn, I came here and I don't know if this is gonna work out the way I expected it to.
Adding to the sense of satisfaction coursing through the Spurs was the fact that San Antonio was one of those teams in the Hamptons trying to court Kevin Durant. Had Durant chose to sign with the Spurs, players like Danny Green would have to be moved to make room. Green was told as much during the previous offseason, so throwing a Kawhi Leonard sized wrench to the Warriors plans was quite satisfying for Green and a few of his first teammates.
We had David West the year before and I think he just left him got to go State the year after, so he went from us to them, and this is the year he was there and Katie were there and we could see the face like, Yo, this might be this might be it for reality, and he's like, damn, I can't believe. I can't you know, like damn, I came here and I'm about to get my.
Ass busting.
On the next dumb dynastic.
He was playing. May I don't even mind. I hear that we bet and cool, like, I really give him so much credit, but we down first games.
This was an Alzheim's greatest a peak of his powers, succeeding and being told that, like, you know, who cares.
I think if he's been able to connect with fans on that level and made that effort to do that, I think it not only would have changed the way people felt in subsequent years about the Warriors winning titles. I think that Kevin Durant was still will be in Golden State right now.
I'm gonna go with hell you who is going to win that series?
If?
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