Speaker 1: Dubb Dynasty is a production of iHeartMedia and the NBA.
Speaker 2: Hard We backs off on Tom's hold and he exploded
Speaker 2: it go. That was brilliant, every bit as good as
Speaker 2: Richmond's move in the first half. Pretty miraculous move. He
Speaker 2: left Isaiah just nailed to the floor.
Speaker 3: It got the entire Warriors bench on its feet.
Speaker 2: The killer Crossole.
Speaker 1: Slices and dice perfections.
Speaker 3: Five minutes to go on the third seal by.
Speaker 2: Redford behind the left.
Speaker 4: The hardaway, by the.
Speaker 2: Way, lays it up in there. Ron hagens better than
Speaker 2: Needle the wrichment.
Speaker 5: He does can.
Speaker 2: Richmond opened from nineteen.
Speaker 6: He kills it.
Speaker 2: He had a new season high for Mitt Richmond.
Speaker 4: Nolle runs out another rebound.
Speaker 2: He's opened from the perimeter down it.
Speaker 7: It's tip cold and standing intercepts a mask and the
Speaker 7: Warriors tip won game, the first Golden State playoff win
Speaker 7: at the Forum since nineteen sixty nine. The series is
Speaker 7: tied at one game apiece.
Speaker 1: Those were some highlights from one of the more popular
Speaker 1: Golden State Warrior teams that previously mentioned. Run TMC squad
Speaker 1: led by Tim Hardway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris mok The
Speaker 1: one that kickstarted my love for the NBA and a
Speaker 1: team that was beloved just as much as any of
Speaker 1: the championship Warriors. Since I'm Israel Gutierrez and this is
Speaker 1: dubb Dynasty. Those run TMC Warriors reached the second round
Speaker 1: of the playoffs in nineteen ninety one, beating David Robinson's
Speaker 1: Spurs in the first round, then losing to the eventual
Speaker 1: Western Conference champ, the LA Lakers. The team didn't get
Speaker 1: much of a chance to build on that momentum because
Speaker 1: the innovative head coach Don Nelson was also a bit
Speaker 1: of a mad scientist. He saw a new age six
Speaker 1: foot eight point forward named Billy Owens who'd been drafted
Speaker 1: by the Sacramento Kings, and Nelson had to have them.
Speaker 1: So he traded Mitch Richmond for Owens and tinkered with
Speaker 1: the chemistry that already seemed ideal. But what we all
Speaker 1: saw in those couple of run TMC years was a
Speaker 1: glimpse into the future. Nelson got the most of his
Speaker 1: small ball approach, it appeared, but maybe there was more.
Speaker 1: Was run TMC really just a decade's early preview of
Speaker 1: the famous death lineup? You'll hear about several more times
Speaker 1: in this series. Chris Mullin himself certainly credits Nelson for
Speaker 1: his vision.
Speaker 8: Don Nelson was an innovator way ahead of his time.
Speaker 8: As you said Israel, he had implemented that similar system
Speaker 8: in Milwaukee. A great, great team in Milwaukee with Marcus
Speaker 8: Johnson's City, Moncrief, Bob Lanier, Paul Pressey, Brian Winters. They
Speaker 8: had a really, really good team. But Nelly was still
Speaker 8: using bigs. He had Bob Lanier a Hall of Fame center.
Speaker 8: When he came to Golden State, Nelly went almost exclusively small.
Speaker 8: You know you referenced that San Antonio series, you know,
Speaker 8: that's that particular series. In the first round was five games.
Speaker 8: We lost the first game, we got blown out, and
Speaker 8: Nelly came in the locker room and said, we got him.
Speaker 2: So what Kyle Like, what do you mean we got him?
Speaker 9: He just blew us out.
Speaker 8: So they had David Robinson, Terry Cummings, Sean Elliott. They
Speaker 8: were a big traditional NBA team. Larry Brown was the coach. Nellie.
Speaker 8: The next game he started Mitch tim and I with
Speaker 8: Rod Higgins and Mario Ellie.
Speaker 4: That's right, Mario Eli making his first NBA start once
Speaker 4: he got Don Nelson has backing up as a lot
Speaker 4: of laa six.
Speaker 7: Foot five John camp Powder out of America in the
Speaker 7: National twenty seven year old rookie by way of the CBA.
Speaker 8: That was his answer to go extremely small. We wound
Speaker 8: up winning the next three games.
Speaker 7: Gold and State Lawyers advance to the semi finals to
Speaker 7: play the Los Angeles Lakers. This is their eighth con
Speaker 7: second win counting regular season here at the Coliseum. They
Speaker 7: lost the opener and then swiftly the next three. Larry
Speaker 7: Brown and the Spurs could never solve the small, quick line.
Speaker 2: Up and the big three of Golden State.
Speaker 8: So yes, way ahead of his time. A lot of
Speaker 8: teams are playing small now. You see four out, one,
Speaker 8: eight or five out at times, trying to spread the
Speaker 8: floor outside of three point line, penetrate the paint, off
Speaker 8: the dribble, kickoff for threes. But Nellie, you know, Nelly
Speaker 8: was old school teaching principles before he took plays. Spacing, pace,
Speaker 8: attack off the dribble, don't overdrible. If you don't beat
Speaker 8: you man at three dribbles, give it up. You know
Speaker 8: he didn't like guys over dribbling. But if you straight
Speaker 8: lines and beat your man, go make a play. But
Speaker 8: always Nelly always liked balance of attack. He loved he didn't.
Speaker 8: He liked a three point shot. We didn't shoot as
Speaker 8: many back then. We shoot it, but we didn't. But
Speaker 8: he loved. He would always preach shoot open shots as opposed.
Speaker 8: You know now you see with the defense is taking
Speaker 8: away his free point line in the layup, all that
Speaker 8: real estate in between, which analytics says is a bad shot.
Speaker 2: Nellie would call those layups.
Speaker 1: The small ball philosophy wasn't Don Nelson's alone, He just
Speaker 1: happened to be the most committed to it yet. In
Speaker 1: the big picture. While Nelly's tiny teams were fun to
Speaker 1: watch and occasionally surpassed expectations, the fatal flaws always remained true.
Speaker 1: Small teams didn't defend well enough, and eventually, when defenses
Speaker 1: reached playoff level, some of those jump shots either won't
Speaker 1: be open or just won't fall. It's why by the
Speaker 1: start of the twenty fourteen fifteen season, the Warriors had
Speaker 1: made a handful of adjustments to what was widely viewed
Speaker 1: as the classic dreaded jump shooting team. Part of what
Speaker 1: unlocked Steph Curry's potential wasn't just two full strength ankles.
Speaker 1: It was the Warriors moving on from a more stable
Speaker 1: body but less sustainable game in monte Ellis, well, they.
Speaker 4: Gave it right back to Ellis Elvans for the how
Speaker 4: pretty is he in the open boy?
Speaker 2: Check it out? Never booked at.
Speaker 3: The bath mante Ellis.
Speaker 10: Great breed anticipation by monte.
Speaker 2: Ux cut about it. Ellis Aldrick just left it. We
Speaker 2: can't leave Vonta Ellis.
Speaker 4: Ellis doing what he does best. Yeah, what he does best.
Speaker 5: Is score, though you cannot give him any space at all.
Speaker 1: Ellis had been a nice piece of the We Believe
Speaker 1: Warriors team that upset the Dallas Mavericks in the first
Speaker 1: round of the playoffs in two thousand and seven. For
Speaker 1: more about that team a little later, and by the
Speaker 1: time Curry was drafted, Ellis had graduated to the team's
Speaker 1: leading scorer and seemingly its centerpiece. But during Curry's rookie year,
Speaker 1: the six foot three Ellis infamously told the Bay Area
Speaker 1: media before the season ever started that he couldn't play
Speaker 1: with Curry, not in the Kobe Bryant era anyway, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: you can't put two small guys out there and try
Speaker 1: to play the one in the two. When you've got
Speaker 1: big two guards in the league, you just can't do it. Okay, yes,
Speaker 1: we're gonna move up and down fast, but eventually the
Speaker 1: game is gonna slow down. You can't do it. So
Speaker 1: count Ellis is a disbeliever and small ball if you will.
Speaker 1: But he was correct in a way. He didn't say
Speaker 1: the front court had to be huge. He just said
Speaker 1: two small guards couldn't survive in the NBA when the
Speaker 1: game slows down, so happens. At the same season Ellis
Speaker 1: got traded, the Warriors were playing a six foot five
Speaker 1: rookie two guard off the bench named Klay Thompson, who
Speaker 1: was about to prove to be the real reason Ellis
Speaker 1: was expendable. It would be a prophetic statement from Ellis then,
Speaker 1: because even after leading the Dubs and scoring for two
Speaker 1: plus seasons, the Warriors would trade their most popular player.
Speaker 1: This was during Steph Curry's most injury shortened season, a
Speaker 1: time when Golden State was still uncertain just how that
Speaker 1: right ankle of Curries would hold up after an off
Speaker 1: season of repair and care. And it was for a
Speaker 1: player who had never averaged as much as sixteen points
Speaker 1: a game in a season, a player who only had
Speaker 1: five playoff games of experience to his name, and who
Speaker 1: wouldn't play the rest of that season and miss a
Speaker 1: good portion of the following year because of injuries as well.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a gamble, to say the least. It
Speaker 1: was no surprise at all that the Warriors fans took
Speaker 1: it terribly when Golden State, still supposedly writing the excitement
Speaker 1: and potential of new ownership, traded Ellis to Milwaukee for
Speaker 1: former number one overall pick Andrew Bogan. David Lee had
Speaker 1: already experienced the organizational makeover and survived. This trade reaction
Speaker 1: was quite the site.
Speaker 3: Three years into my tenure there. It was all new executives,
Speaker 3: all new coaching staff, all new front office, even like
Speaker 3: the secretaries and the offices were different. The only people
Speaker 3: left on the team where me and Steph were the
Speaker 3: only two people that were held over. And so you know,
Speaker 3: we could see that when they were bringing people in,
Speaker 3: it mattered to them that the team that there were
Speaker 3: chemistry guys that could build a culture, and that was
Speaker 3: something that I think previously the ownership felt was lacking
Speaker 3: a little bit. They had some talent along the way,
Speaker 3: but not everybody yet along.
Speaker 1: Real well, the fans of the team weren't getting along
Speaker 1: with Warriors decision makers. I not to sound dramatic, but
Speaker 1: according to Golden State fans, the Ellis trade was the
Speaker 1: worst thing to happen to the franchise ever, and they
Speaker 1: were loud about it.
Speaker 3: I'll never forget going out at halftime they said, oh,
Speaker 3: we're going to introduce, you know, the new ownership, Joe
Speaker 3: Lakeup's going to give a speech. And him getting up
Speaker 3: there and after making that trade, he was booed off
Speaker 3: the court and I mean just sitting there and Boot
Speaker 3: and Pa and the fans are yelling at them because
Speaker 3: they were such monteo as fans. Rightfully, So and so
Speaker 3: Boga came in and not only did he arrive to
Speaker 3: the booze, but also didn't play his first year because
Speaker 3: he was coming off of an injury.
Speaker 1: What Lee didn't recall, That's how jarring the booze were
Speaker 1: with the fans. Did this during Chris Mullen's jersey retirement ceremony.
Speaker 4: I think we have one.
Speaker 5: Other thing to do that Noway, he saved the rest
Speaker 5: for last.
Speaker 1: Let's bring up the owner of the Gold's dead Warriors.
Speaker 1: Mister Joe Laiell, what.
Speaker 10: Tonight? How we got that over with tonight is about
Speaker 10: two things. Embracing history and respect the Warrior's ownership, the
Speaker 10: current Warriners our owners I think it's very important to
Speaker 10: embrace history. Something has been done in the past, perhaps
Speaker 10: as well. And when you speak of Warrior's history, there's no.
Speaker 1: One Chris Mullen himself would try to come to Lake
Speaker 1: Ofb's rescue.
Speaker 2: I got I.
Speaker 3: Got it.
Speaker 2: As the greatest fans in the NBA.
Speaker 8: As everyone stated, sometimes change is inevitable and it's gonna
Speaker 8: work out.
Speaker 2: Just fine.
Speaker 8: With your support and patience and use that passion and
Speaker 8: the direction.
Speaker 3: This thing is going in the right way.
Speaker 8: I've got great con.
Speaker 10: Since Joe Mark Jackson, everything will work out just fine,
Speaker 10: just a little bit of patience, use that.
Speaker 1: Passion that's so cringe worthy you don't even need to
Speaker 1: see it to feel it. It was such a sudden
Speaker 1: turn from optimism in twenty ten when Lake bought the
Speaker 1: team to this just two years later. But just as
Speaker 1: shocking about that clip was how precient Chris Mullin was.
Speaker 1: The Warriors not only turned it around, but they were
Speaker 1: a mere three seasons away from a championship and the
Speaker 1: start of one of the most incredible runs in NBA history.
Speaker 1: It's among the greatest. I told you sos in sports.
Speaker 1: Larry Riley, the same riot who pulled the trigger on
Speaker 1: drafting Curry, would get full throated blamed for moving on
Speaker 1: from the twenty six year old Ellis so hastily.
Speaker 11: We had just made the drunk and mister Joe lakem
Speaker 11: walked out to the court and boy here it just
Speaker 11: rained with booze and the media went not so they
Speaker 11: were on my case. Larry Riley doesn't know what he's doing,
Speaker 11: And there were all kinds of times like that. The
Speaker 11: reason that I thought we could do it was I
Speaker 11: still saw Clay as a player who wished about me,
Speaker 11: and I thought losing Mintey opened the door for Clay Thompson.
Speaker 1: There was that name, again, fitting that Clay Thompson was
Speaker 1: rather unassuming in his college days, despite having a father, Michael,
Speaker 1: who played in the NBA. Because it's how Clay would
Speaker 1: somehow remain despite being a major player in a sports
Speaker 1: soap opera. Clay would prove to be the perfect fit
Speaker 1: alongside Kurt the anti Monte if you will, in large
Speaker 1: part because he didn't snatch up all the attention, because
Speaker 1: he didn't need to dribble much at all. Because if
Speaker 1: Curry's jump shot was textbook, Clay's was biblical.
Speaker 11: The quick release, of course is important, but then the
Speaker 11: form and the rotation on the ball was always consistent,
Speaker 11: and I always felt like at the point of release,
Speaker 11: everything was right where it should be. There are some
Speaker 11: players who have got their elbow out a little bit
Speaker 11: when they start out, but when they get to the
Speaker 11: point of the release, if it's consistently where it should be,
Speaker 11: that's not even a problem. He had that point of
Speaker 11: release where it was quick and everything was where it
Speaker 11: should be. He wasn't making shots by luck, he was
Speaker 11: certainly a shooter.
Speaker 1: With the eleventh pick in the twenty eleven NBA Draft,
Speaker 1: the Golden State.
Speaker 7: Warriors select Clay Thompson from Washington State University.
Speaker 12: I'm I'm extremely excited about it because I've seen Steph
Speaker 12: play a lot, and that kid can pass the ball,
Speaker 12: and you know, with us in the backcourd on me
Speaker 12: on the wing, I just think we'll be able to
Speaker 12: space to floor so well together because you can both
Speaker 12: shoot that ball. So I'm excited. You have there and
Speaker 12: play with a point guard like him, because I know
Speaker 12: he really has a good knowledge.
Speaker 3: Of the game.
Speaker 1: Despite that praise, there was nothing obvious about Thompson that
Speaker 1: made him the Warriors pick at number eleven that summer.
Speaker 1: On the board was a potential star in Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 1: who was drafted four picks later. Drafted just ahead of
Speaker 1: clay By the nearby Sacramento Kings was Jimmer fer Deck,
Speaker 1: a player with splash ability but certainly not the size
Speaker 1: or the complete game as Thompson, and had the Warriors
Speaker 1: gone with their other choice at the time, you would
Speaker 1: have seen Mark Keith Morris, one half of the Morris Twins,
Speaker 1: in a Warrior's uniform, trying to be the perfect compliment
Speaker 1: to Steph Kurt Minor. Note that seems a bit more
Speaker 1: significant now. Jimmy Butler was also on the board for
Speaker 1: the Warriors in that draft, but he went number thirty overall,
Speaker 1: the last pick in the first round, to the Chicago Bulls.
Speaker 1: When we come back the story behind how the Splash
Speaker 1: Brothers got their name and changed the games that twenty
Speaker 1: eleven twelve NBA season, Thompson's rookie season and the year
Speaker 1: step suffered his worst ankle injuries, and the year the
Speaker 1: Warriors traded Ellis also happened to be a lockout shortened season.
Speaker 1: It was a compact season where about the only thing
Speaker 1: that went right for Golden State was Klay Thompson finishing
Speaker 1: sixth in the Rookie of the Year vote. Even Bogan,
Speaker 1: who had little success in Milwaukee to start his career,
Speaker 1: didn't think of Golden State as any sort of favorable destination.
Speaker 9: We only went there once a year with a Milwaukee box,
Speaker 9: so I didn't get a real good experience there, but
Speaker 9: knew that they weren't really good. I don't have much success,
Speaker 9: kind of a turnstall of an organization. It's kind a
Speaker 9: similar to Milwaukee in away where people got their players
Speaker 9: got there, they didn't want to stay there long term.
Speaker 9: They used it as a year or two to get
Speaker 9: their numbers up and get paid somewhere else. So that's
Speaker 9: kind of the feel that I got when I got there,
Speaker 9: And it was kind of you know, when we got there,
Speaker 9: it was you know, there was a lot of fans
Speaker 9: that were just happy to see basketball but didn't really
Speaker 9: worry about winning. You know, it's still still sold out
Speaker 9: most games, or was close to full at Oracle even
Speaker 9: when they were you know, had twenty win seasons, which
Speaker 9: was really impressive.
Speaker 1: Basically, Boget wasn't sure if management knew what they were
Speaker 1: doing either. It must have made for the occasional sleepless
Speaker 1: night for the decision makers involved. The very next season, however,
Speaker 1: more of this extended story started falling into place that
Speaker 1: included a lovable nickname that, let's face it always adds
Speaker 1: to the likability factor of a team right run TMC.
Speaker 1: The Splash Brothers, as Steph Curry and Klay Thompson became
Speaker 1: known seems like a moniker that's been around since the
Speaker 1: day the first two stepped on the court. To get
Speaker 1: it actually took a couple of seasons.
Speaker 5: Les Splash Brothers getting rid of them play three.
Speaker 1: That's the two were such obviously great shooters that their
Speaker 1: first coach at at Tandem, Mark Jackson, would constantly make
Speaker 1: boastful claims about them, including calling them the best backcourt
Speaker 1: shooting pair of all time.
Speaker 5: But we got guys that can knock down shots. When
Speaker 5: you talk about you know, Klay Thompson and Steph Curry,
Speaker 5: in my opinion, that the greatest shooting backcourt in the
Speaker 5: history of the game, and I'm a guy that's just
Speaker 5: not throwing that out there. I followed basketball my entire life,
Speaker 5: not only played covered, but I was a fan as
Speaker 5: a kid. I watched the great players, and these two
Speaker 5: guys were absolutely off the charts.
Speaker 1: The best shooting back court of all time doesn't quite
Speaker 1: roll up off the tongue is easier. Thankfully, a game
Speaker 1: in December twenty twelve helped condense it. The game was
Speaker 1: against Charlotte then the Bobcats, where Stephan Clay combined for
Speaker 1: twelve three pointers and forty seven points in a Golden
Speaker 1: State win.
Speaker 5: The second game in a row with Eagles, his career
Speaker 5: pass with seven threes, he.
Speaker 7: Does more threes in any game, and his tired career
Speaker 7: marks in the NBA.
Speaker 1: At halftime of that contest, a writer for the team website,
Speaker 1: Brian Witt, updated Stephan Clay's performance with the hashtag and
Speaker 1: splash Brothers. The team liked it and encouraged him to
Speaker 1: continue using it, so it took off from there. David
Speaker 1: Lee had a triple double in that game, by the way,
Speaker 1: but I guess snow lovable nickname for him, the Splash
Speaker 1: Brothers Moniker actually has Bay Area roots as another pair
Speaker 1: of fake brothers because they Cansako and Mark McGuire once
Speaker 1: dominated the sports scene as members of the Oakland Athletics.
Speaker 1: Those four giant forearms combined to hit so many home
Speaker 1: runs for the A's that they became known as the
Speaker 1: Bash Brothers, sending baseballs into the atmosphere and celebrating by
Speaker 1: high fiving forearms instead of hands. The Splash Brothers didn't
Speaker 1: have a signature celebration. Steph would certainly establish himself as
Speaker 1: the king of the signature sellys, but they did have
Speaker 1: a signature. They would rain jump shots, but there was
Speaker 1: a newfound defensive element to their approach. Mark Jackson wasn't
Speaker 1: just good at instilling confidence in players. He understood that
Speaker 1: defense was a necessary companion to win at a high level,
Speaker 1: and he taught it well. The Warriors had crept up
Speaker 1: from twenty seventh in the league in defensive raiding the
Speaker 1: previous season three spots from the bottom to fourteenth in
Speaker 1: the twenty twelve thirteen season. It was a significant jump,
Speaker 1: and one that propelled the Warriors into the twenty thirteen playoffs,
Speaker 1: their first postseason since two thousand and seven and just
Speaker 1: their second in eighteen years.
Speaker 2: Just listen to the crowd.
Speaker 1: You guys are the best fans in the NBA.
Speaker 2: You deserved this as.
Speaker 3: Much as we do.
Speaker 4: So Hooray to go.
Speaker 1: The six seeded Warriors beat the number three seed Denver
Speaker 1: Nuggets in six games, a lot like that run TMC
Speaker 1: team that upset the San Antonio Spurs back in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety one. This scene the moment in time the Warriors
Speaker 1: truly made it on the NBA fan radar.
Speaker 4: Shot clocket six, Cream put a free stepping Couriers close
Speaker 4: four to.
Speaker 3: Give.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just that the team had won a playoff series,
Speaker 1: but they did it and rather vincent fashion, and because
Speaker 1: of an injury to David Lee in the first game,
Speaker 1: also went with a run tnc type mentality, going small
Speaker 1: thanks to versatile talents like Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green.
Speaker 4: Let's jap away by Thompson's good prop by loss of that's.
Speaker 2: Yet god.
Speaker 4: Going and steak go to the second round.
Speaker 2: Let's succeed keep them free.
Speaker 11: Well.
Speaker 3: I remember, first of all, to start that season, I
Speaker 3: remember reading on on ESPN they had an article, you know,
Speaker 3: the kind of season preview, and they gave us a
Speaker 3: zero percent chance of making the playoffs, not a five percent,
Speaker 3: not a seven zero percent chance. And I remember we
Speaker 3: put that up in our locker room and we said,
Speaker 3: so they're giving us no chance, and we make the playoffs.
Speaker 3: And we saw such an improvement that year, but we
Speaker 3: were going to face a very tough, you know, Denver team.
Speaker 3: I mean they were stacked. They had a lot of
Speaker 3: good big guys, they had a lot of guards that
Speaker 3: could really play, and they had home court against us.
Speaker 3: So we were going in saying, let's put up as
Speaker 3: good of a fight as we can try to steal
Speaker 3: one of these on the road. I tear my hip
Speaker 3: flexer in the first game, and it was one of
Speaker 3: those things that coaches like, look, you know, we're really
Speaker 3: going to struggle, but let's try to do something different.
Speaker 3: Let's go small ball and we'll have and we'll have
Speaker 3: Harrison and Draymond with a little bit of boget and
Speaker 3: let's just see what happens because Denver wants to get
Speaker 3: out and run. Anyways, and ended up being a perfect
Speaker 3: matchup and they won I believe, Game two, and then
Speaker 3: came back home and took care of business in that series.
Speaker 3: And I think that series was not only a turning
Speaker 3: point for the franchise to kind of announce it their back,
Speaker 3: but also it really caught the eye of a lot
Speaker 3: of people nationally where Golden State became one of those
Speaker 3: teams because of Stephan Clay's shooting that people were like,
Speaker 3: while we really like watching these guys and we can't
Speaker 3: wait to watch more of them in the future.
Speaker 1: And they happened to convince a certain all star forward
Speaker 1: that he might want to join the Warriors and free agency.
Speaker 1: Andre Iguidala was a crucial member of those George Carl
Speaker 1: coach Nuggets, but after the surprising series was over, Carl
Speaker 1: was accusing Iguadala of passing along team secrets to the Warriors.
Speaker 1: It was acclaim Agwadala and the Warriors readily dismissed, but
Speaker 1: Iguadala would make his way over to Golden State that
Speaker 1: offseason as a free agent, a move largely influenced by
Speaker 1: the crowds he experience in Oakland during that first round series.
Speaker 1: He also noticed a team that was breaking league stereotypes.
Speaker 1: Defense and toughness weren't supposed to be part of a
Speaker 1: team led by a couple of elite shooters with a
Speaker 1: cutesy nickname. Surely Iguadala was leaking intel if these Warriors
Speaker 1: were bullying the bullies. Andrew Bogitt is certain that wasn't
Speaker 1: the case, however, and that George Carl was reaching for answers.
Speaker 9: Yeah, he was trying to say that. I think that
Speaker 9: he was leaking stuff to it was a sneach or
Speaker 9: a spy, like leaking the game intel or scouting to us.
Speaker 9: I didn't hear that once, So I didn't hear Mark
Speaker 9: Jackson mention any of that to us. So yeah, I
Speaker 9: mean it would have if I'd assume if he tom
Speaker 9: Mark Jackson or someone on our staff and things, we'd
Speaker 9: have it in our scating report. We never had any
Speaker 9: of that. We didn't really need it, to be honest
Speaker 9: with you. They are pretty predictable with what they were
Speaker 9: going to do over the course of the series, so
Speaker 9: we felt like we had a pretty pretty good spot.
Speaker 9: But that was It was an interesting series on a
Speaker 9: number of fronts. You know, they were they were a
Speaker 9: team that we struggled with years before I got there,
Speaker 9: and a few other guys got there, and I think
Speaker 9: bringing some physicality and some guys that weren't scared to
Speaker 9: stand up to those you know, Kindeth th Reid and
Speaker 9: those kind of guys, I think was really important. And
Speaker 9: you know, we just we just outplayed him for the
Speaker 9: most part in that series. And you know, I think
Speaker 9: that was you know, coming our party for a lot
Speaker 9: of guys, but just shown that we had a versatile
Speaker 9: group that could I mean, given night, anyone could have
Speaker 9: fifteen twenty points.
Speaker 4: Probably tracing the town, resetting, hand off, curry off this
Speaker 4: foot boga, little game of trust, shot cock a truck,
Speaker 4: what get the us up in the four inside up
Speaker 4: pick in the town.
Speaker 9: And we could put physical you, we could outshoot you.
Speaker 9: And I think it really started to.
Speaker 11: For us.
Speaker 9: It changed narrative of us. Like I think a lot
Speaker 9: of people, you know, even even in the championship years
Speaker 9: and whatnot, it was always like we're a running gun
Speaker 9: team and we're just shooting a bunch of threes. People
Speaker 9: didn't realize that we were doing a lot of grunt
Speaker 9: work at the other end, and it kind of went unnoticed,
Speaker 9: which was good because everyone just thought we were this
Speaker 9: you know, d' antonio type and Phoenix Suns team that
Speaker 9: that that soft and just wants to shoot threes. But
Speaker 9: we weren't, and I think teams got a shop when
Speaker 9: they came into players because they thought it would be
Speaker 9: that easy pace with them. But defensively we will really
Speaker 9: solid as well.
Speaker 1: The Warriors would actually get even more solid defensively as
Speaker 1: that Denver series progressed. That's because an injury to David
Speaker 1: Lee in Game one kept him out of the final
Speaker 1: game of that series and opened the door for more
Speaker 1: Draymond Green minutes. Green was in his rookie season, still
Speaker 1: trying to find exactly where he'd fit in next to
Speaker 1: a former All Star like Lee and future greats like
Speaker 1: Stephen Clay. He was irregular in the rotation, but his
Speaker 1: minutes would vary greatly even late in his rookie season.
Speaker 13: Shooting thirty six percent from downtown Draymond Green what moved
Speaker 13: fading in the lane greene with an offensive rebound Thompson
Speaker 13: Lade Thompson stay tune was took Lady hardaway.
Speaker 4: Jack.
Speaker 2: Chap him by Green.
Speaker 1: Even after Green was drafted by now with Bob Myers
Speaker 1: promoted to general manager making final draft decisions, the Warriors
Speaker 1: weren't exactly sure how Draymond would translate to the NBA.
Speaker 1: Riley was still assisting Myers. At the time, the team
Speaker 1: was scouting Draymond and he noticed a winner's approach.
Speaker 14: I'm on board of Raymond.
Speaker 11: And here's why I go to watch I don't know
Speaker 11: two or three times at least. I go to Ohio
Speaker 11: State University late in the year, snow, I like predictions
Speaker 11: that snow blowing sideways and it's an afternoon game, great crowd,
Speaker 11: and Graymond just works and works and works. He rebounds,
Speaker 11: he fights people. He's a winner. And I came out
Speaker 11: of that gym shot the Stein Arena thinking, okay, if
Speaker 11: there's a way to get to this guy.
Speaker 14: Not maybe too high, but he is a winner.
Speaker 11: And then there's all the criticisms about it, listens being
Speaker 11: too small, too short, won't be able to rebound in
Speaker 11: the NBA like he has the college doesn't make shots
Speaker 11: and all those kind of things. Some of the shot making, Okay,
Speaker 11: I gather it. But this guy's a winner. He plays hard,
Speaker 11: he will defend, he will rebound. And I always felt rebounding.
Speaker 11: If you can rebound in college and you are a
Speaker 11: play it can't be a dud and just get some rebounds.
Speaker 11: But if you can rebound in college and you are
Speaker 11: a player that normally he's going to translate.
Speaker 1: Green's game began to transform around his splashier brothers in
Speaker 1: that Denver series. Once the second round series against the
Speaker 1: Spurs started, Green was playing thirty eight minutes in a
Speaker 1: double overtime game, still off the bench, effectively getting the
Speaker 1: important minutes that token starter and fellow rookie festus A
Speaker 1: Zili was not. Lee noticed Green's influence whether he was
Speaker 1: on the floor with him or not.
Speaker 3: He always had the attitude, always had the work ethic,
Speaker 3: always had the grit, and the knowledge of the game.
Speaker 3: Is a very smart player. But I'm not sure anybody
Speaker 3: expected a second round pick to come in and ever
Speaker 3: be a starter. And when given more opportunity, he played
Speaker 3: even better. And I think it became very clear that
Speaker 3: his relationship with Steph and his ability to find stuff
Speaker 3: and put Steph in positions to be as productive as possible,
Speaker 3: which with the player that Steff was becoming, that's what
Speaker 3: we needed was a bunch of guys around that could
Speaker 3: support Steph and make him better, and Draymond was the
Speaker 3: perfect guy to do that. Set a lot of great
Speaker 3: screens do all the dirty work. Steph defensively has gotten
Speaker 3: better at the time wasn't great, and Draymond was kind
Speaker 3: of that guy that was like, hey, when you get beat,
Speaker 3: I'm there and then I'm back to my man. So
Speaker 3: he did a lot of things that some people would notice,
Speaker 3: and you know, the casual fan would notice some of it,
Speaker 3: but when you really dove into the numbers, him with
Speaker 3: Steph was a great combo. And I mean you've seen
Speaker 3: that now many years since then it's proven to be
Speaker 3: the truth.
Speaker 1: The Warriors lost that series opener by two points after
Speaker 1: two extra sessions. They eventually fell in six games to
Speaker 1: a Spurs team that went onto the NBA Finals and
Speaker 1: was a defensive rebound away in Game six of those
Speaker 1: finals from winning it all. Who can forget that ray
Speaker 1: Allen three pointer that changed the course of NBA history.
Speaker 2: James Catchers clutch up with three. We'll go five sack
Speaker 2: count Adam his three second.
Speaker 1: Yet it was a series the Warriors felt they could
Speaker 1: have won if that opening game had just ended differently.
Speaker 2: Here's anoble but three time, I don't state dispersely. Is
Speaker 2: it upset with general things?
Speaker 4: Three point ten?
Speaker 9: There is?
Speaker 2: He's not upset on that three point a time of
Speaker 2: Mark Jackson made.
Speaker 8: Me upset with this defense because they did not communicate
Speaker 8: and they left the man wide open.
Speaker 1: Who knows what would have happened if the Warriors win
Speaker 1: that game that series, maybe go on to meet Lebron
Speaker 1: James in the NBA Finals a little earlier than scheduled. Still,
Speaker 1: the Warriors were able to benefit by not advancing, perhaps
Speaker 1: a theme that would continue in this story, because it
Speaker 1: kept Iguidala extremely interested in Golden State while Andrea was
Speaker 1: being pursued by the Nuggets, Kings, and Mavericks, all of
Speaker 1: them effectively maxing out what they could pay him. The
Speaker 1: Warriors were desperately trying to make room for the Do
Speaker 1: Everything Forward. It wasn't until they could move on from
Speaker 1: the contracts of Richard Jefferson and Andres Biadrin's Thank You
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz, that the Warriors could finally offer Igwadala what
Speaker 1: he needed to sign. It wasn't as much as those
Speaker 1: other teams were offering, but it was enough to get
Speaker 1: Iguadala into the fold. Yet the following season, despite healthy
Speaker 1: seasons from Steph Clay and Draymond, despite the Iguadala edition,
Speaker 1: despite another season under Mark Jacks and the additional bench
Speaker 1: boost from Maury Spates. The Warriors still lost in the
Speaker 1: first round in seven games to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Speaker 1: It probably should be noted that this was quite the
Speaker 1: moment in NBA history for another reason. While the teams
Speaker 1: were playing games three and four in Oakland, TMZ had
Speaker 1: released audio with Clippers owner Donald Sterling making racist remarks
Speaker 1: in a phone call with his then girlfriend Vistiviano. By
Speaker 1: the time the teams came back to Los Angeles for
Speaker 1: Game five, there was a strong possibility that both teams
Speaker 1: would walk off the floor and pro test and not
Speaker 1: play the game. It was mere monthson to Commissioner Adam
Speaker 1: Silver's tenure, and the players were demanding action. Eventually, Sterling
Speaker 1: would have the team taken from him, but the drama
Speaker 1: of that moment was unmistakable. Perhaps it helped push the
Speaker 1: Clippers to a close victory in the series. Regardless, the
Speaker 1: Warriors took their painful l in a very chaotic series
Speaker 1: clippings up.
Speaker 4: Being seven and then advance to the second line. The
Speaker 4: turns of dry the defense of the coach Trump Rivers.
Speaker 8: There was a sis drink.
Speaker 1: They weren't fully healthy, as Andrew Bogett missed the series
Speaker 1: with an injury, but there was still a lingering sense
Speaker 1: of disappointment. Hurts even more because you tasted it before.
Speaker 9: You taste a little bit of success and you want more.
Speaker 11: So definitely stings a little more.
Speaker 1: In last year, the Warriors were supposed to be growing,
Speaker 1: not being surpassed by a team with Blake Griffin and
Speaker 1: Chris Paul. Would a change be necessary Under normal NBA timelines,
Speaker 1: Mark Jackson would have gotten another season at least more
Speaker 1: time to prove the first round exit was the low
Speaker 1: point and not a downward trend. But these Warriors front
Speaker 1: office folks didn't consider themselves traditional thinkers, not when it
Speaker 1: came to NBA decisions, and there was enough bubbling up
Speaker 1: internally that confirmed some of the doubts the front office
Speaker 1: had about Jackson. So just three days after losing that
Speaker 1: Game seven, the Warriors fired Jackson, shocking a lot of
Speaker 1: folks within and outside the organization. Bogitt was one of them,
Speaker 1: but he also understood the thinking.
Speaker 9: Look, I was shocked at they made that decision because
Speaker 9: it was a tough decision. I think as far as
Speaker 9: the organization goes, you know, we just the Warriors had
Speaker 9: I mean, in the playoffs for so long, there's a
Speaker 9: lot of media noise around. They finally made the playoffs,
Speaker 9: you know, two years in a row. But I knew
Speaker 9: that Mark Jackson had done a great job. But I
Speaker 9: thought that he team taking that team as far as
Speaker 9: it can go for a number of reasons. I know
Speaker 9: there were Smith Cord issues that marquad with the organization,
Speaker 9: and I know the locker room was kind of split
Speaker 9: the all guys that loved him and guys that kind
Speaker 9: of were left on the outer I was. I was
Speaker 9: thrown in the middle of that, saying that I was
Speaker 9: one of the guys. I was neither here or there.
Speaker 9: I was kind of I was always my own guy,
Speaker 9: and there was there were some things that went on
Speaker 9: that I didn't agree with, but I supported as part
Speaker 9: of being part of a team. So I think that,
Speaker 9: you know, his started coaching kind of was a springboard
Speaker 9: for Steph getting to where he was because it gave
Speaker 9: him a lot of confidence. He put the ball in
Speaker 9: Steph SAMs a lot. But he was kind of an
Speaker 9: old school New York mentality coach, where you know, if
Speaker 9: you made the last shot, you were getting the ball
Speaker 9: the next play, and you will We're throwing it to
Speaker 9: you until you missed, and then you missed your shot.
Speaker 9: All right, let's go to a clean Now, now you
Speaker 9: get three or four touch as, we'll see how you go.
Speaker 9: And it's just not a fun way to play. It's
Speaker 9: a you know, the team team wasn't very involved with
Speaker 9: very isolation based. Our defense was pretty good under Mark Jackson,
Speaker 9: I think. But I think that that you know, from
Speaker 9: what we understood that there were rumblings between the front
Speaker 9: office and the coaching staff about is this a championship roster.
Speaker 9: I believe the front office staff kind of were inclined
Speaker 9: to say this is building towards a championship roster. I
Speaker 9: think there were people on the coaching staff that disagree
Speaker 9: with that as well. So the visions were a bit
Speaker 9: distorted from what I understand, and I think the change
Speaker 9: was had to be made for the longeviany of the franchise.
Speaker 1: Had to be made. It's not the type of vision
Speaker 1: you expect from team leadership, but it was the type
Speaker 1: of vision this ownership group would need to assure this
Speaker 1: wasn't just another two year flash in the pan. But
Speaker 1: who would match that energy, who was capable of picking
Speaker 1: up where Jackson left off and moving the team forward
Speaker 1: with no setbacks on the NBA. On team, Charles Barkley
Speaker 1: echoed the sentiments of many traditional NBA thinkers.
Speaker 6: Or you had mentioned this last night to Charles, you know,
Speaker 6: and we had even while Golden State was still playing,
Speaker 6: when he was saying, Hey, I'm coaching for my life
Speaker 6: here and that kind of thing.
Speaker 15: I have no idea why he was coaching for his life.
Speaker 16: You know.
Speaker 15: They made the playoffs the one time in seventeen years
Speaker 15: before he got there, and he got him to the
Speaker 15: playoffs back to back years. They were not the team
Speaker 15: that was going to beat the Clippers. The Clippers had
Speaker 15: a better team and they were Minos Bogan.
Speaker 2: Heeck.
Speaker 1: Phil Jackson probably couldn't be expected to make this team
Speaker 1: a champion within a year. But there was an executive
Speaker 1: in Phoenix who had also been a former player and
Speaker 1: a TV analyst, and he was interested in the job.
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr had worked with Rick Welts in Phoenix, and
Speaker 1: Welts was now in the business side of the Warriors franchise.
Speaker 1: Welts knew Kerr was the type of person Golden State wanted,
Speaker 1: one who already understood the relationship the Warriors business side
Speaker 1: and basketball side wanted to maintain. This was perhaps even
Speaker 1: more so than the drafting of Steph Curry, which was
Speaker 1: partially out of the Warrior's hands. The most important decision
Speaker 1: this ownership group would make. Choosing the next leader of
Speaker 1: this group would either unlock this collection of talent or
Speaker 1: it would be the one that would eventually crush this
Speaker 1: group's potential and have players with relatively short careers turning
Speaker 1: elsewhere to find their success. That's how fragile these things are.
Speaker 1: The NBA no pressure after the break. How does Steve
Speaker 1: Kerr keep a fractured team together? And his controversial move
Speaker 1: that was the key to the season.
Speaker 16: You know, I wasn't in the meeting meeting where he
Speaker 16: sat down and came in famously with his binder that
Speaker 16: basically he had, you know, laid out everything that he
Speaker 16: was going to do with the Warriors, and I think
Speaker 16: blew Bob and blew Joe Lake ofm Away.
Speaker 1: That's Rick Wilts Warriors team president at the time.
Speaker 17: But I, like I said, I had the benefit of
Speaker 17: being around it for a few years and observing how
Speaker 17: he interacted with everybody, with players, coaches, people in the office,
Speaker 17: and I knew that again, like as a human being,
Speaker 17: we were getting a really special person who knew a
Speaker 17: whole bunch about basketball, and you know, in terms of
Speaker 17: a face of the franchise, in terms of you know,
Speaker 17: how we knew the Warriors would be presented to the world,
Speaker 17: and how important he would be to that. It was
Speaker 17: everything you could have, you could hope for. He's a champion,
Speaker 17: he had an amazing has an amazing personality. He's a
Speaker 17: great community cater. He treats everybody incredibly well. I mean
Speaker 17: I always remember him walking around the office in Phoenix,
Speaker 17: like he would have a five minute conversation with the
Speaker 17: receptionist before he would ever, you know, come in come
Speaker 17: into the business offices. So like, he treats everybody with
Speaker 17: such respect and honesty and like a genuine, uh desire
Speaker 17: to form a relationship and have it be successful. And
Speaker 17: I think all those things you know for a coach
Speaker 17: are incredibly valuable x's and know's. It was a little
Speaker 17: bit of a risk, right, but I think it.
Speaker 3: Worked out for it.
Speaker 1: Kerr was also being pursued by the actual Phil Jackson,
Speaker 1: who was an executive with the New York Knicks at
Speaker 1: the time. The Warriors were also considering to stand Van
Speaker 1: Gundy a coaching free agent, but Kerr eventually turned down
Speaker 1: Jackson and the Knicks and Joe Lacob and the Warriors
Speaker 1: eventually chose Kerk.
Speaker 18: We picked Steve Kerr when we interviewed him, he was
Speaker 18: incredibly He's obviously very very smart. He had been around
Speaker 18: incredibly great coaches, has five rings. We all felt confident
Speaker 18: that he was the right guy to turn good into great,
Speaker 18: even though he had not coached before.
Speaker 14: I always loved the Warriors brand. I thought they were
Speaker 14: similar to the Sonics in that, you know, basketball crazy
Speaker 14: West Coast town with like, you know, really strong basketball history,
Speaker 14: you know, both at the collegiate level, and you know
Speaker 14: the talent that had come out of the Bay, you know,
Speaker 14: going back to you know Bill Russell and Casey Jones,
Speaker 14: and but then the you know, the the championship in
Speaker 14: the seventies, much like the Sonics, you know, captivating a
Speaker 14: whole region. Every time I came to to Golden State
Speaker 14: as a player to play the Warriors, even though the
Speaker 14: team was rarely good, there was always a buzz in
Speaker 14: the building. It just felt felt really like this is
Speaker 14: a special event, and so My perception of the Warriors
Speaker 14: was probably similar to Joe lakeabs when he bought the team.
Speaker 14: It's a sleeping giant, and so I was excited. My
Speaker 14: daughter was a student at Cal at the time. When
Speaker 14: they offered me the job, It's like, Wow, I get
Speaker 14: to you know, you get to go coach Steph Curry
Speaker 14: and go watch my daughter play volleyball at Cal. That's
Speaker 14: not a bad thing. So it all was such a
Speaker 14: perfect fit for me, being a California native and been
Speaker 14: being so excited about coaching staff and coaching the Warriors.
Speaker 14: It was an amazing opportunity.
Speaker 1: An opportunity. He had a detailed plan for it, hence
Speaker 1: the finder Wick Welts mentioned, Kerk brought with him to
Speaker 1: the Internet and one curR knew he had to start
Speaker 1: immediately that included a trip to the other side of
Speaker 1: the world to visit was starting center Andrew Bok. There were,
Speaker 1: as Bogan mentioned earlier, very big fans of Mark Jackson
Speaker 1: still in Lockwood, so Kerr wasn't just introducing himself but
Speaker 1: making sure he didn't isolate any players who might have
Speaker 1: questioned the decision.
Speaker 9: Yeah, when Steve got hired, I mean the first thing
Speaker 9: he did he went and visited all the guys. He
Speaker 9: actually threw out to Australia for literally forty eight hours
Speaker 9: just to meet with myself face to face and say hello.
Speaker 9: And he knew that it was a bit of frustration
Speaker 9: with the way things went the previous two years, you know,
Speaker 9: with the way we finished seasons off, and he kind
Speaker 9: of wanted to reiterate his kind of commitment to myself
Speaker 9: starting and being an integral part of the defensive unit
Speaker 9: and role and all that kind of stuff. So that
Speaker 9: was important. And then once once training camp started, it was,
Speaker 9: you know, the biggest thing Steve did. He knew that
Speaker 9: Mark Jackson was well liked by some guys in the
Speaker 9: locker room, so he didn't want to come in and
Speaker 9: say kind of throw the the baby out of the
Speaker 9: bath water, like we did a lot of good things
Speaker 9: under Mark Jackson, Like our defense was very good. We're
Speaker 9: going to tweak some things here and there, but we
Speaker 9: want to keep that same philosophies at the same court
Speaker 9: offensively and then run Adams out of our assistant oversaw
Speaker 9: that made and tweaks, but we kept a lot of
Speaker 9: that the same Offensively was where he really wanted to
Speaker 9: change things. And he really, you know, analytically, they got
Speaker 9: some numbers and our passes per possession as a group,
Speaker 9: we're really poor under Mark Jackson, which leads into what
Speaker 9: I said. We were very isolation based, and our turnovers
Speaker 9: were another big thing. We'd have periods where we all
Speaker 9: get loose with the ball. And his biggest thing was
Speaker 9: if we can limit turnovers and get him down to
Speaker 9: a smaller number, just by three or four turnovers a game,
Speaker 9: which is ten points at both ends, and we share
Speaker 9: the ball a bit more. We would try to get
Speaker 9: we always try to get at least fort to five possession,
Speaker 9: but passes per possession. We've got a chance win the championship.
Speaker 9: And you know, you hear all coaches come in, new
Speaker 9: coaches and you get to every team and every team
Speaker 9: says championship three. But did we really believe it at
Speaker 9: that time?
Speaker 14: I don't know.
Speaker 9: I kind of believe was still a little bit away,
Speaker 9: like maybe I have to prove ourselves, get into a
Speaker 9: conference finals, take out bumps, some bruises, and then maybe
Speaker 9: who knows.
Speaker 1: This wasn't the typical spot for a new coach, much
Speaker 1: less a first time coach. Normally a coach is being
Speaker 1: replaced because the organization has struggled and needs a reset,
Speaker 1: and with said reset comes room for air. This job
Speaker 1: came with expectations immediately, maybe not championship expectations, but some
Speaker 1: level of proof that the team was in fact better
Speaker 1: than the group that advanced to the conference semifinals two
Speaker 1: seasons earlier. The job also came with a high standard,
Speaker 1: the Jackson set, which Kerve found to be the largest obstacle.
Speaker 14: I think the biggest challenge was replacing a very popular coach.
Speaker 14: You know, Mark Jackson had done a great job, really
Speaker 14: had flipped the culture of the Warriors, turned them into
Speaker 14: a defensive minded team for the first time, and who knows,
Speaker 14: who knows how long, And I know Mark was very
Speaker 14: popular with the players for a good reason. He had
Speaker 14: done a great job and really empowered Steph and Clay
Speaker 14: to become the stars that they became. And so when
Speaker 14: I got the job, it was it was really unique circumstances.
Speaker 14: You know, usually you don't get a job like this
Speaker 14: where a team is on the rise and has this
Speaker 14: kind of hope right away. And so I just felt
Speaker 14: like the biggest thing was to earn the trust of
Speaker 14: the players, to really respect the job that Mark and
Speaker 14: his staff had done, and let the players know that,
Speaker 14: you know, we were we were here to try to
Speaker 14: help them take the next step, not not tear anything
Speaker 14: down because they had already built something really strong.
Speaker 1: How strong would be the question? Strong enough to convince
Speaker 1: Andre Gudala he should come off the bench for the
Speaker 1: first time in his career, a player who was still
Speaker 1: in his prime and who just took a discounted rate
Speaker 1: to play in Golden State. Apparently so, at least that
Speaker 1: was it with Dolla's assessment, because he made the move
Speaker 1: to the bench with no complaints. Kerr leaning on a
Speaker 1: veteran to make a sacrifice, a vet who happened to
Speaker 1: play at Karazama Mater Arizona was also a veteran like
Speaker 1: move from the rookie coach.
Speaker 14: Well, I mean, Andrea was the unsung hero of that
Speaker 14: whole season. You know he's he was the guy who
Speaker 14: gave up his starting job right away in the first game,
Speaker 14: first game, first time in his entire career he'd ever
Speaker 14: come off the bench eight hundred and something games played,
Speaker 14: and that first night was the first time he had
Speaker 14: ever done it. So I took a leap of faith
Speaker 14: on his part to trust me when I came to
Speaker 14: him with the idea. But I think also that he
Speaker 14: was at a place in his career where he had
Speaker 14: done everything else. He had been an All Star and
Speaker 14: made max money, and he wanted to win in the
Speaker 14: worst way, and so he was willing to trust me.
Speaker 14: I think because of our connection to loud Olsen and
Speaker 14: U of A, and you know, having both played in
Speaker 14: that program, we shared a very similar basketball perspective and philosophy,
Speaker 14: so he trusted me. It didn't take that long, but
Speaker 14: it did take a couple of months, I would say,
Speaker 14: for him to get comfortable in his role.
Speaker 1: Iguadala's role would famously change at the very end of
Speaker 1: curse first season because the Warriors had all the pieces
Speaker 1: in place. They'd set themselves up with a roster they
Speaker 1: were fond of and a coach they thought would get
Speaker 1: the most out of everyone involved, but they'd have to
Speaker 1: face months and months of doubt. Charles Barkley, the default
Speaker 1: voice of the NBA, set the tone back in the
Speaker 1: pre playoffs conference call, saying, quote, they had a terrific season,
Speaker 1: but I don't like jump shooting teams. I don't think
Speaker 1: you can make enough Jumpers to win four series in
Speaker 1: a row. I've said that for twenty five years, not
Speaker 1: just now. I think you physically manhandle them inside. Barkley's
Speaker 1: theory would certainly be tested throughout Kerr's first playoff run,
Speaker 1: and the Warriors would eventually have to face the ultimate Goliad.
Speaker 1: If it was physicality that would bring down the Warriors,
Speaker 1: the six foot eight face and frame of the NBA
Speaker 1: Lebron James would certainly be the person to expose it
Speaker 1: on the next dub dynasty.
Speaker 3: I remember we saw him get it going in the
Speaker 3: third as we'd come into the time out and he's like, Hey,
Speaker 3: I want to run this play and stuff's losen. He goes, David,
Speaker 3: We're not running any place. He's like, play, let's see
Speaker 3: how far we can take this thing.
Speaker 9: It was just still humming, and I think our defense
Speaker 9: was elite. Our rotations were a lead up bench was elite,
Speaker 9: like it will just feed in such perfectly.
Speaker 15: There were a lot of people who doubted sort of
Speaker 15: the way that they were approaching the game.
Speaker 8: Beginnick, it was just this crescendo that started to build
Speaker 8: and it just didn't stop.
Speaker 14: You know, this team had been in the playoffs, the
Speaker 14: previous two years, so they already had playoff experience, so
Speaker 14: it wasn't like I was preaching something that they weren't
Speaker 14: totally aware of, but there was a lot to get
Speaker 14: through to understand how hard it was still it seems.
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