Speaker 1: Dubb Dynasty is a production of iHeartMedia and the NBA.
Speaker 2: Bank Degree a hand to throw a fast track down.
Speaker 2: The Robber returns.
Speaker 3: Look a.
Speaker 4: Second right now, Webber is making all the statements.
Speaker 2: Just throb Yeah, good looks by one. That's here. We're
Speaker 2: going about avery.
Speaker 5: Joshua Steh Rother right in.
Speaker 2: The face of Jason objection with.
Speaker 1: What authority?
Speaker 3: No one fighting for a Dutch Drock Ray holds down
Speaker 3: the rebound, taking away about.
Speaker 6: Whereber looking that behind the back pack Chris Mullen, who
Speaker 6: has seventeen.
Speaker 2: Pretty well, look at his quick the coup the Weber.
Speaker 2: There are two of the five. Look at the look
Speaker 2: on Weber.
Speaker 1: Those were some highlights from one of the most intriguing
Speaker 1: what if teams in NBA history, the nineteen ninety three
Speaker 1: ninety four Golden State Warriors. I'm Israel Dutierres and this
Speaker 1: is dub Dynasty Episode three. It was just a couple
Speaker 1: of years removed from the run TMC Warriors, and the
Speaker 1: Doves were suddenly sporting a pair of fresh young stars
Speaker 1: that led to a fifty win season. One year earlier,
Speaker 1: the Warriors got a steal with the twenty fourth pick
Speaker 1: in the draft picking up lightning quick guard Latrell Spreewell
Speaker 1: from Alabama in ninety three, Golden State would add Chris Weber.
Speaker 1: He was the number one overall pick by the Orlando Magic,
Speaker 1: but he would be traded to Golden State for the
Speaker 1: number three pick, Anthony Penny Hardock.
Speaker 7: Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to report a trade. Orlando
Speaker 7: has traded the draft rights to Chris Webber.
Speaker 2: To Golden State.
Speaker 7: In exchange for the draft rights to Anthony Harroway and
Speaker 7: three future first round draft picks.
Speaker 1: Tim Hardaway would set out the Warriors season recovering from
Speaker 1: knee surgery, but Chris Mullin, Billy Owens, and head coach
Speaker 1: Don Nelson were still on board, and the Warriors wouldn't
Speaker 1: have the sixth seed out West, playing some of the
Speaker 1: most entertaining basketball in the league before being swept in
Speaker 1: the first round by Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns. Yet,
Speaker 1: in familiar Warriors fashion, this success would be even shorter
Speaker 1: lived than the run TMC team. Before the next season
Speaker 1: even began, rumblings of an ongoing feud between Weber and
Speaker 1: Don Nelson had reached a boiling point, leading to Weber
Speaker 1: the reigning rookie of the year, being traded to the
Speaker 1: Washington Bullets for Tom Googliata. This was despite Weber having
Speaker 1: signed a fifteen year rookie contract with the Warriors back
Speaker 1: when the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement was very much a
Speaker 1: work in progress. The following season, the Warriors were terrible again,
Speaker 1: and Weber would go on to finish a Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame career in Washington and then in nearby Sacramento, where
Speaker 1: he had most of his postseason success.
Speaker 2: Webber against Malil this fuss Water.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, it wasn't until two thousand and seven, a full
Speaker 1: thirteen seasons, that the Warriors would make the playoffs again.
Speaker 1: Within that drought, Spreewell's Golden State career ended after he
Speaker 1: reportedly choked then head coach PJ. Carlesimo. The team suspended
Speaker 1: him for what would eventually six eight games, and he
Speaker 1: never played for the Warriors again. When the twenty fourteen
Speaker 1: to fifteen season began for the Warriors, high drama was
Speaker 1: still on the table. Maybe not quite put your hands
Speaker 1: on your coach's neck type of drama, but still plenty
Speaker 1: of potential for internal disputes. Remember Steve Kerr was now
Speaker 1: the head coach, and it was his first attempt at
Speaker 1: doing so at any level. There were still some Mark
Speaker 1: Jackson supporters on the roster, so it would have been
Speaker 1: easy to maintain some skepticism. New owners or not, these
Speaker 1: were still the Warriors, And if this story was going
Speaker 1: to end anything like the last few Feeld Good Warriors teams,
Speaker 1: this right now would have been the moment the Splash
Speaker 1: Brothers era went haywire. You could see it playing out already.
Speaker 1: New coach affects, burgeoning teams chemistry, GM makes hasty roster decisions.
Speaker 1: As a result, Veteran Warriors say they never should have
Speaker 1: changed coaches and won out. Curry traded to the New
Speaker 1: York Knicks just couldn't be the ending for Steve Kerr,
Speaker 1: not for a coach who, despite inexperience, knew the importance
Speaker 1: of building a culture. He learned it in part while
Speaker 1: visiting with Pete Carroll while he was coach of the
Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks. He experienced it while playing for Phil Jackson
Speaker 1: and Greg Popovich while trying to implement it. Kerr started
Speaker 1: by reaffirming the confidence that the outside critics were trying
Speaker 1: to damage with all the tension that could have dominated
Speaker 1: this setting. David lie says Kerr's approach actually was quite settling.
Speaker 8: I think relaxing.
Speaker 3: The number one thing he came in is he said, look,
Speaker 3: we have all the talent here we need. We don't
Speaker 3: need to run a hundred plays, we don't need to
Speaker 3: overthink things. Let's take a deep breath, Let's have a
Speaker 3: lot of fun, Let's enjoy one another. We have great
Speaker 3: chemistry and let's use that to our advantage.
Speaker 1: The chemistry wasn't just from many of the players having
Speaker 1: played together the previous few seasons. It was the chemistry
Speaker 1: based in humility. No one cared who shot the ball,
Speaker 1: even though they all knew who they wanted to shoot.
Speaker 1: But as long as the offense was sticking to its
Speaker 1: principles and the turnovers were kept to a minimum, everyone
Speaker 1: would succeed. We've already established Kerr's first true test the
Speaker 1: benching of Andrea Guadala, and that was based in a
Speaker 1: humble star willing to play his role.
Speaker 9: The hardest part about it was getting in my comfort
Speaker 9: level coming off the bench, which was very different.
Speaker 10: But I was just trying to get it down for
Speaker 10: our team.
Speaker 1: Godra a big shot Kerr and the Warriors would face
Speaker 1: another challenge just as the season was starting. David Lee,
Speaker 1: who'd been penciled in as a starter, wouldn't be available
Speaker 1: to begin the season. Technically having made two All Star Games,
Speaker 1: Lee was the warriors most decorated player at the time,
Speaker 1: and his story was one of the most heartwarming of
Speaker 1: the season. It just so happened to begin with a
Speaker 1: preseason injury.
Speaker 3: And yet going into that fourteen to fifteen season, you
Speaker 3: know we're playing Denver once against things bad things happening
Speaker 3: against Denver. I think I'm going to go skiing out
Speaker 3: there anytime. But it's you know, coach says to me
Speaker 3: and stuff, Hey, you guys want to go in last
Speaker 3: preseason game. You want to go in for one last
Speaker 3: stretch here for four or five minutes in the fourth
Speaker 3: just to get some extra cardio. We looked at each
Speaker 3: other like, yeah, why not? Was work on a few
Speaker 3: pick and roll options we've been doing. And either way,
Speaker 3: Draymond was going to play a big part in that season.
Speaker 3: Whether I believe I would have been the starter and
Speaker 3: then Draymond would have played big minutes and probably finished
Speaker 3: some games defensively for us, but went in there and
Speaker 3: was scrapping for a loose ball with Farid and lunged
Speaker 3: and tore my hamstring, and I just remember being like,
Speaker 3: of course, I was the guy that had to volunteer
Speaker 3: to go get more cardio, but I set out the
Speaker 3: first twenty five games or something, I forget what it was,
Speaker 3: And it was one of the more frustrating injuries I'd
Speaker 3: ever been through, because just when you think it's healthy,
Speaker 3: then you make a wrong movement, You're back to square one.
Speaker 1: Okay, So that's one less all star talent the Warriors
Speaker 1: had to work with to start the current era, but
Speaker 1: that didn't do much to hurt the chemistry in which
Speaker 1: he remained confident because Lee's injury didn't alter the mentality
Speaker 1: of the team. It remained a squad knowing full well
Speaker 1: that an open shot from either of the Splash brothers
Speaker 1: was always a great option, but they were all so
Speaker 1: talented enough and smart enough to take advantage of a
Speaker 1: defense whenever they saw the opportunity. Andrew Bogut might have
Speaker 1: been the best example of this team's puzzle pieces fitting
Speaker 1: perfectly together. He'd been a number one overall pick with
Speaker 1: plenty of expectations. His defense had been acknowledged throughout his career,
Speaker 1: but he'd only made one All Defensive second team. Offensively,
Speaker 1: Bogo would never average double figures in his Golden State tenure,
Speaker 1: but he knew right away that Kerr's offense was a
Speaker 1: great fit for him on that end as well.
Speaker 11: It was difficult for me to have gone from Milwaukee
Speaker 11: to Golden State under Mark Jackson just because it was
Speaker 11: much more isolation based. I'm not really an isolation player.
Speaker 11: I like to play in the flow now. With Milwaukee,
Speaker 11: I was the number one option for a number of
Speaker 11: years and then number one, number two for a number
Speaker 11: of years, so I knew I was getting fifteen to
Speaker 11: twenty touches right come to Golden State. I've got Steph
Speaker 11: and Clay Like I would be an idiot to say
Speaker 11: I want your touches, So I was never going to
Speaker 11: be the number one guy touches wise. But I also
Speaker 11: like to play in the flow of things. So the
Speaker 11: way we played under Steve was perfect for me because
Speaker 11: it was read and react stuff and it wasn't set play.
Speaker 11: We ever rarely ran We're going to throw it to
Speaker 11: this guy and kind of get out of the way
Speaker 11: and then go to work. We ever really did that.
Speaker 11: You know, it was all out of the flow of things.
Speaker 11: And that's my style my basketball. I queue the way
Speaker 11: I read and react. Crammond's are same andres the same steps,
Speaker 11: the same plays as you know. So we had a
Speaker 11: bunch of guys that played that way and it just
Speaker 11: all fit in.
Speaker 9: What luck by bog It is an excellent pass or
Speaker 9: playth Curry underneath another lay.
Speaker 2: Up for step.
Speaker 11: So I really enjoyed playing that role. You know, I
Speaker 11: knew I was fourth fifth on the picking order as
Speaker 11: far as touches go, and I was cool with that
Speaker 11: and no problem. I was trying to grab ten rebounds,
Speaker 11: block three or four shots. But I knew on the
Speaker 11: offensive end, I knew I still had a pretty important
Speaker 11: role and I could dictate the game by setting hard screens,
Speaker 11: you know, finding step off the ball, hitting guys on
Speaker 11: back carts, moving the ball, making the right decision.
Speaker 6: I'll get looking for a catterp Hi the back to Kerman,
Speaker 6: reversing layup up and end.
Speaker 11: That was just as valuable as times since I shooting
Speaker 11: the ball. So making sure that Steff has I knew
Speaker 11: if I got him, I'm realisticon of space extra and
Speaker 11: he usually gets it's going down.
Speaker 1: Right, Usually yes, steph Curry doesn't seem to need any
Speaker 1: space to get off a decent shot, so creating open
Speaker 1: space for him would seem to be an effective way
Speaker 1: to execute offense. What was Keith for Kerr, and this
Speaker 1: credit should be given to GM Bob Myers for bringing
Speaker 1: in these types of players, was having players up and
Speaker 1: down the roster who recognized the same thing as Bogan.
Speaker 1: Finding shots for Stephen Clay would lead to fund for everybody.
Speaker 1: There was Harrison Barnes, the seemingly egoist starter ahead of Iguadala,
Speaker 1: whose first little offensive skill set made him an ideal
Speaker 1: asset in Kerr's offense.
Speaker 2: Us the bounds who moves inside.
Speaker 1: There was the bench mob led by Iguadala, that included
Speaker 1: a young big and Festus a Zilli, a veteran guard,
Speaker 1: and Sean Livingston. The Brazilian road runner in Leandro Barbosa,
Speaker 1: and a stretch forward with spurt ability in Marii Spates too.
Speaker 2: They call him Motherfuckets for reason.
Speaker 1: It was a selfless group that Lee believes was the
Speaker 1: real soul of not just this team, but the blossoming dynasty.
Speaker 3: Well, I think Andre very similar to Draymond was a
Speaker 3: guy that might not be now. In Philly he was
Speaker 3: quite a scorer, and in Denver times he was as well.
Speaker 3: But I mean just the things he brings to the team,
Speaker 3: as far as I'm not sure there's anything at the
Speaker 3: game of basketball he's not great at. He's a great passer,
Speaker 3: incredible defender with his length, everything he can do with
Speaker 3: the ball, he can be a point game essentially, can
Speaker 3: play one through five and guard one through five. So
Speaker 3: that versatility he brought, and also his ability to come
Speaker 3: off the bench to start and to have no ego
Speaker 3: with that, and also his leadership in the locker room
Speaker 3: and his character. He did as much in the second
Speaker 3: half of my tenure there as any guy on the
Speaker 3: team as far as setting that culture and making things fun.
Speaker 3: Sewan Livingston didn't say a whole lot in the locker room.
Speaker 3: Awesome guy off the court and spoke a lot, but
Speaker 3: in the locker room, wasn't trying to overshadow anything but
Speaker 3: talk about And I think you see it a little
Speaker 3: bit now with the Boston Celtics when you have some
Speaker 3: of these role players in Al Horford for instance, that
Speaker 3: like Al knows his role and knows exactly what he's
Speaker 3: there to do. That was Sewn in a nutshell. Sean
Speaker 3: wasn't the guy in practice. Ay what, I'm gonna go
Speaker 3: work on my three point stroke because that's what Stephen
Speaker 3: Clair are doing. Sewn's like, no, this is my game.
Speaker 3: I know who I am as a player. I know
Speaker 3: where I fit in. There were Knights that he got
Speaker 3: twelve minutes, and he didn't get pissed because there were
Speaker 3: other Knights that he ended up getting twenty five minutes
Speaker 3: and was the reason that we won a big game.
Speaker 3: So he was the ultimate team guy and knew his
Speaker 3: role and was an awesome addition in the locker room
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 8: Let me still pull up Jumper.
Speaker 3: And then most Moe's one of my favorite guys. Mo
Speaker 3: is awesome. I mean, such a talented, picking pop guy,
Speaker 3: and he was a guy that gave us a much
Speaker 3: different look than having Boget at the five and would
Speaker 3: come in and was able to spread the floor at
Speaker 3: the five spot or sometimes at the four if we
Speaker 3: went big. And Moe was such a fun guy in
Speaker 3: the locker room and had a certain competitiveness and grit
Speaker 3: to him as well, but also would like get into
Speaker 3: it with other guys at practice, and we would have fun.
Speaker 3: It would keep it competitive. I remember him and Draymond
Speaker 3: screaming at each other ten fifteen times in practice, but
Speaker 3: it made everybody better. It was in a fun like
Speaker 3: fun way to motivate each other. And he's the University
Speaker 3: of Florida guy as well, so we always got along.
Speaker 3: So all of those guys on other teams I think
Speaker 3: would have been starters, and that's what made our team
Speaker 3: so special. I believe that I would have been a
Speaker 3: starter on just about any other team after coming back.
Speaker 3: But that's why I'm a firm believer that, like when
Speaker 3: you get to the top of top five teams in
Speaker 3: the league, which we were that year, a lot of
Speaker 3: it comes down to chemistry, guys sacrificing, and guys playing
Speaker 3: their roles, and you don't have four guys trying to
Speaker 3: take the last second shot. Instead, you're saying, Okay, we
Speaker 3: know we're going to play to our strengths and we're
Speaker 3: going to play the correct strategy. And that's why I believe.
Speaker 3: You know, when we played against a team like the
Speaker 3: LA Clippers, and they clearly you could make the case
Speaker 3: that at least equal talent, if not more talent than us,
Speaker 3: that we were able to come out on top.
Speaker 8: And I think that's the.
Speaker 3: Reason that the dynasty took places because of what we
Speaker 3: had in that locker room, not only out on the court.
Speaker 1: All that was left was to put sneakers on the
Speaker 1: floor to test not just the team first mentality and
Speaker 1: the roster fit, but to measure up against some of
Speaker 1: those best teams. Lead with reference.
Speaker 2: Let's Curry off the hook, Hey, Curry.
Speaker 6: Finding bugget the field goal, the foul.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'd like to see more of that as the
Speaker 3: season goes on.
Speaker 2: Ahse face from the Elbowl perfect.
Speaker 12: Oh, he's been good where he is seven of ten
Speaker 12: and the Warriors have needed it desperately.
Speaker 2: Raymond Greed, it's his third three.
Speaker 12: If the first four look at a Draymond Greed at
Speaker 12: forty five percent three point shooting eighteen games in Kasoft
Speaker 12: couldn't save it, bulked steel, Dramond running down the guy
Speaker 12: to rip it down.
Speaker 1: If there was a pressure to succeed, this group wasn't
Speaker 1: showing it on the floor. That relaxed, confident approach Kerr
Speaker 1: was implementing was much easier to settle into when you're
Speaker 1: a leader. Steph Curry was the embodiment of it. It
Speaker 1: allowed everyone to play to their strengths without concern. According
Speaker 1: to Boge.
Speaker 11: It was your store humming and I think our defense
Speaker 11: was elite, our rotations were a lead bench was elite.
Speaker 11: Like it all just feeling so perfectly, like the roster
Speaker 11: construction was somewhat strategic and somewhat lucky, like you need
Speaker 11: a bit of luck in the NBA. You never know
Speaker 11: a guy's personality that you're drafting, fully, you never know
Speaker 11: a guy's personality that you're trading for. But I think
Speaker 11: they did a fantastic job of acquiring myself like high
Speaker 11: IQ big that can do different things. Acquiring Andre high
Speaker 11: IQ perimeter can guard at an elite level, Drafting a
Speaker 11: Draymond who's a high end defensive player at the time
Speaker 11: and actually gave us more offensively than they thought he would.
Speaker 11: Harrison Barnes an athletic energy guy. You know, all those guys,
Speaker 11: bringing those guys in with drafting play and having stepped
Speaker 11: on the roster already, I think it all just fitting perfect.
Speaker 11: They're going out and get most Baits, who was kind
Speaker 11: of like a you know, was a starter and then
Speaker 11: fell out as a role player on certain teams. We
Speaker 11: brought him in as a valuable backup, like you know,
Speaker 11: stuff like that. It all bubosa, you know, Livingstone injuries.
Speaker 11: You know, it was just every piece and when you
Speaker 11: look back, it's like the most genius set up of
Speaker 11: a roster. A part of that was guys like myself,
Speaker 11: Andre David Lee were at the middle to talent end
Speaker 11: of our career, right like we're in the bulk of
Speaker 11: our career. We'd all had personal accolades on crappy teams.
Speaker 11: We'd all had pretty decent, big contracts. So I don't
Speaker 11: think there was the stress of I need to prove
Speaker 11: myself numbers. Wise, I can just fit into a role
Speaker 11: and then the organization is still going to take care
Speaker 11: of me.
Speaker 1: If there were any concerns about how this new coach
Speaker 1: and his personnel decisions work on the court, they were
Speaker 1: stimied right away. You saw signs that the Warriors were
Speaker 1: one of the better teams in the league. Perhaps the
Speaker 1: most obvious of them was a sixteen game winning streak
Speaker 1: that started in mid November and lasted over a month.
Speaker 2: Hurry three, yes, sir, well he just finished the game
Speaker 2: here this overtime. He's thirty four for Steph.
Speaker 6: Sixteen in a row, ten in a row on the road,
Speaker 6: twenty one and two, the best record in the NBA,
Speaker 6: and the streak lives on and moves on to Memphis
Speaker 6: Tuesday Night. Only nine teams in NBA history to start
Speaker 6: twenty one and two or better.
Speaker 1: Just before Christmas of that season, the Warriors were about
Speaker 1: to get a gift in the form of David Lee
Speaker 1: returning from injury. The two time All Star had recovered
Speaker 1: from a frustrating ham string injury and could have laid
Speaker 1: claim to his starting power forward role. Draymond Green had
Speaker 1: taken over the starting role there and flourished to the
Speaker 1: point where it was quite clear he was an ideal
Speaker 1: fit alongside Stephan Clay. When it was time to reintroduce Lee,
Speaker 1: Kerr new maintaining the status quo was far more important
Speaker 1: than making sure Lee's career path picked up where he
Speaker 1: left off. Fortunately for the Warriors, Lee thought the same.
Speaker 1: Plus he'd already watched Bogit and Igwadala and others sacrificed
Speaker 1: for the greater good, so he wasn't about to break
Speaker 1: that pattern.
Speaker 3: I remember Steve Kirk coming to me and saying, Hey,
Speaker 3: you know you've been out a while, and at this
Speaker 3: point we're like, you know, you know, twenty and four
Speaker 3: twenty we're a number one in the West. And he's like,
Speaker 3: you know, I want to talk to you. And I said, coach,
Speaker 3: I'll stop you right there, Like, the last thing I
Speaker 3: want to do right now is interrupt what we've started.
Speaker 3: Let's keep the momentum going. And I'm a big believer
Speaker 3: that if I do the right things and I have
Speaker 3: the correct attitude here, because there was a point in
Speaker 3: my career when it was about me as it should
Speaker 3: have been. I'm trying to get a big contract, I'm
Speaker 3: trying to make a name for myself in the league.
Speaker 3: But if I do the right things now, I said,
Speaker 3: I feel like my time is going to come at
Speaker 3: some point this season.
Speaker 1: Lee's replacement in the starting lineup was pretty much the
Speaker 1: polar opposite of him. Lee was this gifted offensive player
Speaker 1: who was effectively ambidextrous, was quick off his feet, and
Speaker 1: would struggle some defensively. Green was a defensive wizard who
Speaker 1: matched that iq with a physical style, but isn't the
Speaker 1: most talented offensive player unless you consider his big brain
Speaker 1: a skill. It made for a mutual appreciation and one
Speaker 1: that helped Lee lose any ego.
Speaker 3: Draymond and I might be very different people play basketball
Speaker 3: very differently, but there was never a sense, and I'll
Speaker 3: give us both credit for this, there was never a
Speaker 3: sense where when we kind of transitioned and started playing smaller,
Speaker 3: there was never a sense of him being like, hey,
Speaker 3: I got you or me being like why is he
Speaker 3: playing not me? Instead, I think we both kept winning
Speaker 3: as our I'm very focused. For me, it was an
Speaker 3: easy decision because I'd put up a lot of good
Speaker 3: statistics and had a lot of individual accolades, but a
Speaker 3: lot of the teams in New York struggled to win.
Speaker 3: And now we're really building something in Golden State that
Speaker 3: I felt like I was one of the cornerstones of.
Speaker 3: So all I wanted to see was for it to
Speaker 3: come true and for us to have a chance to
Speaker 3: win a championship. So if that meant me playing more
Speaker 3: of a supporting role, if that meant me not playing
Speaker 3: it all, if that met me going back to being
Speaker 3: the starter, or whatever it ended up being, I just
Speaker 3: wanted to do as much as I could to help
Speaker 3: that process.
Speaker 1: The Warriors were showing out to start the season. But
Speaker 1: after the break we'll examine one accomplishment that might be
Speaker 1: the most impressive of the entire dynasty. Okay, so the
Speaker 1: record to start the season was confirmation the Warriors would
Speaker 1: have a contender, and now Lee was back in place.
Speaker 1: But this team, with great chemistry, should have hit the
Speaker 1: ground running a bit, even if it was with a
Speaker 1: new coach. Right at some point, you'd have to look
Speaker 1: for other reasons to upgrade this team from spontaneous to special,
Speaker 1: like say one player scoring thirty seven points in a quarter.
Speaker 1: On January twenty third, twenty fifteen, against the Sacramento Kings
Speaker 1: in Oracle Arena, the Warriors were thirty four and six
Speaker 1: and didn't seem to have a care in the world.
Speaker 1: Perhaps the most care free of those Warriors is Klay Thompson.
Speaker 1: His game would translate similarly, as he was so low
Speaker 1: maintenance you'd almost never notice him until he's doing something spectacular.
Speaker 1: So when he entered the second half of this contest
Speaker 1: leading the team and scoring with a modest thirteen points
Speaker 1: on three of nine shooting, there was zero indication anything
Speaker 1: special was in the works.
Speaker 2: Thompson fifteen a little more under control there.
Speaker 4: I thought he'd rushed it in the first half a
Speaker 4: few times, but he made that little pivot and he's
Speaker 4: expecting Cousins to close.
Speaker 2: He wasn't there, so he just went up and took
Speaker 2: a little jump shot a great defense. We're at the
Speaker 2: passing when he comes up with the steel. Wait, Tom
Speaker 2: said it it's his feet ending with three point drafts.
Speaker 8: Good timing.
Speaker 2: They needed that. He did it with defense first.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: Tom said, triple yes, sir. They get me streaking waits
Speaker 2: streaking good.
Speaker 1: It wasn't obvious even halfway through the third quarter that
Speaker 1: Clay was already erupted. It was just a matter of
Speaker 1: how many looks he would get.
Speaker 3: I remember we saw him get it going on the
Speaker 3: third there and we come into the timeout and he's like, Hey,
Speaker 3: I want to run this play, and Steph you're gonna come.
Speaker 3: And Steph looks and he goes, David, we're not running
Speaker 3: any place. Every single time, go set a screen for him,
Speaker 3: and every time he's getting the ball, he's like, well, Quay,
Speaker 3: let's see how far we can take this thing.
Speaker 2: Andrew bunker to the D two one right hand in hander.
Speaker 6: Play.
Speaker 8: He's got the count of elevation.
Speaker 2: We had a old, old regrets and started to said
Speaker 2: three almost failings were so failing it he wants a
Speaker 2: heat check it. Cousins right now on five p five
Speaker 2: including three threes.
Speaker 6: But that's a deep bunk, he shower beamons, oh Man,
Speaker 6: that's a twenty eight.
Speaker 2: He's trying to deny play the ball barely in his
Speaker 2: hands and right in the bucket.
Speaker 1: Thompson had nineteen points with just over three minutes left
Speaker 1: in the third period. This is where Steph's edict would
Speaker 1: prove Fighter Clay didn't need much time or space to
Speaker 1: create a flurry. Everyone on the floor understood the assignment,
Speaker 1: especially the space creators like Bogan.
Speaker 11: Oh Man, it was just a blur, like you didn't
Speaker 11: realize what was going on towards the end of that
Speaker 11: quarter just because he was shooting the ball. It's such
Speaker 11: an amazing clip, you know, Stephan him, We'll see the
Speaker 11: two most notable guys when they give them those modes
Speaker 11: or those moods. All I'm trying to do is get
Speaker 11: down there and just hit his hit. Whoever's guarding him
Speaker 11: to give him space. That's all I'm worried about. I'm
Speaker 11: just trying to get down there. Like he's made four straight,
Speaker 11: you know, wide pin down, just try to screen his guy,
Speaker 11: just try to get a little bit of a body.
Speaker 11: So this guy has to veer a little bit wider
Speaker 11: than he has to offer. Pin down, screen whack it's
Speaker 11: going in and plays six seven sixty eight, you know,
Speaker 11: so he doesn't need much room as it is so
Speaker 11: awesome to be on the floor when those things are
Speaker 11: going on and just a crowd.
Speaker 13: I str's going to fight him. Eight three, he's gotten
Speaker 13: it his three.
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen anything like it? And thirty seven
Speaker 2: in a quarter Lightstop saying I'm gonna paint that thirty
Speaker 2: seven in a.
Speaker 1: Corn The celebration didn't stop on the Oracle floor, not
Speaker 1: if David Lee had anything to say about it.
Speaker 3: And then I remember after the game going out and
Speaker 3: ordering thirty seven bottles in vodka to nightclub, and that's
Speaker 3: how many points together in the corner. I think we
Speaker 3: only made it through like two bottles as a group,
Speaker 3: but it was it was definitely something to celebrate. I mean,
Speaker 3: what those those are like the times in your career
Speaker 3: where you're like, wow, I was just a part of
Speaker 3: something special and and I'm not sure if there'll be
Speaker 3: many performances like this or there ever have been, and
Speaker 3: it was so cool to be a part of it.
Speaker 2: The best part about that night is just all my
Speaker 2: bucks were coming from my teammates. Man, they just kept
Speaker 2: feeding me the ball they want to see me shoot.
Speaker 1: The Warriors winning formula was fully on display. While Thompson
Speaker 1: could pick his spots to be explosive, Steph Curry was
Speaker 1: regularly dropping jaws. With the combination of Kerr's motion offense,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's mind boggling skill, and the high IQ of
Speaker 1: so many of STEP's teammates. There were moments Curry's own
Speaker 1: coach couldn't believe his eyes, like the time he dribbled
Speaker 1: through and around four members of the Clippers just inside
Speaker 1: the three point arc, only to step back behind it
Speaker 1: and launch a perfect three pointer.
Speaker 2: Curry flipsis behind the back.
Speaker 14: Fire's a trick, a spectacular move where that's the long.
Speaker 1: Just flear to the game.
Speaker 2: That could be the greatest move I've.
Speaker 1: Ever seen that Or the time, also against the Clippers,
Speaker 1: Steph worked the baseline with his dribble, then went behind
Speaker 1: the back twice to send Chris Paul into a break
Speaker 1: dancing pose on the floor. Carry knocked down the jumper
Speaker 1: for an all time career highlight.
Speaker 6: Curry, you want shake the bow out of his boots
Speaker 6: and it's all Followay jump up.
Speaker 2: You want to see a dribble move, watch this home
Speaker 2: coming out Chris. Paul takes it out under the basket
Speaker 2: and suddenly goes two times behind his back to leave
Speaker 2: Paul on the ground, and then finishes it off one
Speaker 2: to two. Paul thows down. Curry knocks down the jump shot,
Speaker 2: and the bench is loving it.
Speaker 1: While the Splash Brothers were dazzling nightly, it was Draymond
Speaker 1: Green who was anchoring the Warriors elite defense.
Speaker 6: Twenty one now another blocked by Draymond What defense by
Speaker 6: the Warriors?
Speaker 2: The whole building waiting for Curry day.
Speaker 1: He could defend any position, but more importantly, he could
Speaker 1: absolutely blow up in opposing team's play by either predicting
Speaker 1: what was coming or simply being so physical with his
Speaker 1: opponent that they can't execute.
Speaker 2: Rest out of the shot. Clocket's down to three.
Speaker 8: Raymond knows him.
Speaker 1: Thence comes up with the steel That unrelenting motor also
Speaker 1: came with an unrelenting map, trash talking opponents, loudly, questioning reps,
Speaker 1: even challenging his own coach. Draymond couldn't help himself. It
Speaker 1: wasn't just part of his personality, it was part of
Speaker 1: his game, and it meant Green immediately stepped into a
Speaker 1: leadership role.
Speaker 11: Well. First off, Draymond aboud to develop into a voice.
Speaker 11: He's always been a He's always been a loud tell
Speaker 11: you what, a king sky and I think that's what
Speaker 11: makes him so great. He's not afraid to know sometimes
Speaker 11: cross the line, as we all know, but I think
Speaker 11: you'd always much rather a guy that crosses the line
Speaker 11: every now and then than a guy that never gets
Speaker 11: to that line with the efident energy and passion. So yeah, look,
Speaker 11: his first couple of years under Mark Jackson, he's even
Speaker 11: said he thought he might not even last in the
Speaker 11: league with the role that he was playing. They playing
Speaker 11: at the three at times, notably, you know, people saying
Speaker 11: he's not a great three point shootout as he played
Speaker 11: the three, he's too small for the four. And then
Speaker 11: cursionto that starting lineup, the Steve kerryear and the rest history.
Speaker 11: And then as as his confidence grew. You know, he
Speaker 11: always had a loud voice, but then he started to
Speaker 11: be a bit more strategic with knowing that he's a
Speaker 11: big integral part of our of our group. You know,
Speaker 11: he was kind of the people of our group in
Speaker 11: a way where he'd be the one talking smack and
Speaker 11: going at guys. I'd always have his back, Andrea I
Speaker 11: would have his back. Was a domino effect as far
Speaker 11: as the way we patrolled the paint and police things defensively,
Speaker 11: and it was kind of us three that were managing
Speaker 11: that side of things. Played did a great job as
Speaker 11: well in the perimeter. But yeah, I mean, he really
Speaker 11: grew into that role and became kind of he's kind
Speaker 11: of the barometer of the warrior's energy and effort. How
Speaker 11: he goes and what he does generally correlates into wins.
Speaker 11: When he's in his element and he's you know, talking smack,
Speaker 11: getting guys faces, pumping the crowd up, getting the referees,
Speaker 11: I think he's really engaged that way. I think it's
Speaker 11: more of a positive than.
Speaker 8: In the game.
Speaker 1: By the time the regular season was coming to a close,
Speaker 1: there weren't many questions left to answer about these Warriors.
Speaker 1: Steph was on his way to his first MVP award.
Speaker 1: Golden State had proven capable of winning in different styles.
Speaker 1: They were dominant at home, finishing the season thirty nine
Speaker 1: and two on the road. Perhaps their most impressive performance
Speaker 1: was a March win in Boston after being down twenty
Speaker 1: six points and doing so without much assistance from steph
Speaker 1: For Clay down the stretch.
Speaker 2: Can you tie the game? Can you take the lead?
Speaker 2: Can you cap off the comeback? Stafford Bigadala does and
Speaker 2: ties it up. Do they have enough energy to finish
Speaker 2: it up?
Speaker 15: I believe they do.
Speaker 2: Staff has expended lot, Clay has expended a lot. It
Speaker 2: come a long way.
Speaker 3: Raymond down the lane, he could do inside again.
Speaker 5: Back to Draymond flip shot, No tim God, We've seen
Speaker 5: him do that all year long, follow a misshot with
Speaker 5: that tremendous intensity and wanting the ball.
Speaker 6: The last lead four to three, the twenty six point
Speaker 6: deficit is gone.
Speaker 2: That I was gonna be careful at that o'clock at three,
Speaker 2: I Ray down the lane, the laying head with a
Speaker 2: high fair out of a big shot, and he was
Speaker 2: we was grabbed and held and hustled all the way
Speaker 2: in there. Nice blade without left hand. Think about this.
Speaker 2: He wasn't Sheppard play here? It was Raymond's eleven. In
Speaker 2: the fourth it was Harrison with the lead lead and
Speaker 2: he get dollar with the big bucket there, It's it's
Speaker 2: a great signed team.
Speaker 1: Once the Warriors finished the season sixty seven and fifteen,
Speaker 1: tied for the sixth highest win total in NBA.
Speaker 2: History, Who is this team going?
Speaker 1: Curry himself set a then NBA record for three pointers
Speaker 1: in the season with two hundred and eighty six. He
Speaker 1: also led the league in total steals, showing he wasn't
Speaker 1: just an aufensive tun In retrospect, there didn't seem to
Speaker 1: be any reason to question the Warriors, but doubt still remained.
Speaker 1: After the break, the Warriors go into the playoffs and
Speaker 1: experience adversity for the first time all seat. Will the
Speaker 1: jump shooting team figure out how to fight back? Rachel
Speaker 1: Nichols has covered NBA stars since her days in Chicago
Speaker 1: covering Michael Jordan and the Bulls. She said the Warriors
Speaker 1: had clearly reached everyone's radar, and the season full of
Speaker 1: ridiculous highlights and accomplishments, but buying in entirely in the
Speaker 1: league that featured a Spurs dynasty still kicking and Lebron
Speaker 1: James back in Cleveland with a new supporting supercast that
Speaker 1: was a lot more difficult to do.
Speaker 16: I think it was a little slow for people to
Speaker 16: really believe in them for a few reasons. I think
Speaker 16: because it hadn't gotten as much hype coming in. It
Speaker 16: was organic because Steph's ankles and injury issues had been
Speaker 16: such a story for that team over recent years. There
Speaker 16: was really an idea of like, yeah, okay, but at
Speaker 16: some point he's going to get hurt again, right. There
Speaker 16: were a lot of people who doubted sort of the
Speaker 16: way that they were approaching the game, the gimmick.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 16: Obviously we heard had Charles Barkley on TV talking about
Speaker 16: them being a jump shooting team and the jump shooting
Speaker 16: team can't win an NBA finals, can't do well, that
Speaker 16: sort of thing. And frankly, the Warriors had a not
Speaker 16: great reputation around the NBA and with fans and everything
Speaker 16: that it was. You know, they're not sort of everyone
Speaker 16: jump on the bandwagon there, so I think it took
Speaker 16: a while. I think it was a sort of slow
Speaker 16: acceptance that this team is for real, but they certainly weren't.
Speaker 1: Charles Barkley made that jump shooting team remark any number
Speaker 1: of times, but among the most memorable was the take
Speaker 1: he got off just before the playoffs, where he didn't
Speaker 1: include the Warriors as a top three team in their
Speaker 1: own conference despite having the best record in the NBA.
Speaker 9: Is the best team the best team in the West,
Speaker 9: the same way you did it at these I think
Speaker 9: that I won't pick three teams.
Speaker 8: Because like it's a fluid situation.
Speaker 9: I think Memphis getting Jeff Green, the Portland Trail Blazers,
Speaker 9: and the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaker 8: I think those are the three best teams in the
Speaker 8: Western Conference. One more time. No Warriors, No Warriors. No Warriors.
Speaker 14: Dismiss a team that has the best record on has
Speaker 14: is number one shooting. That's why I go to this
Speaker 14: number one in field bal Brand and garnished. I have
Speaker 14: said it's the exact same thing for sixteen years here.
Speaker 14: I don't like jump shooting teams. I don't think you
Speaker 14: can win the championship being good teams shoot jumpers.
Speaker 8: But they're not even top three in your mind? Oh,
Speaker 8: because I like the big men on those other three teams.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Kenny Smith and Shaquille O'Neal there for
Speaker 1: trying to talk Charles off his rather archaic opinion. But
Speaker 1: Charles wasn't alone in distrusting Golden State. While the acceptance
Speaker 1: might have been slow, the warriors drawing power was especially strong.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just Curry wowing crowds, it was the collection
Speaker 1: of fresh faces doing it at a time when the
Speaker 1: challengers were a plenty. Whether it was Lebron in Cleveland
Speaker 1: or the defending champion Spurs or the mega talents at
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City Thunder. There were a handful of teams prepared
Speaker 1: to take or keep the mantle as best team in
Speaker 1: the league. But the Warriors weren't building the resume of
Speaker 1: a team that would flame out in the second round.
Speaker 1: Mike Breed had been around the league enough to recognize
Speaker 1: a true threat in the NBA, and the Warriors had
Speaker 1: done enough in that regular season to convince him they'd
Speaker 1: be legitimate even in the playoffs.
Speaker 17: It was just this crescendo that started to build early on.
Speaker 17: There's the noise, there's some of these wild performances, and
Speaker 17: it just didn't stop. And you could also see as
Speaker 17: the season went on how much confidence they had. You know,
Speaker 17: it's the old saying in the NBA, you got to
Speaker 17: lose in the playoffs first before you accomplished the ultimate goal.
Speaker 17: But they didn't seem to feel that way.
Speaker 8: You know, why not us, why not now?
Speaker 17: That type of attitude, But they backed it up with
Speaker 17: their play and just as the season wore on, you
Speaker 17: could see the confidence they had.
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr helped develop that confidence from the start of
Speaker 1: his first season, and from about the h point of it,
Speaker 1: he had already begun to prepare his team for the
Speaker 1: next phase of becoming a champion. He'd already determined his
Speaker 1: squad had the potential to win it all, but he
Speaker 1: needed to get through to his team that it would
Speaker 1: not be this easy come the postseason.
Speaker 15: When we got off to the start that we did
Speaker 15: and won so many games so convincingly, it was obviously
Speaker 15: we were one of the best teams in the league.
Speaker 15: So at that point, it's just, you know, can we
Speaker 15: get there now or do we have to go through
Speaker 15: the usual route of losing in the playoffs and heartbreaking
Speaker 15: fashion for several years before you break through. So that
Speaker 15: became part of our theme in the second half of
Speaker 15: the season. I mean I brought it up point blank
Speaker 15: to the players, you know, how do we avoid that step?
Speaker 15: And we avoid it by doing X, Y and Z.
Speaker 15: You got you know, you can't skip steps, but what
Speaker 15: we can do is accelerate our process of doing the
Speaker 15: things that win in the playoff. That was a big
Speaker 15: focus in the second half of the year. You know,
Speaker 15: this team had been in the playoffs the previous two years,
Speaker 15: so they already had playoff experience. So it wasn't like
Speaker 15: I was preaching something that they weren't totally aware of.
Speaker 15: But I thought there were there was a lot to
Speaker 15: get through to understand how hard it was going to
Speaker 15: be to go four rounds.
Speaker 1: You know, four rounds, how about one. The Warriors were
Speaker 1: the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs and faced
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round, a team
Speaker 1: that featured All NBA First team er Anthony Davis in
Speaker 1: his first playoffs and Tyreek Evans, who happened to win
Speaker 1: the Rookie of the Year award ahead of Steph Curry
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and nine, and with seven foot
Speaker 1: Omer Ashik also in the starting lineup, the Pelicans could
Speaker 1: challenge the smallesh Warriors inside. While the first two games
Speaker 1: in the series were a relative cakewalk, Golden State's first
Speaker 1: road playoff test would in the first possible opportunity Game three,
Speaker 1: five fifty they lead of the night, or the Pelican
Speaker 1: Tyreek Cats go starve and scottishes at the round they
Speaker 1: keep adding to it. The Warriors found themselves down twenty
Speaker 1: to start the fourth quarter. They were still down seventeen
Speaker 1: midway through the period. Behind Curry, Thompson, Sean Livingston and
Speaker 1: the tightening defense, the Warriors were able to close to
Speaker 1: within five one o seven, one oh two, but Golden
Speaker 1: State only had seventeen seconds remaining. After a timeout five
Speaker 1: seconds later, Curry provided hope, we'll see a Golden.
Speaker 2: State has anive year. Down five, Loren scot did look
Speaker 2: up to Curry or Thompson Curry, that's how they go
Speaker 2: by and Steph Curry hits a three.
Speaker 5: Oh, they're not dead yet, two point game eleven eight
Speaker 5: remaining this guy.
Speaker 2: Buddy, or what.
Speaker 1: After Anthony Davis missed one of two free throws, the
Speaker 1: Warriors had ten seconds on the clock trailing by three.
Speaker 2: Chance to tie it here for Golden State. Curry's got it, Curry,
Speaker 2: I'll let it go. The three cups up short, offensive
Speaker 2: rebound carry again and it's a time game. Two point eight. Heaven,
Speaker 2: we have all the time in New Organs.
Speaker 1: That game tying three from Curry happened to come over
Speaker 1: the extended arms of both Anthony Davis and Tyree Gevins.
Speaker 1: The Warriors would go on to win the game in
Speaker 1: overtime behind forty from Curry, and then on to sweep
Speaker 1: the series in four total.
Speaker 8: Group effort of me from Tod to Byron.
Speaker 10: It's a special He'd enjoying my teammateson get back to open.
Speaker 1: The jump shooting undersized Warriors past the first playoff test
Speaker 1: easily and announced to the haters that size alone can't
Speaker 1: beat this team. The next round would be about two words,
Speaker 1: grit and grind. The Memphis Grizzlies were known for it.
Speaker 1: Their home arena was nicknamed the Grindhouse. It was the
Speaker 1: type of team that could suffocate all the field good
Speaker 1: out of the Warriors, with players like Tony Allen, Zach Randolph,
Speaker 1: and Marcosol.
Speaker 17: First playoff matchup between these two teams and what makes
Speaker 17: it very interesting a contrasted styles.
Speaker 1: The Warriors were still proving they could truly grind, not
Speaker 1: just for a game, the grind in the style of
Speaker 1: Marshawn Lynch, over and over and over and over. After
Speaker 1: Game one between the Grizs and Warriors. A fifteen point
Speaker 1: Warriors win. It appeared Kerr had indeed prepared his team
Speaker 1: properly for what was to come. But the very next game,
Speaker 1: the Warriors were stunned, held to ninety points on forty
Speaker 1: one percent shooting and a loss. Then in Memphis, per
Speaker 1: Game three, the Dubs put up just eighty nine and
Speaker 1: another demoralizing hell.
Speaker 2: Memphis went back to back wins again. Instead at number
Speaker 2: one seed in the West at Golden Saint Warriors, the
Speaker 2: Grizzlies have a two games to one lead in the
Speaker 2: team that was the best team in the NBA all years.
Speaker 2: He's gotten touched in the gut.
Speaker 8: Just like that.
Speaker 1: The Grizzlies had home court advantage in the series, and
Speaker 1: the Warriors were looking like another field good story crumbling
Speaker 1: in the second round. Everyone on the roster, including Leander Barbosa,
Speaker 1: could feel that confidence was starting to waiver.
Speaker 10: I could have seen the lach Rouino as a player,
Speaker 10: as a veteran, that we have a little question in
Speaker 10: eachy one of us on the next Dub dynasty.
Speaker 11: I was passing Forks because he showed a few orvin
Speaker 11: break those and he literally was unplayable.
Speaker 16: After that, It didn't feel in those finals, at least
Speaker 16: to me, that they were favored because Lebron being back
Speaker 16: in Cleveland was such a story, and he's the one
Speaker 16: who read the experience.
Speaker 3: I remember all of us looking at each other in
Speaker 3: Game three and like at halftime being like, is this
Speaker 3: guy who's gonna beat us all on his own room?
Speaker 11: Consider a great conversation as a player when you hear
Speaker 11: that you're being benched.
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