If They Win The Title, Can We Start Appreciating The Golden State Warriors?

The Golden State Warriors have done some amazing things these last two seasons. They won the championship last year but because Cleveland was not at full strength, questions have been asked about their validity as a great team.

Let me start this off by saying that I am a fan of what the Golden State Warriors have done but I am not a Golden State Warriors fan. As a basketball fanatic I am in awe of what they have achieved and I am a little but annoyed that their validity as a great team has been questioned so much.

It started last year when they won the championship but did not beat a full strength Cleveland Cavaliers team who lost their starting power forward Kevin Love to a shoulder injury in their first round matchup with the Boston Celtics.

Then in Game 1 of the NBA Finals they lost their starting All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving to that knee injury which makes me cringe to this day when I see him walking on it.

Let me tell you why this is not actually relevant. Golden State had the best record in the entire NBA last season going 67-15. This mark was equal to the sixth best record at the time.

That is only five games off the regular season record held by the Chicago Bulls who had a superstar in Michael Jordan, the best modern day rebounding player is Dennis Rodman and the everything man Scottie Pippen.

Last season the Warriors had a superstar in Stephen Curry, a three point marksman and solid defender in Klay Thompson and the triple-double machine power forward in Draymond Green.

Obviously both teams had long and talented benches, but my point is that both teams have superstars. I digress.

The Warriors were playing in the Finals against a Cleveland side that, even when healthy, had a regular season record of 53-29 — not even good enough for first place in the Eastern Conference. In fact, this record was only good enough for seventh in the NBA.

What evidence is there that a healthy Cleveland could have outplayed Golden State? They split their two regular season games with one win apiece, with the home team winning both times. With a better record and home court advantage, logic would state that the Warriors would win.

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Aside from the championship, Golden State also had Stephen Curry win the MVP. There were some people, especially James Harden, who believed that he should have won it.

Andre Iguodala also won the finals MVP for the job he did on LeBron James.

The Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers started the campaign against Golden State by saying that they were lucky as they did not have to beat them or the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs. He then tried to retract his statements, saying that they were not heard in context.

I though the Western Conference champions were the ones that won three rounds against Western Conference opponents, whoever they were up against.

The fact is that the Clippers were knocked out second round of the playoffs by Houston and had a 3-1 losing record in the regular season against the Warriors. To me this says that their statement appears to be a little bit of hot air and posturing.

Then Cleveland said that if they would’ve been at their best they would have won. Once again this seems to be a little posturing for the reasons stated above.

Still, what this did is cast a little bit of doubt on Golden State and their achievements.

So what did Golden State do in their time off between seasons? Did they date a Kardashian and come back to camp out of shape? No. Curry went and worked harder at improving his game. He improved his scoring alone from 23.8 points per game last season to this winning the scoring title this season with 30.1 points per game.

Not only did he do that but he then led the Warriors to an all-time NBA record of 73-9. On top of that, Curry won his second straight MVP award.

Still the comments come. Stephen Curry is ruining basketball, apparently. Kids want to be like Curry so they’re heaving shots when they are not in good positions. So what happens when those shots don’t go? The team has a greater chance of learning.

No kid I know likes to lose, so the ones heaving the shots from long range will be reined in and they will learn fundamentals.

Why is it so different from Michael Jordan? Is it because no one could do what Michael did? Well, I certainly could not, I was six foot with a three inch vertical leap but I still pulled off my Jordan moves, badly.

I am also very poor with my ball handling skills but I tried to copy the Tim Hardaway crossover as well, badly.

Kids will try to emulate the successful heroes all the time, with differing success. But again, I digress.

So with Curry leading the team, the last two years have equated to two MVP awards, one Finals MVP award, one championship (so far), a Coach Of The Year award for Steve Kerr this year and a combined regular season record of 140-24.

They have also set other records as well, like most threes in a season by an individual — 402 set by Curry. This broke his own record of 286, which was set last year. Third on the list is Klay Thompson with 276, set this year.

Curry has also led the league in three-point field goals made four years in a row, which is two more times than any other player has done it consecutively.

As a team Golden State had the longest opening stretch of a season without losing a game, collecting 24 straight wins.

The Warriors have clearly been the best team for the last two years. Why is it then that they were lucky to win the championship last year because of the Cleveland injuries?

I don’t know if winning this year’s championship will cut the comments down, but I really hope that they do die down.

More hoops habit: Golden State Warriors: 10 Keys To Beating The Cavaliers

This is a special team with so much talent playing together under a coach who is in his second year, so is only going to get better.

Let’s appreciate what we have in front of us.