Speaker 1: Dubb Dynasty is a production of iHeartMedia and the NBA.
Speaker 2: They do have a time out, decide not to use
Speaker 2: a Curry wait on top with six steps of second
Speaker 2: the morning, we'll polly join a touchdowns, beat the.
Speaker 3: Clock from midport, Curry Hey back home, no file speaking
Speaker 3: for Cleveland.
Speaker 1: I had to Curry.
Speaker 4: Curry sets fire, puts up back, Steph Curry home way.
Speaker 5: Down from mid courtway.
Speaker 1: Those were some of the moments that transformed Steph Curry
Speaker 1: from most valuable to mostly magical. I'm Israel Utierres and
Speaker 1: this is dubbed Dynasty. Curry shots often start from so
Speaker 1: far out the ball could use a roadmap to find
Speaker 1: the basket. The shots begin from such a distance you
Speaker 1: could hold a short conversation about it between release and swish.
Speaker 1: It's just one ingredient of Curry magic. It just so
Speaker 1: happens to be his most mesmerizing trick.
Speaker 6: Curl will just dribble it out and the friends, who
Speaker 6: are also obviously aware of Paul George there one.
Speaker 1: Tool ware whoa job by half Paul point five seconds
Speaker 1: for Curry at three D three, The basketball like a
Speaker 1: laser cutting through the atmosphere, regardless of the elements finds
Speaker 1: its way to the rip, whether it's coming from seventy
Speaker 1: feet away in a game that counts, or from well
Speaker 1: off the court when they don't count. As part of
Speaker 1: his pregame shooting routine at home, Curry seems to have
Speaker 1: full control of the basketball even after it leaves his hands.
Speaker 1: Only it's not an illusion. Shot clock winding down.
Speaker 6: Rry's gonna have to put it up.
Speaker 4: Launches it up.
Speaker 3: Shot clock Wow, Steph Curry with the shock clock expiring.
Speaker 1: Step Warriors assistant coach and Curry's shooting coach on the team,
Speaker 1: Bruce Frasier, better known by the team as Q, has
Speaker 1: watched Curry hit one long, ridiculous shot after another in
Speaker 1: practice settings. He knows the secret to all of Curry's trips.
Speaker 7: Somehow has a genetic gift with hand eye coordination. That's
Speaker 7: his genetic gift and as far as superior than to
Speaker 7: any human I've ever seen and in anything. So you
Speaker 7: give him a bowling ball, you give him a tennis racket.
Speaker 7: You know he's not professional, but he's elite at anything
Speaker 7: that you hand him and say, this is the game.
Speaker 7: So it's kind of the ball and stick. You do
Speaker 7: this and we're going to and he's going to be
Speaker 7: elite at it. Right. I can't imagine being able to
Speaker 7: flip balls with my left hand the same as my
Speaker 7: right hand, to shoot it from the here, to shoot
Speaker 7: it from here. But this guy, it's not just in
Speaker 7: these big games, but it's also just when he's messing
Speaker 7: around in the gym. So I have seen these shots,
Speaker 7: you know, throughout the years, over and over again. So
Speaker 7: in that moment, you know, Steph has practiced these shots,
Speaker 7: and he loves big moments. He loves the show. He
Speaker 7: loves the moment. No moment's too big for him. That's
Speaker 7: what he wants.
Speaker 8: Two seconds to work with Curry from Midcorn.
Speaker 7: If you were going to say, what's the mechanical brilliance,
Speaker 7: He's able to generate power in a physics form like
Speaker 7: I wouldn't know. But when you start a shot, there's
Speaker 7: there's kind of a momentum that goes into it. Along
Speaker 7: with a finely tuned skill, it's the kinetic chain that
Speaker 7: you have to generate that power. Because if you look
Speaker 7: at Stef's arms, he's got some you know, genetic beast Like.
Speaker 7: He's not a superhero, he's a self made MVP. He's
Speaker 7: a common man with thin arms and thin body and
Speaker 7: six three, but he's able to generate that force where
Speaker 7: that ball finishes right at the right moment. It's like
Speaker 7: a golfer and he's got people. It's like that force
Speaker 7: is generated and he's able to let it go right
Speaker 7: at the right moment, and he's perfected that so he
Speaker 7: shoots normal shots from range that most people aren't able
Speaker 7: to generate that kind of power, no matter how strong
Speaker 7: they are. That's one of his brilliances. It's the hand
Speaker 7: eye and the ability to generate that connectic force as
Speaker 7: you say to about ball, to release right at the
Speaker 7: right time, and then to fine tune at the end.
Speaker 1: If you ever get access to a hot tub time
Speaker 1: machine and wanted to watch one of the most electric,
Speaker 1: satisfying and transformative seasons ever, set that hot tub for
Speaker 1: the twenty fifteen to sixteen NBA season and focus in
Speaker 1: on Curry.
Speaker 9: He was coming off.
Speaker 1: His first NBA Most Valuable Player award and was on
Speaker 1: the defending champion team that was effectively running it back.
Speaker 1: Steph was twenty seven years old, at the peak of
Speaker 1: his prime, and had overcome the ankle injuries and the
Speaker 1: doubt he had helped Warriors Basketball go from a fun
Speaker 1: brand to a franchise, lifting the NBA in a time
Speaker 1: when peak of his powers Lebron and end of career
Speaker 1: Kobe Bryant were still giving the NBA some life, Curry
Speaker 1: and the Warriors were providing the energy and the electricity somehow.
Speaker 1: Despite a surprise season that brought the Warriors their first
Speaker 1: championship in forty years, it felt like Golden State still
Speaker 1: had more to give, and Curry what's the best example
Speaker 1: of that. His confidence shot through the roof this season,
Speaker 1: and his play demonstrated as much. As Fraser explains, Curry
Speaker 1: was prepared for even more of a breakthrough because his
Speaker 1: initial point to believe under Steve Kerr was such a success.
Speaker 7: I was lucky to be good friends with Steve and
Speaker 7: former teammates, so I had a lot of insight into
Speaker 7: what we may want to do offensively, but it was uncertain,
Speaker 7: and Steve had a vision, but you know, we had
Speaker 7: He had questioned, He had he had considered a lot
Speaker 7: of the things that his former coaches that he really
Speaker 7: liked did and he wanted to implement some of those things.
Speaker 7: But Steph was the question marking it because and the
Speaker 7: rest of the team, you know, like, do you put
Speaker 7: in the triangle offense? Because he loved the triangle from
Speaker 7: Phil and what they did in Chicago, and he loved
Speaker 7: the movement and the re based actions of it. But
Speaker 7: it might take the ball out of Steph's hands. That
Speaker 7: was a question. And Steph with the ball in his
Speaker 7: hands was brilliant. And then you know, with the other
Speaker 7: pieces move in harmony with that. And you know, even
Speaker 7: some of the stuff that Papovich did with the Horns
Speaker 7: action in the Strong and Weeks, So he wanted to
Speaker 7: include some of that. And ironically, he really loved some
Speaker 7: of the kind of the split action that Sloan did.
Speaker 7: And so there was Lennie Wilkins, there was some there
Speaker 7: was some influence from some of his former coaches that
Speaker 7: he was considering piecing together. But how would this all
Speaker 7: work with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. And so the
Speaker 7: the take on it was a hybrid of that of
Speaker 7: those things, knowing that Steph still had to have the
Speaker 7: ball in his hands. And as we grew with Steph
Speaker 7: and that team, the reality was is that we couldn't
Speaker 7: take Steph's kind of Mustang spirit away. From him. So
Speaker 7: he was going to make mistakes, he was going to
Speaker 7: throw the ball around a little bit, and he was
Speaker 7: going to shoot from wherever we wanted. And that was
Speaker 7: good because if we started to talk about shot selection
Speaker 7: or this is a good shot, there was a bad shot,
Speaker 7: we felt like that would take away his spirit and
Speaker 7: we wanted that spirit because it was it was a
Speaker 7: brilliant spirit. So he sort of showed us what he
Speaker 7: was capable of, and I think Steve, without contradicting myself,
Speaker 7: bridled that enough to you know, to make it click
Speaker 7: with all with all the others. So we had to
Speaker 7: live through some of those crazy shots, but some of
Speaker 7: those crazy shots went in. So is that a crazy
Speaker 7: shot or is that a brilliance of this player? And
Speaker 7: so we we learned that that was one of the stuff,
Speaker 7: you know, strengths, and.
Speaker 10: It really changed the game with the range he had
Speaker 10: and the ability to shoot early in the shot clot
Speaker 10: where he maybe you're going to get something better if
Speaker 10: you run in and play, but we let stuff and Clay
Speaker 10: both go.
Speaker 1: With Curry as free and confident as ever, the small
Speaker 1: details of his game began to improve, making him something
Speaker 1: the game had never seen before. A mix of grace,
Speaker 1: skill and killer instinct that could get his buckets from
Speaker 1: anywhere on the floor. Somehow, he was better than the
Speaker 1: previous season, an MVP season, because he read the game
Speaker 1: so much better. According to Fraser, he.
Speaker 7: Learned how to move without the ball. That was something
Speaker 7: that he hadn't done much of prior to that time.
Speaker 7: I've mentioned this about the Memphis series. He learned how
Speaker 7: to relocate a similar he learned how to set screens
Speaker 7: for others. He's a brilliant screamer. And then he became
Speaker 7: a much better passer. He was always a capable passer,
Speaker 7: but he learned how to pass. So the evolution of
Speaker 7: stuff Curry as a player and the skill set evolved,
Speaker 7: and the evolution of stuff.
Speaker 11: Is as kind of the maturity of his game started
Speaker 11: to grow too. And that's where it is now that
Speaker 11: that was those were growing years for him to start
Speaker 11: to see the game in different ways and then to
Speaker 11: utilize it to his skill set. And so the championship
Speaker 11: was proof that this is the way he could be elite,
Speaker 11: not just in a high ball screen or not just
Speaker 11: in a one.
Speaker 7: On one action. He could be elite by using all
Speaker 7: of these tools to perfect his game, and he had
Speaker 7: the people around him Andre Rudala, Andrew Boget, brilliant passer,
Speaker 7: Sean Livingston. He had these guys that could get him
Speaker 7: the ball in places that he was unstoppable, and he
Speaker 7: moved those places and they cater tuned. So I think
Speaker 7: I think the mindset for him was I can evolve
Speaker 7: in this way.
Speaker 1: Steph wasted no time showing off the new, finer details
Speaker 1: of his game in the fifteen to sixteen season. Chef Curtain,
Speaker 1: as Drake first called him in a twenty thirteen song
Speaker 1: zero to one hundred, was cooking with the sauce from
Speaker 1: the jump, scoring forty in his first game, then fifty
Speaker 1: three in his third game, both coming against the poor
Speaker 1: New Orleans Pelicans.
Speaker 3: Got babit switched out on a hurry for three and
Speaker 3: fifty one.
Speaker 1: Fuck, he makes believers out of it, but they still
Speaker 1: don't get.
Speaker 7: Up any closer.
Speaker 12: Hurry, He's going to go to the line.
Speaker 4: He hits New Orleans for forty opening night.
Speaker 13: And sitting on fifty two right now fifty three.
Speaker 1: Step talked to Warriors sideline with Porter ros Goold on
Speaker 1: Blue Day after the game about his ever lengthening range.
Speaker 7: So hard this season.
Speaker 14: It looks like you are getting very comfortable taking deep, deep,
Speaker 14: deep deep threes.
Speaker 1: Are you working on that? I mean, what is your range?
Speaker 1: Is there anywhere that you hesitate?
Speaker 15: I mean, with that reason, bruh, I hope that I
Speaker 15: keep making him. It gives me that much more confidence.
Speaker 15: Is if you mess a couple in a row, No,
Speaker 15: I get a little bit close if we keep shooting.
Speaker 15: But I mean, as long as I'm making him, I'll
Speaker 15: keep taking them.
Speaker 3: Within those but then rhythm.
Speaker 1: That fifty three point game would already be, by advanced
Speaker 1: statistical measure, his best complete game of the season, but
Speaker 1: it was just the beginning of jaw dropping shooting performances.
Speaker 1: He was in such a comfort zone to start this season,
Speaker 1: Curry put on some of the more efficient shows of
Speaker 1: his career, like the time he visited his hometown of
Speaker 1: Charlotte on December second, with his father Dell watching, as
Speaker 1: he normally does in these contests because he's the color
Speaker 1: analyst on the Hornets TV broadcast. Curry dropped forth, but
Speaker 1: he did so on just eighteen shots with four free throws.
Speaker 1: It sounds like a mathematical riddle, but he managed forty
Speaker 1: points because he hit fourteen of his eighteen shots for
Speaker 1: a seventy eight percent clip, including eight of his eleven
Speaker 1: three point attempts.
Speaker 16: Curry just incredible, Hope, That's what he does. He is
Speaker 16: the best shooter on the planet today and he knows it.
Speaker 1: He delivered. Now, I can totally understand if you're confused
Speaker 1: given the reaction of that crap. But yes, that game
Speaker 1: was in sharp. It was a road game. Until it
Speaker 1: was After that game, the Warriors twentieth of the season,
Speaker 1: Curry's team still hadn't lost. They were undefeated and stayed
Speaker 1: so for another four games after that. It would immediately
Speaker 1: spark the question of whether this team could break the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bulls nineteen ninety six mark of seventy two to
Speaker 1: ten as the greatest regular season ever, and the twenty
Speaker 1: four wins to open the campaign broke the record for
Speaker 1: the longest win streak to start a season by nine games.
Speaker 1: It was a magical run in the midst of a
Speaker 1: magical run, two ninety one Boston by one Curry.
Speaker 16: Wow, I want to tell you if that is one
Speaker 16: of the best huts I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Anybody think I'm ne'.
Speaker 5: A minute to go in the game, Green they want,
Speaker 5: you know, they want Curry handling the ball and Harry coups.
Speaker 1: There it goes, ooh, you didn't be that wasn't just
Speaker 1: another roadkie. That was teeny Garden in Boston.
Speaker 17: Don't think we didn't hear a good amount of cheers
Speaker 17: mixed in with those groans. The Warriors were becoming a
Speaker 17: phenomenon everywhere, but it was missing something someone.
Speaker 1: To be more precise, Steve Kerr had not been a
Speaker 1: part of it. Two days into training camp, the Warriors
Speaker 1: coach decided to take time off to address complications from
Speaker 1: what was supposed to be a simple back procedure to
Speaker 1: repair a ruptured disc.
Speaker 18: So you know, when you when you have a surgery,
Speaker 18: you asked, you know, what are the what are the risks?
Speaker 18: And so I, my, my, my surgery was the least
Speaker 18: risky of any vacks. You know, it's the most basic
Speaker 18: micro diskected me where there you have a ruptured disc
Speaker 18: and they're just taking the pieces of the discount. And
Speaker 18: so I asked about what the risks were, and I said, well, okay,
Speaker 18: well what are the chances of that? And I'm not
Speaker 18: going to get into all the you know, the medical
Speaker 18: detail of what happened, but basically the chances were incredibly
Speaker 18: slim that anything would go wrong, but they did.
Speaker 1: What had been considered routine far as back surgeries go
Speaker 1: turned into a nightmare. During the operation in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: Kerr's dura, the membrane surrounding the spinal cord was accidentally cut,
Speaker 1: allowing some cerebro spinal fluid to leak. The leak caused
Speaker 1: severe headaches and fatigue, and by September of twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: Kerr needed another surgery to address it. He was still
Speaker 1: recovering from said surgery when training camp started, so the
Speaker 1: riggers that come with coaching were impossible for him, and
Speaker 1: the recovery would last far longer than the forty three
Speaker 1: games he missed.
Speaker 18: So it was pretty rough and life changing and changed
Speaker 18: everything in my life in terms of how how I
Speaker 18: had to approach things, how I had to work to
Speaker 18: get my body right, how I had to work to
Speaker 18: manage the chronic pain that ensued headaches. It was a
Speaker 18: challenge of a lifetime and remains that. You know, that
Speaker 18: was the biggest thing that I will ever face because
Speaker 18: health trump's all, you know, the other stuff is all
Speaker 18: all dependent on good health, you know, enjoying your life
Speaker 18: and family and your work and it all is dependent
Speaker 18: on health. So it was a tough, tough time.
Speaker 1: It was terrible.
Speaker 18: It was terrible. I mean I was I was thrilled for.
Speaker 1: The team, but I felt left out.
Speaker 18: You know, I'm laying at home on my bed and
Speaker 18: watching this dominant team win night after night, and I'm
Speaker 18: not there to enjoy being part of it. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 18: It was rough.
Speaker 1: Rick Welts, Warriors, team president at the time, compared this
Speaker 1: extended stretch to the time Curry was battling ankle injuries.
Speaker 1: There was uncertainty surrounding the future of one of the
Speaker 1: key and most treasured figures of the organization.
Speaker 19: Here's Wells one of my scariest times, you know, in
Speaker 19: terms of the people that you're around and you see,
Speaker 19: you know, the challenges that they face. And just as
Speaker 19: you described, I mean just his face was a different color,
Speaker 19: like he just wasn't uh, you know, you could just
Speaker 19: see what he was battling and heroically but but still,
Speaker 19: you know, pain is pain, and there's just no way
Speaker 19: to completely avoid it or basket and you know, stepping
Speaker 19: away in the midst of you know, an amazing run
Speaker 19: playoff run right, and not knowing again if you're going
Speaker 19: to be healthy enough to come back. For the same
Speaker 19: reasons we talked about with Steph, just at that point
Speaker 19: it was such a beloved part of the organization that
Speaker 19: it was it was much more a personal thing than
Speaker 19: it was like value to the team thing, because he
Speaker 19: really wanted for him to recover in a way that
Speaker 19: he could enjoy life the way that he always enjoyed life,
Speaker 19: because that that that life joy he shared with everybody
Speaker 19: around him and continues to to this day.
Speaker 1: The warriors near spotless play for half that season didn't
Speaker 1: mask the pain for Kerk, but it did take attention
Speaker 1: away from the fact he was out. In fact, as
Speaker 1: memory serves, there wasn't that much national sympathy for Kerr
Speaker 1: because we really didn't know how bad the complications were.
Speaker 1: There were, however, raging debates about whether Kerr deserved credit
Speaker 1: for the wins. Those thirty nine wins and four losses
Speaker 1: where the Warriors were coached by assistant Luke Walton, those
Speaker 1: were credited to Steve Kerr. It was a technicality that
Speaker 1: stirred so much debate it even reached Kerr directly before
Speaker 1: he came back to the side, well maybe not directly.
Speaker 18: The last few weeks before I came back, I was
Speaker 18: traveling with the team before I started coaching, and we
Speaker 18: were in Portland and Luke Walton and I went to
Speaker 18: dinner with a couple of the other coaches and he
Speaker 18: jumped in an uber and Luke's in the front seat.
Speaker 18: I'm behind the driver and the driver says, hey, you're
Speaker 18: Luke Walton and he goes yeah. He goes, man, it's
Speaker 18: it's it's bull that coach Kerr is getting credit for
Speaker 18: all your wins. I mean, you're like thirty nine and
Speaker 18: two and they and I read the other day they're
Speaker 18: given the given the credit to coach Kerr. He gets
Speaker 18: the wins on his record, and we just it was
Speaker 18: it was so fun.
Speaker 20: We ran with it, you know. We all started chirping
Speaker 20: away like yeah, it's such cool like and he's too
Speaker 20: like that guy, you know, and he's taking credit for
Speaker 20: and he's not even here.
Speaker 1: Fraser was one of the coaches in that uber. He
Speaker 1: remembers Walton nailing the dismount. At the end of the
Speaker 1: car ride.
Speaker 7: We get to the restaurant, we got out of the
Speaker 7: car and Luth looks at the driver, said, Hey, what
Speaker 7: your name? Guy's mad. He's like came out meet Steve Kerr. Guy,
Speaker 7: guy who turned like ghostly white. It's funny that you know,
Speaker 7: and Steve's got a good sense of Umisoda's luke.
Speaker 1: So Kerr would struggle with back pain and headaches even
Speaker 1: after returning, still occasionally taking time away from the team,
Speaker 1: including during the twenty sixteen playoffs. As a sideline reporter,
Speaker 1: I'd get access to Kerr before games along with the
Speaker 1: rest of the broadcast team, and around this time he
Speaker 1: often looked and sounded miserable. He tried to be as
Speaker 1: pleasant as he'd always been and share stories like he
Speaker 1: always had, but you can tell he was grinning through pain.
Speaker 1: He couldn't sit properly in his chair. His face was
Speaker 1: some combination of gray and pale green. His smile was
Speaker 1: certainly forced, and this was after he'd been back for
Speaker 1: some time. Needless to say, Kerr absolutely needed those forty
Speaker 1: three games off. And while Walton's part in this usually
Speaker 1: just restarts the debate about who deserves the wins, the
Speaker 1: assistant coach who's now with the Detroit Pistons deserves a
Speaker 1: ton of credit for nurturing this dynasty at a key period.
Speaker 1: Bruce Fraser noticed Kerr's condition at the start of training
Speaker 1: camp and notified Welton of what might come.
Speaker 7: I don't want to sound like some whisper or some
Speaker 7: of here, but I went to Luke and I said,
Speaker 7: you you should be ready to coach this team. And
Speaker 7: he's like, what I said, I don't know if he's
Speaker 7: going to be able to do it, and he looked
Speaker 7: at me like I was crazy. I said, you better
Speaker 7: start preparing. And to credit to Luke, you know, Luke
Speaker 7: prepared and was had the respect of the players in
Speaker 7: a good way where he was he was a relevant
Speaker 7: former player and capable, very very bright basketball mind. You
Speaker 7: don't always get that through just talking to him because
Speaker 7: he's pretty laid back, you know, California draws, but he's
Speaker 7: very very bright mind and the player is Actually our
Speaker 7: team was so such a well oiled machine at that
Speaker 7: point after that first year and all the patterns that
Speaker 7: we had rehearsed and gotten better at with what we
Speaker 7: were doing. That credit to those guys. They they not
Speaker 7: only were really good at, you know, the things we
Speaker 7: had put in, but they gave Luke a lot of
Speaker 7: rope and wanted to do well for him too, so
Speaker 7: he had the respect of the players. I think they
Speaker 7: knew that they gave him rope with some of our
Speaker 7: you know ato's, and they came execution me. Luke and
Speaker 7: I had a kind of a running joke. We had
Speaker 7: a play called dive roll, which was just sort of
Speaker 7: fake ball screen into a high ball screen for Steph.
Speaker 7: And anytime we weren't certain of what we may want
Speaker 7: to do, Luke would looked at me and say dive
Speaker 7: roll and start laughing because we knew that that was
Speaker 7: going to be the ball into STEP's hands and there's
Speaker 7: a good chance something good was going to happen.
Speaker 1: Behind Steph. The Warriors dived and rolled to a thirty
Speaker 1: nine and four record on pace to break the record
Speaker 1: for the best season ever. The difference in Curry was evident.
Speaker 1: His three point attempts jumped from eight point one in
Speaker 1: his first MVP season to eleven point two to a
Speaker 1: game in the fifteen to sixteen season, yet he shot
Speaker 1: those with even better efficiency. His scoring increased by more
Speaker 1: than six points to a league leading thirty point one
Speaker 1: a game, the largest leap ever for an MVP. Steph
Speaker 1: finished fourth in the Most Improved voting that year also
Speaker 1: but lost in a landslide to Portland CJ. McCullum. Just
Speaker 1: like Rookie of the Year back in OH nine, Steph
Speaker 1: probably should have won this award too. If there was
Speaker 1: one moment where you could identify how confident Curry felt
Speaker 1: in what would be his second MVP season, and the
Speaker 1: moment the entire NBA realized Curry must be guarded anywhere
Speaker 1: and everywhere. It was at the end of an overtime
Speaker 1: game in Oklahoma City on February twenty seven. After the break,
Speaker 1: we hear from Mike Breen himself on what may be
Speaker 1: the most memorable single shot in Steph Curry's career and
Speaker 1: the origin of the double bang. Klay Thompson had already
Speaker 1: scored thirty two, Draymond Green had fourteen assists, six steals,
Speaker 1: and four block shots, and yet the Warriors in thunder
Speaker 1: wearin overtime and tied at one eighteen. Russell Westbrook missed
Speaker 1: a jumper with eight seconds remaining, which Andre Iguidala rebounded
Speaker 1: and kicked over to Curry. Having already nailed eleven three
Speaker 1: pointers in this game, Curry casually brought the ball up
Speaker 1: the left side of the court, and when he was
Speaker 1: parallel to the r in the thunder logo mere steps
Speaker 1: past half court, Curry launched one of the gutsiest regular
Speaker 1: season shots, a thirty seven foot bomb that had everyone shot.
Speaker 1: He heard this call at the top of the episode,
Speaker 1: but it's well worth hearing again. They do have a
Speaker 1: time out decide.
Speaker 3: Not to use of Curry quite on.
Speaker 7: A step of.
Speaker 2: Curry what six steps of a second remating but probably
Speaker 2: a choice of stuff.
Speaker 9: But continues.
Speaker 1: If Andre Rogerson, the defender on that play, who recognized
Speaker 1: the situation a smidge too late, was the most shot
Speaker 1: by Steph's launch, then Mike Breen was clearly second. Breen
Speaker 1: had already coined the term bangon for whenever a player
Speaker 1: would hit a big shot. This shot by Curry was
Speaker 1: the first double bang of Breen's career. There would be
Speaker 1: a handful of others over the years, but this was
Speaker 1: the double bang origin moment.
Speaker 13: That was the epitome of the self confidence that he
Speaker 13: has and has always had. And you know, and so
Speaker 13: he'll tell you all the time, his self confidence is
Speaker 13: from all the work put into getting to that point.
Speaker 13: But there was nobody in the building but Steph Curry,
Speaker 13: who thought he was going to put off the shot
Speaker 13: when he did, he had a little extra time. The
Speaker 13: thunder didn't think he was going to shoot it there.
Speaker 13: I certainly didn't think he was going to shoot it there.
Speaker 13: I had to play catch up on the call because
Speaker 13: I didn't expect it, and just again's that's the ultimate
Speaker 13: self confident shot by the greatest shooter who's ever played.
Speaker 13: It's a complete out of body experience. I don't plan it.
Speaker 13: It just was so shocking and it happened so quickly
Speaker 13: that I kind of lost my mind, and I remember
Speaker 13: thinking after like, did I go over the top there?
Speaker 13: Because I felt like I that's as much as I
Speaker 13: ever lost it on a call. But it the moment
Speaker 13: deserved it because of who he was, what they were doing,
Speaker 13: and what he just did.
Speaker 1: This was already four months into STEP's unanimous MVP season,
Speaker 1: and the surprise were still coming. Defenses didn't know what
Speaker 1: to do with him, and the wins were piling up.
Speaker 1: Entering April of that season, the Warriors were sixty eight
Speaker 1: and seven. That meant they could afford to lose two
Speaker 1: of the final seven games and still break the Chicago
Speaker 1: Bulls record of seventy two and ten. That seemed like
Speaker 1: a guarantee. This team hadn't lost more than two games
Speaker 1: in any month of the season. Surely going five and
Speaker 1: two would be a cakewalk to end it. Not so fast.
Speaker 1: On April first, the Warriors, in what seemed like a prank,
Speaker 1: suffered their first home loss of the season to the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics. It was April and Golden State had been
Speaker 1: undefeated at.
Speaker 12: Home, no home losses this season. Golden State's gonna need
Speaker 12: a miracle to keep that. Going down three to eight
Speaker 12: point three to go, it is living stint to trigger
Speaker 12: two players down, no timeouts, has to get it in
Speaker 12: three at the top, to Curry.
Speaker 21: Step fix free for the time to go, Timpson to
Speaker 21: barn stepp back free for the time. And the Boston
Speaker 21: Celtics have stopped the record run at home of the
Speaker 21: Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: Then, after a recovery win against the Blazers, the Warriors
Speaker 1: lost another home game, this one feeling even more like
Speaker 1: a joke because it was to the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves
Speaker 1: behind a career best thirty five points from Shabbaz Mohammad,
Speaker 1: Remember him, It's okay if you don't.
Speaker 5: Bosma, I mean ol has fed off fire. He has
Speaker 5: thirty ports.
Speaker 1: That meant Golden State needed to win its final four
Speaker 1: games to break the record. For context, seventy to ten
Speaker 1: is one of those sports numbers that people just knew,
Speaker 1: especially NBA fans. It was Michael Jordan's nineteen ninety six
Speaker 1: Bulls team, the first full season after he came back
Speaker 1: from retirement. They went on to dominate the postseason and
Speaker 1: were widely considered the best team ever.
Speaker 5: By five lighty shirts are trampis show that choke.
Speaker 1: Before it six year as like a three bust products, eighty.
Speaker 5: Shot shot, bar shoring wild one day shot.
Speaker 1: Nike even released a seventy too to ten pair of
Speaker 1: Jordan eleven's that were all the rage I had a pair,
Speaker 1: truly cementing that season as one that will live in
Speaker 1: the minds of basketball fans forever.
Speaker 4: And the first time in the history of the NBA
Speaker 4: that one player has won the regular season Most Valuable Player,
Speaker 4: All Star, Most Valuable Flier, and NBA Finals, a tremendous
Speaker 4: accomplishment by Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1: So for the Warriors to best that, it would not
Speaker 1: only mean they'd be in the conversation at the best
Speaker 1: team ever, but it would mean anything short of a championship.
Speaker 1: Would be wildly disappointed that come playoffs, everyone's record starts O.
Speaker 1: And oh, so, what does the regular season wins record
Speaker 1: really mean if it didn't get you any extra advantages
Speaker 1: in the postseason. Yes, the Spurs were giving chase and
Speaker 1: finished with sixty seven wins, but there was still a
Speaker 1: six game gap between the two teams at season's end.
Speaker 1: In fact, when the Spurs and Warriors played on April tenth,
Speaker 1: the game was meaningless in the standings and only mattered
Speaker 1: because the Warriors were chasing that record. In the second
Speaker 1: to last game of the season, the Warriors needed overtime
Speaker 1: to beat a thunder team that sat both Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook. So the road to seventy three wins
Speaker 1: most turbulent at the end when the games didn't actually
Speaker 1: mean that much. In the regular season finale, Golden State
Speaker 1: faced a Memphis team that still had something to play for,
Speaker 1: jockeying for playoff position with the Rockets and Mavericks. The
Speaker 1: game was such a big deal as they chased the record.
Speaker 1: ESPN broadcast the game simultaneous to Kobe Bryant's final game
Speaker 1: on ESPN two. The Warriors looked like they'd coast to
Speaker 1: the record win, going up by fourteen points in the
Speaker 1: first quarter, So most of the viewing audience stuck with
Speaker 1: the Kobe game after that, and those folks were rewarded
Speaker 1: by watching Kobe drop sixty in his final game.
Speaker 12: Well, Kobe, give them one last gamer. Bryant ti the
Speaker 12: move with the jumper.
Speaker 1: Ye I have sneakers for that game also. But the
Speaker 1: greater historical accomplishment was happening in Golden State. The Warriors,
Speaker 1: behind a player who'd soon be named the first unanimous MVP,
Speaker 1: would finish the best regular season in NBA history.
Speaker 4: That's official number seventy three.
Speaker 1: The greatness regular season.
Speaker 4: In NBA history now belongs to the twenty sixteen gold
Speaker 4: and State Warriors.
Speaker 1: Steph talked with Doris Burke on the court after the game.
Speaker 7: What kind of.
Speaker 14: Character has been required from your guys in the pursuit
Speaker 14: of this historic marks?
Speaker 15: That's everything for us. We have There's so many guys
Speaker 15: that sacrifice that. Everybody has a role in this team,
Speaker 15: and you can say they come in every night with
Speaker 15: that focus of playing a run the best of ability
Speaker 15: and just knowing that's gonna be the best way for
Speaker 15: rest of win games. So practice days, travel days, Dana
Speaker 15: days fifty all being locked in and tider together, that's
Speaker 15: gonna take me.
Speaker 14: Yeah, in what way did the pursuit of this mark
Speaker 14: help you? And what will ultimately be your goal, which
Speaker 14: is a championship? How did this pursuit help that?
Speaker 15: I mean, it just keeps us focus down the stretch.
Speaker 15: We don't have any room for er. You know, we're
Speaker 15: getting everything's best shot, and for us to keep that
Speaker 15: playoff kind of mentality and that playoff focus for our
Speaker 15: ultimate goals, obvious championship. These last two weeks have been
Speaker 15: mentally and physical challenges, So I think it's made us
Speaker 15: better and we'll be fresh with this wecaus.
Speaker 1: At the time, no one would publicly question the decision
Speaker 1: to attempt to set the record despite not needing it
Speaker 1: to claim the number one overall seat. That's probably because
Speaker 1: at the time no one could envision this Warrior's team
Speaker 1: losing in the postseason. But in the Warriors' locker room,
Speaker 1: there were private discussions about how to approach the final
Speaker 1: few games. Andrew Boget sounds regretful when he talks about
Speaker 1: this team decision, the.
Speaker 9: Plays in that locker room that wanted to go for
Speaker 9: seventy three and nine. There were plays that will like,
Speaker 9: let's just be healthy, and I get it, like we're
Speaker 9: going to create history seventy three and nine. But the
Speaker 9: argument from the guys that were like let's just be
Speaker 9: healthy is seventy three and nine doesn't mean I don't
Speaker 9: win the championship. So we as a group, the majority,
Speaker 9: were like, Okay, let's just we're going to roll the
Speaker 9: dice and go for it. We probably could have risted
Speaker 9: guys towards the end of that season, made sure that
Speaker 9: we're fine for the playoffs. So whatever is in the playoffs,
Speaker 9: we'll go guys banged up.
Speaker 1: Right, Injuries can happen in the postseason also, and one
Speaker 1: injury in particular did happen in these twenty sixteen playoffs.
Speaker 1: Steph Curry didn't suffer the most serious of setbacks, but
Speaker 1: it was easily the most significant of this postseason, and frankly,
Speaker 1: it probably would have happened even if the Warriors had
Speaker 1: rested Steph down the stretch of the regular season. In
Speaker 1: the first round against the Rockets. Just before halftime of
Speaker 1: Game four, Golden State had its worst scare possible. Curry
Speaker 1: had already missed the previous two games of this series
Speaker 1: with a sprained ankle he suffered in Game one, and
Speaker 1: he wasn't playing like his usual As the final seconds
Speaker 1: were ticking off the second quarter clock and Trevor Ariza
Speaker 1: was dribbling up the floor for one last shot, James
Speaker 1: Harden and Dinazis Mantiunis clipped feet as they were heading
Speaker 1: up court. That sent Mantiunis sliding on his back for
Speaker 1: about ten feet, leaving a streak of sweat on the
Speaker 1: floor behind him. As Curry was trying to get in
Speaker 1: defensive position in front of Arisa, he slid on that
Speaker 1: fresh Montiuna sweat, sending his feet spraying in opposite directions.
Speaker 1: The inside of Curry's right knee hit the court and
Speaker 1: he immediately grabbed at it, writhing in pain. As the
Speaker 1: halftime buzzer sounded, he not up.
Speaker 13: Yet, still time remaining, Orisa trying to find some room.
Speaker 4: Curry falls down and grabs his right leg.
Speaker 13: Curry asking for help to get up.
Speaker 3: He fell awkwardly and immediately grabbed his right leg and
Speaker 3: you see him hobbling.
Speaker 1: Right now, Curry suffered that great one mcl spring on
Speaker 1: April twenty four. He didn't play again until May ninth,
Speaker 1: and probably would have sat out longer if it was
Speaker 1: the regular season. Now, Steph did have forty points off
Speaker 1: the bench in that comeback game, leading the Warriors to
Speaker 1: an overtime win and hitting the crowd with an I'm
Speaker 1: back after one of his five May threes.
Speaker 13: Warriors could add to their lead.
Speaker 22: Now Curry left wide open right between the eyes and
Speaker 22: then on the bench and details the fans I am back.
Speaker 22: I am back for he is in a big way too.
Speaker 1: But for the rest of these playoffs, the playoffs where
Speaker 1: Golden State needed a championship to complete a dream season,
Speaker 1: Curry would look slightly off. Steph would need his splash
Speaker 1: brother to step up. After the break we learn how
Speaker 1: Game six, Clay was born. Steph Curry would hit five
Speaker 1: threes to close out the Blazers in five games and
Speaker 1: reach the conference finals. But against the Thunder step would
Speaker 1: have two of his worst playoff games, Games one and four,
Speaker 1: and the record setting Warriors suddenly found themselves down three
Speaker 1: games to one to Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Speaker 6: That is the first time first season a Warrior for them,
Speaker 6: after having the possible seven FIA Hive Thunder or conference
Speaker 6: last seasons under the eight finals that they lost showing
Speaker 6: it all at out there flashing Game five about a
Speaker 6: possible close out so nice.
Speaker 1: The next few games would spark discussion around Curry. Was
Speaker 1: he actually physically limited by the knee injury or was
Speaker 1: a nation full of Steph Curry fans creating excuses for
Speaker 1: a player who we wanted to see succeed. In the
Speaker 1: Game one loss at home, Steph shot forty percent with
Speaker 1: seven turnovers. In a crucial Game four, he shot it
Speaker 1: even worse, for just nineteen points with six turnovers. Whether
Speaker 1: or not Curry was physically capable of carrying Golden State
Speaker 1: was unclear. What was clear he wouldn't have to do
Speaker 1: it alone. The Warriors won Game five with the Splash
Speaker 1: Brothers combining for fifty eight. Then in Game six, Clay
Speaker 1: Thompson managed to take all the attention away from Steph's
Speaker 1: knee with a season saving Game six performance that earned
Speaker 1: him the simple but fitting nickname Game six Clay.
Speaker 8: Eight point lead for a fog.
Speaker 1: Chris Thompson a.
Speaker 16: Just checked by it pops out of.
Speaker 8: Play now roll those fed a final twelve at of
Speaker 8: the season.
Speaker 16: Right Mada.
Speaker 1: Top shot a rate fall of three top way.
Speaker 8: Topsho Roveros has three quarter by off reapond the times made.
Speaker 1: In what was his signature playoff game in a career
Speaker 1: filled with them, Thompson scored nineteen of his forty one
Speaker 1: points in the fourth quarter. It was a fourth quarter
Speaker 1: that began with the Warriors trailing by eighth and their
Speaker 1: season on the brink.
Speaker 8: Over Give him alive for up Topson, time of shooting,
Speaker 8: water shot, fight play Chompson.
Speaker 5: He is putting off a top difficult three point shot exhibition.
Speaker 1: That's all the heart and will. He's challenging itself. He
Speaker 1: doesn't want to go home unless it's.
Speaker 6: The play game seven.
Speaker 1: The fourth quarter started with three threes from Clay to
Speaker 1: keep his team close. After Steph played his part and
Speaker 1: tied the game at ninety nine with his sixth and
Speaker 1: final three of the game, Thompson would hit his eleventh
Speaker 1: three moments later, giving the Warriors the lead for good.
Speaker 1: Then Clay hit two free throws to close out the
Speaker 1: game and send the series to a game seven. In open.
Speaker 22: Again.
Speaker 8: It was Equidado Thompson fires for three, Yes, Golden State
Speaker 8: one three.
Speaker 1: The Warriors went on to win a nervy game seven
Speaker 1: behind thirty six from Steph and another six threes from Clay,
Speaker 1: reaching their second straight NBA Finals. They'd prepare to face
Speaker 1: Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers again.
Speaker 6: Right, we'll cut it out, Lash, We'll shall here.
Speaker 8: Oh Colorida, Lania sto coming over the tenth two out
Speaker 8: of two hundred twenty three to win a Rush threw
Speaker 8: twel We were getting still walk now.
Speaker 1: Had the Thunder went on to win that Western Conference finals,
Speaker 1: a matchup between Kevin Durant and Lebron James would have
Speaker 1: been a welcome sight for the NBA. Durant had been
Speaker 1: trying to reach James's level of winning, and it would
Speaker 1: have been his second chance at Lebron in the finals,
Speaker 1: having lost to the Miami Heat in twenty twelve. But
Speaker 1: there was something about a rematch between Lebron and Steph
Speaker 1: that felt like it was the best possible option, even
Speaker 1: if they had just based off the previous year. Deep down,
Speaker 1: it was only right there we got an opportunity to
Speaker 1: play Colden State after lap and last year me personally,
Speaker 1: I wanted to see Gold State again the force of
Speaker 1: James and the Big three Caves versus the grace of
Speaker 1: the Splash Brothers, or simply could Lebron v. Kerry be
Speaker 1: the modern day Magic b Birth. It would be a
Speaker 1: matchup that would spoil there happen for four straight fights.
Speaker 1: But NBA fans weren't tired of this matchup just yet.
Speaker 1: Mike Breen called all of those fins and he certainly
Speaker 1: didn't mind the rematch.
Speaker 9: And you can't.
Speaker 13: You can't think that way because every season is so different,
Speaker 13: and just from the standpoint, if they brought back the
Speaker 13: exact same rosters the next season, it's so different. Then
Speaker 13: you throw in injuries, you throw in contract situations, and
Speaker 13: can you stay together, So there's no guarantee even if
Speaker 13: you're the best team by far, even if you come
Speaker 13: back home the next year, there's so many things that
Speaker 13: can go differently, and that's the hard way to predict,
Speaker 13: both with those two teams, and probably the fans of
Speaker 13: twenty eight other franchises will completely disagree with me. Both
Speaker 13: with those two teams. If it did happen, you knew
Speaker 13: you had something special because not only were they great teams,
Speaker 13: but you're looking at two of the greatest players to
Speaker 13: ever play at their particular positions and overall in the NBA,
Speaker 13: and the fact that it could lead to a rivalry
Speaker 13: and one of them is going for a dynasty. It's
Speaker 13: the stuff that makes history and what makes the game
Speaker 13: so great.
Speaker 1: The problem for the Warriors at the moment was health.
Speaker 1: Curry's injuries were already noted, but there was another key
Speaker 1: thing the last year's Finals MVP that was also working
Speaker 1: through some knack and pink. It was exactly the vision
Speaker 1: Boge didn't want to see after his team made the
Speaker 1: choice to go for seventy three wins.
Speaker 9: Andre Udala was dealing with a bunch of stuff. Steph
Speaker 9: was dealing with stuff. The Goodala thing was big because
Speaker 9: he was the guy that limited Lebrondi before. He's back
Speaker 9: couldn't moved. He's back was meant up the whole final series.
Speaker 9: We start well, we blow him out in the first
Speaker 9: two games. It's obviously three to one, and then then
Speaker 9: the Draymond thing happens.
Speaker 1: Ah, Yes, the Draymond thing. The Golden State Warriors had
Speaker 1: the most versatile defender in the Lee League and Draymond Green.
Speaker 1: If they had one of the best communicators in the
Speaker 1: league in Draymond Green, they have the perfect compliment to
Speaker 1: the Splash Brothers and Draymond, But they also have one
Speaker 1: of the louder voices in NBA history, one of the
Speaker 1: most demonstrative players in NBA history, and a player who
Speaker 1: often needs to play with unbridled emotion just to get
Speaker 1: the best out of himself, especially in the biggest games.
Speaker 1: In Game four of the twenty sixteen Finals, with his
Speaker 1: team potentially on the verge of winning a second straight
Speaker 1: championship and after the record setting regular season preparing to
Speaker 1: hold the fictional but meaningful title of best team ever Green,
Speaker 1: lets some of those qualities get the worst of them,
Speaker 1: and with one angry swipe of an arm, he changed
Speaker 1: the course.
Speaker 3: At sports history, greated James, joying at each other, We'll
Speaker 3: play the tenures like a dollar, the full off that
Speaker 3: goal and a couple of fouls gonna be called on.
Speaker 1: The next dub dynasty. I wanted to see it, man,
Speaker 1: I wanted to see the royal rumble. And I was
Speaker 1: so excited when we got eight in the Finals of
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, because that's what it felt like when we
Speaker 1: were going over the Bay Bridge.
Speaker 6: I just remember being on the back of the bus
Speaker 6: with all our guys and you know, Lebron speaking that
Speaker 6: you know this, it's already written. Man.
Speaker 18: They opened up the door sometimes that that anger comes out,
Speaker 18: and in some ways we're similar in that regula.
Speaker 13: You just knew that that was one of the most
Speaker 13: spectacular plays in the heat of the moment, at the
Speaker 13: most critical moment that I've ever seen.
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