Benoit
02-04-2016, 11:00 PM
Spurs mentioned in this article
The Warriors are ruining the NBA
http://www.gq.com/story/golden-state-warriors-ruining-nba-basketball
The Golden State Warriors—a revolutionary, once-in-a-generation squad led by a scrawny shooter from another planet—are ruining basketball. They haven't done so by inspiring lesser teams or up-and-coming youngsters to jack up ill-advised threes, as has been suggested by Gregg Popovich and Mark Jackson. Instead, the Warriors have managed to play at such a high level and with such gorgeous efficiency that it's put the rest of the NBA to shame.
(http://www.gq.com/story/golden-state-warriors-ruining-nba-basketball)In one week, the Warriors beat the Cavaliers (the top team in the East), the Spurs (a team having a season that, any other year, would be historic in its own right), and the Bulls (third-best in the East), all by 25 points or more. The Spurs game was hyped as one of the most memorable regular-season games, well, ever. Instead, we got yet another Golden State blowout. The Spurs, who in any other year would be the clear favorites to win it all, were dispatched as if they were any other opponent. They looked lost, as if in a stupor, and when the final buzzer sounded an awful truth became apparent: The 2015–16 season was dead, and Stephen Curry had killed it.
Heading into last spring's playoffs, there were four, maybe five legit contenders. This time around, the Warriors are in a class by themselves. The 2014–15 MVP race ballooned to no fewer than six viable candidates. No one's even talking about the MVP now because the award so clearly belongs to Stephen Curry. It's entirely possible that LeBron James won't get a single first-place vote. Golden State is in the rare position of competing almost entirely against themselves and history. Just how many games can they bring themselves to win, how many records can they break, and how will their season stack up against the truly immortal teams of the past?
(http://www.gq.com/story/next-lebron-james-tyger-campbell)
Granted, the disarray in Houston and continued dysfunction in Clipper-land has done much to thin the field. And yes, should some grave injury befall Stephen Curry, this season would become one of basketball's great what-ifs. But with the Warriors having proven their dominance over even the Spurs and the Cavaliers, it has become increasingly difficult to take this year's NBA seriously as a competitive sport. At the time of David Blatt's firing, I speculated that Cleveland's drubbing at the hands of GSW proved that in their current state, the Cavs just couldn't hold their own against Western Conference powerhouses, and, more importantly, they knew it. It was a concession made to delay the reality that for everyone but Golden State, 2015–16 is a lost season.
Think about it: We're not even at the halfway mark, and yet already the Finals appear to be a foregone conclusion. This has a chilling effect on even the most diehard NBA consumer. Your options are to watch the Warriors every time they play (there are worse fates in life); take in a game between two teams that are not Golden State (light fare with absolutely nothing at stake); or do something else with your time. Journalist Matt Moore recently asked NBA Twitter what exactly other teams would have to do to convince their fans that 2015–16 still matters. I'm pretty sure it was a rhetorical question.
For a sport that prides itself on being fast-paced and unpredictable, this death march of a season is decidedly bad news, especially when last season's seemingly limitless supply of plot twists did much to convince us all that parity, or at least some relative version of it, might have a chance in the top-heavy NBA.
But the Warriors aren't just light years ahead of every other team in terms of wins and losses. Stylistically, they're the most technically proficient—and by far the most exhilarating—thing going. The Warriors put on a clinic every night, but their sheer prowess allows them to get away with things that other teams would only dream of attempting, as exemplified by Curry's tendency to fire off a three almost as soon as he crosses half-court. This is the New Showtime, the legitimating spawn of Seven Seconds or Less, the ghost of the Kings and Mavericks circa 2001 channeled into a flesh-and-blood work of art. Not only are Warriors running away with the season, they're having more fun than anyone else—and providing more entertainment value than any team since the SSOL Suns.
It's this ability to encapsulate both style and substance that has made the Warriors darlings of casual fans and hoops junkies alike. And yet the longer this season drags on, and the more apparent it becomes that Golden State has robbed us all of 1230 games that, on any given night, might make a difference to someone somewhere in the world, the more likely it becomes that lots of us will come to resent the Warriors, the same way not everyone was having a blast when the NBA belonged to Michael Jordan's Bulls. The Warriors will still be a joy to behold and, in their quest to make history, a compelling story in and of themselves. There's no way around it, though: Golden State has become so good that they're bad for the league.
By the end of this season, we might no longer see the Warriors as intrinsically lovable or infectious. They probably won't qualify for Evil Empire status in the same way that the Kobe-Shaq Lakers did, but we could find ways of souring on them, if only just to keep things interesting. Monotony is not an option.
The most obvious flashpoint would be Curry's confidence. It's perhaps the most important component of his game, but also exactly the kind of thing that can be misconstrued or leave a bad taste. Stephen Curry is feeling himself. Wouldn't you be? Only if you want to pretend, for the sake of brain-dead moralizing, that any form of swagger is a slap in the face of sportsmanship and decorum. Curry has been celebrating and staring down crowds for some time now, but the more it's warranted—the greater he and the Warriors become—the closer we get to accusations of arrogance and unchecked ego. (And, by the way, that a player as uninhibited as Stephen Curry could be expected to check his swagger at the door says some pretty fucked-up things about the price of wider exposure.)
There's an additional irony here that makes the scenario even more grim: Say the prophecy is fulfilled and the Warriors finish with another championship and another MVP for Curry. Then comes the off-season, when teams can make big moves that potentially alter the landscape of the league. Except that with the salary cap about to explode, every team, including Golden State, will have huge amounts of money to throw around. Which means not only will the Warriors be a prime destination for free agents—in a total reversal of the usual dynamic, the front office may have to beat back eager suitors, rather than be the ones pursuing the players.
Will they be able to land a fourth All-Star to join Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson? God help us all if the speculation that Kevin Durant is headed to Golden State—whispers that have only grown louder in the past week—turn out to be true. That's both glorious (a match made in heaven) and fucking sinister.
This, though, is what passes for high-level intrigue now in the NBA: events taking place in June*, off the court. And it's still about the Warriors. It's the same glaring problem: The Warriors are great and are probably going to be for the foreseeable future. The idea of them getting even better is downright morbid.
(http://www.gq.com/story/golden-state-warriors-ruining-nba-basketball)
The Warriors are ruining the NBA
http://www.gq.com/story/golden-state-warriors-ruining-nba-basketball
The Golden State Warriors—a revolutionary, once-in-a-generation squad led by a scrawny shooter from another planet—are ruining basketball. They haven't done so by inspiring lesser teams or up-and-coming youngsters to jack up ill-advised threes, as has been suggested by Gregg Popovich and Mark Jackson. Instead, the Warriors have managed to play at such a high level and with such gorgeous efficiency that it's put the rest of the NBA to shame.
(http://www.gq.com/story/golden-state-warriors-ruining-nba-basketball)In one week, the Warriors beat the Cavaliers (the top team in the East), the Spurs (a team having a season that, any other year, would be historic in its own right), and the Bulls (third-best in the East), all by 25 points or more. The Spurs game was hyped as one of the most memorable regular-season games, well, ever. Instead, we got yet another Golden State blowout. The Spurs, who in any other year would be the clear favorites to win it all, were dispatched as if they were any other opponent. They looked lost, as if in a stupor, and when the final buzzer sounded an awful truth became apparent: The 2015–16 season was dead, and Stephen Curry had killed it.
Heading into last spring's playoffs, there were four, maybe five legit contenders. This time around, the Warriors are in a class by themselves. The 2014–15 MVP race ballooned to no fewer than six viable candidates. No one's even talking about the MVP now because the award so clearly belongs to Stephen Curry. It's entirely possible that LeBron James won't get a single first-place vote. Golden State is in the rare position of competing almost entirely against themselves and history. Just how many games can they bring themselves to win, how many records can they break, and how will their season stack up against the truly immortal teams of the past?
(http://www.gq.com/story/next-lebron-james-tyger-campbell)
Granted, the disarray in Houston and continued dysfunction in Clipper-land has done much to thin the field. And yes, should some grave injury befall Stephen Curry, this season would become one of basketball's great what-ifs. But with the Warriors having proven their dominance over even the Spurs and the Cavaliers, it has become increasingly difficult to take this year's NBA seriously as a competitive sport. At the time of David Blatt's firing, I speculated that Cleveland's drubbing at the hands of GSW proved that in their current state, the Cavs just couldn't hold their own against Western Conference powerhouses, and, more importantly, they knew it. It was a concession made to delay the reality that for everyone but Golden State, 2015–16 is a lost season.
Think about it: We're not even at the halfway mark, and yet already the Finals appear to be a foregone conclusion. This has a chilling effect on even the most diehard NBA consumer. Your options are to watch the Warriors every time they play (there are worse fates in life); take in a game between two teams that are not Golden State (light fare with absolutely nothing at stake); or do something else with your time. Journalist Matt Moore recently asked NBA Twitter what exactly other teams would have to do to convince their fans that 2015–16 still matters. I'm pretty sure it was a rhetorical question.
For a sport that prides itself on being fast-paced and unpredictable, this death march of a season is decidedly bad news, especially when last season's seemingly limitless supply of plot twists did much to convince us all that parity, or at least some relative version of it, might have a chance in the top-heavy NBA.
But the Warriors aren't just light years ahead of every other team in terms of wins and losses. Stylistically, they're the most technically proficient—and by far the most exhilarating—thing going. The Warriors put on a clinic every night, but their sheer prowess allows them to get away with things that other teams would only dream of attempting, as exemplified by Curry's tendency to fire off a three almost as soon as he crosses half-court. This is the New Showtime, the legitimating spawn of Seven Seconds or Less, the ghost of the Kings and Mavericks circa 2001 channeled into a flesh-and-blood work of art. Not only are Warriors running away with the season, they're having more fun than anyone else—and providing more entertainment value than any team since the SSOL Suns.
It's this ability to encapsulate both style and substance that has made the Warriors darlings of casual fans and hoops junkies alike. And yet the longer this season drags on, and the more apparent it becomes that Golden State has robbed us all of 1230 games that, on any given night, might make a difference to someone somewhere in the world, the more likely it becomes that lots of us will come to resent the Warriors, the same way not everyone was having a blast when the NBA belonged to Michael Jordan's Bulls. The Warriors will still be a joy to behold and, in their quest to make history, a compelling story in and of themselves. There's no way around it, though: Golden State has become so good that they're bad for the league.
By the end of this season, we might no longer see the Warriors as intrinsically lovable or infectious. They probably won't qualify for Evil Empire status in the same way that the Kobe-Shaq Lakers did, but we could find ways of souring on them, if only just to keep things interesting. Monotony is not an option.
The most obvious flashpoint would be Curry's confidence. It's perhaps the most important component of his game, but also exactly the kind of thing that can be misconstrued or leave a bad taste. Stephen Curry is feeling himself. Wouldn't you be? Only if you want to pretend, for the sake of brain-dead moralizing, that any form of swagger is a slap in the face of sportsmanship and decorum. Curry has been celebrating and staring down crowds for some time now, but the more it's warranted—the greater he and the Warriors become—the closer we get to accusations of arrogance and unchecked ego. (And, by the way, that a player as uninhibited as Stephen Curry could be expected to check his swagger at the door says some pretty fucked-up things about the price of wider exposure.)
There's an additional irony here that makes the scenario even more grim: Say the prophecy is fulfilled and the Warriors finish with another championship and another MVP for Curry. Then comes the off-season, when teams can make big moves that potentially alter the landscape of the league. Except that with the salary cap about to explode, every team, including Golden State, will have huge amounts of money to throw around. Which means not only will the Warriors be a prime destination for free agents—in a total reversal of the usual dynamic, the front office may have to beat back eager suitors, rather than be the ones pursuing the players.
Will they be able to land a fourth All-Star to join Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson? God help us all if the speculation that Kevin Durant is headed to Golden State—whispers that have only grown louder in the past week—turn out to be true. That's both glorious (a match made in heaven) and fucking sinister.
This, though, is what passes for high-level intrigue now in the NBA: events taking place in June*, off the court. And it's still about the Warriors. It's the same glaring problem: The Warriors are great and are probably going to be for the foreseeable future. The idea of them getting even better is downright morbid.
(http://www.gq.com/story/golden-state-warriors-ruining-nba-basketball)