When Winning DOESN'T Cure Everything: How the Golden State Warriors' Historic Season Was a Failure

Confession time: as much as Steph Curry is my current favorite player in the NBA and as much as I cheer for the Golden State Warriors because I appreciated how they assembled their team, a small part of me had a Skip Bayless moment and hoped that they wouldn't win the title for selfish reasons.  It honestly wouldn't have been as interesting from a writer's perspective if all of the historic accomplishments that happened this year culminated in a second-straight championship.  When they struggled mightily and historically overcame the 3-1 deficit against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, I was sure that they had momentum on their side.  When they went up 3-1 on the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals, I felt like my actual prediction was going to come true.  However, when Draymond Green got tossed for a game and Klay Thompson had his tricky "feelings" comments about LeBron James, I knew that King James and the Cavs were coming with the guillotine much like the Warriors came for Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook when they clowned Steph Curry's defense.  When the Cavs forced a Game 7, I didn't have a good feeling about the Warriors' chances, felt like Cleveland stole the momentum and, unfortunately, that bad feeling came true.  One of my good Facebook friends and fellow sports enthusiasts took me to task for saying that breaking the Bulls' 20-year record for regular season wins means nothing if they don't win the championship.  While I understand the historical gravity of their season, I stand by my assertion: the Golden State Warriors' 2015-16 season is a failure.  In explaining my adamant position, allow me to summarily dismiss any potential excuses...

I DON'T WANNA HEAR ABOUT THE REFS, RIGGING OR OTHER CONSPIRACY THEORIES.  Allow me to get on my Black power tip for a second.  When one of my Facebook friends shared a meme that questioned the insinuations of rigging in The Association, I responded with this: "I'm not saying the NBA is definitely rigged, but I won't rule out that it isn't either when this is an American sport run predominantly by men of European descent.  They've been rigging since 1492."  The other fun fact that I failed to mention in my response was that the NBA, like all of the major North American sports, are sponsored by other huge corporations owned by...wait for it...more White men who are attached to long money.  Furthermore, anyone who categorically denies the possibility of rigging in the NBA must remember two words: Tim Donaghy, who has ironically been one of the loudest conspiracy theorists this side of Ayesha Curry.  Speaking of the latter and latest social media dragging victim, some might feel like it's convenient that the matriarch of the Curry household was reckless with her Twitter fingers because the refs were blowing calls on her husband, and that's a fair point because she was quiet as a church mouse when those same refs swallowed their whistles early and often with the Cavs.  Still, let's not be so naive when there's money on the table and ratings on the line.

With that said, I call hogwash and poppycock because that has absolutely nothing to do with the mediocre play of the Golden State Warriors as a team when another championship and completing what seemed like their historic destiny were on the line.  What does bad officiating have to do with not making the right defensive adjustments after the midway point of the series, getting demolished by comparison in the paint or allowing Tristan Thompson alone to snag numerous offensive rebounds to give his team more possessions?  How does rigging factor in to Harrison Barnes losing his confidence and becoming a ghost on offense; Draymond Green playing more on the edge than he should considering the suspension-in-waiting; Klay Thompson being up and down on offense; Anderson Varejão being in the game at all over Festus Ezeli at any point once Andrew Bogut was lost for the series; or the unanimous MVP in Steph Curry committing careless turnovers, not hitting his shot as consistently as he did in the regular season and getting into foul trouble because Kyrie Irving kept leaving him in the dust or he ended up guarding LeBron James?  Unless they were complicit in this grand scheme to help LeBron and the Cavs, why is/was any conspiracy theory part of the conversation more than the Warriors simply being unable to close the deal when they had the Cavs on the ropes after Game 4?  Bottom line, there is no urban myth on Earth that can bail Golden State out of one of the most epic collapses in sports; they just didn't play like the defending champions when it counted.  End of story.

I DON'T CARE ABOUT 73 WINS DURING THE REGULAR SEASON.  The first major thing that gave me cause for pause was when people started comparing the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls--a team on which Warriors head coach Steve Kerr won three of his five total rings as a player.  When asked if the Warriors could beat the Bulls, Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen responded, "Bulls in four [games]...I don't think we'd take a night off."  Considering how much trouble Westbrook, Durant, Steven Adams, Serge Ibaka and Andre Roberson gave the Warriors just in the Western Conference Finals--and they're not even a defensive juggernaut--they would've been stifled even more against Jordan, Pippen and Rodman in their prime.  That Bulls team set the record with 72 games, acquired the No. 1 overall seed and lost only one playoff game before reaching the NBA Finals.  Not only did they end up with a 15-3 postseason record--10-0 at home, 5-3 on the road--but they were also beating teams by an average of 15.0 points per game.  (Only the Knicks gave them consistent competition, despite only winning one game in the Conference Semis.)  Granted, they lost all road games by an average of twelve points, but only two of their three losses were by double digits and both were on the road in the Finals to the Sonics--who became the first team since the '51 Knicks to force a Game 6 after being down 3-0 in a series.  Nevertheless, on their home court, they closed the deal and got Championship No. 4 like a record-setting team is supposed to do.

As for the Warriors, they were on their own dominant trajectory for the first two rounds as they beat both the Rockets and the Trail Blazers in five games, and much like the Bulls, they played their closest games in terms of wins and losses in the Conference Semis.  However, it nearly felt like it should've been a series sweep after getting their lunch money taken in Game 3, barely making it past the Thunder after a historic, but draining seven-game series on their way to the much-anticipated rematch with LeBron and the Cavs.  Sadly enough, not only did the Warriors allow a Game 7 to happen, but they ultimately went 11-3 at home during the playoffs with the worst defeat of all coming on their own court.  Not to mention that the Warriors were not only on the wrong side of history in allowing the Cavaliers to become the first team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win a Finals series, but the Warriors became the first team in NBA history to have the same amount of regular season and postseason losses (9).  In the Jordan-Pippen-Phil Jackson era, the most amount of postseason losses that the Bulls took were seven in the 1992 Playoffs--three of those came in one of the best playoff series in NBA history against the Knicks.  In the end, Golden State may have won 15 games by an average of 15.5 points per game, but they lost nine games by an average of 14.7 points per game--and they were a disappointing 4-6 on the road.  Moral of the story: it don't mean a thing if you ain't got that ring.  Doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-ah, doo-NAHHHHHH SON.

I DON'T CARE ABOUT STEPH CURRY WINNING THE MVP UNANIMOUSLY.  This might be the thing that upsets me the most because I vehemently defended this dude unanimously winning the league MVP and winning it over LeBron James.  I won't rehash the stats--click here if you'd like to bore yourself again with the numbers--but he clearly deserved the award for his historic regular season.  However, I'm starting to question whether or not he should've won it unanimously, especially since plenty of people have made side-by-side comparisons to LeBron and have tried to compare his greatness to that of Michael Jordan.  Granted, during a time when there were so many great players and the competition was a bit more ferocious, it would've been a little difficult for Jordan to win an MVP unanimously--although he was one of the most complete players the game has ever seen.  Yet and still, there were absolutely no questions that he could lead his team full of weapons when the chip was on the line.  On the other hand, Curry came back from injury with a purposeful vengeance against the Rockets, but he struggled tremendously once the Thunder laid out the blueprint to stopping him and the Cavs improved upon those plans with even better defense.  Although the Splash Brothers were bailed out in the first two games of the Finals, you can't have off nights when you're season is on the line, you're the consecutive two-time Most Valuable Player in the league and you're coming off one of the best seasons for any player in NBA history.

Truth be told, I can't even be that mad at Tracy McGrady anymore for his comments because two of the people that he mentioned in the same breath, MJ and Shaq, would've found a way to get their game on track when it counted--7-for-23 shooting nights or 50 percent from the charity stripe and all.  THAT'S what a unanimous MVP is supposed to do.  I'm sympathetic to an extent, but I don't wanna hear about him being banged up and trying to find his rhythm again because he dropped 40 points on the Rockets in his first game back from injury.  Granted, both the Thunder and the Cavs are far superior teams compared to the Rockets, but one of the reasons why you get voted MVP of the entire league is because no one else can do what you do when a game and a season are on the line.  I know that coming back from a knee injury isn't the same thing as having the flu, but Jordan didn't use his ailment as an excuse in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals when he dropped 38 points against the Jazz in a 90-88 win--a performance for the ages and a crucial victory that was the difference in eventually ending the series in six games versus going seven.  He knew what was at stake and he found a way to put his team in the best position to take home another crown.  That's what Curry needed to do, but as evidenced from quite a few bad shots between him and Klay Thompson in Game 7 of the Finals, that didn't happen when it counted.  He's still my favorite player in the league, but I think that the prisoners of the moment out there should definitely pump the brakes, turn off the engine and step away from the vehicle altogether on any Jordan or LeBron comparisons.

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When teams reach the level that the Golden State Warriors do, the ultimate goal is never just about winning the most amount of games in history.  It's never just about being the highest scoring team.  It's never just about having the league's first unanimous MVP.  It's never just about being the No. 1 seed in a conference or the entire league and having home court/field/ice advantage.  If your ultimate goal isn't doing everything and anything within reason to win a championship and have the aforementioned be secondary, then everything else is irrelevant and any executive, coaching staff member and player worth their salt will tell you that.  Ask Dan Marino or Marty Schottenheimer how many times they would've traded in being a statistical juggernaut or having the NFL's best record for just one ring.  Ask the 2012 Washington Nationals if they were cool with having the best record in baseball in lieu of winning the World Series and they might be tempted to spit in your face for asking such a dumb question.  Ask any member of the Denver Nuggets from the early 1980s whether they would've rather had four of the highest scoring teams in NBA history or made it past the Conference Semifinals just once.  While I understand the premise, people who are quick to say that rings aren't everything probably got accustomed to coming in eighth place in intramural wiffleball.  Unfortunately, the Warriors now join a disappointing list dating back to the Fall of 2015 that includes the Toronto Blue Jays, the Carolina Panthers and the Washington Capitals of the four major North American sports teams with the best records in their leagues, but no championship to show for it.  As my homie Ransom Rellic once eloquently memorialized in rap form, "Second place is first loser."