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...

Coronation of the Prodigal Son: The Biggest Win of LeBron James' Career

There's nothing like being on the right side of history, but until the Cleveland Cavaliers won the first championship of their 46-year existence, the team was an extension of a city that had grown accustomed to being on the wrong side of history.  Even though they rolled through the Eastern Conference on their way to their second consecutive NBA Finals appearance against the defending-champion Golden State Warriors, many pundits still gave them little to no shot against the team that set the new record for regular season wins at 73 led by the league's first unanimous MVP in Stephen Curry.  Meanwhile, LeBron James made history by being the first player in NBA history (along with teammate James Jones, who was with him all four years in Miami) to make six consecutive Finals appearances.  However, when they lost Game 4 at home of all places, LeBron and the Cavs faced an uphill battle that no other team in NBA Finals history had ever been able to overcome: come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the series.  However, with a tenacity like perhaps no other player before him, King James willed himself and his teammates with a "why not us" mentality and rallied to accomplish what seemed impossible against arguably the best team in basketball.  The Warriors' historic season quickly paled in comparison as the Cavs made team history, NBA Finals history and, most important, Cleveland history as the region's "Prodigal Son" finally brought one home for "the 'Land".  So let's explore parts of the path to LeBron's ultimate victory...

Same Teams, Different Stakes: Why Picking a Side in the NBA Finals Is Harder Than Last Year

After achieving another historical feat by becoming the first team in NBA history to be the No. 1 seed with the league MVP but be down 3-1 in a playoff series to come back and win the series, the Golden State Warriors might just change some analysts and odds makers' minds about their rematch with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals.  A lot of people including myself wrote off the defending champions' chances of accomplishing such a tall order, and we just assumed that the Oklahoma City Thunder would win the series and the Cavs would have a little easier path to the crown because most people didn't give OKC a chance against LeBron & Co.  However, living up to their namesake, the Warriors manifested an unprecedented amount of resolve, persistence and tenacity.  Although Steph Curry is my favorite player in the NBA right now and has been for the past three years, it's still hard to pick against King James as I have been a fan of his overall game, instant impact on any team for which he plays and being one of the most unselfish superstars that the game of basketball has ever seen since his high school days.  So as we prepare for what should be another thrilling matchup between the Warriors and the Cavs, allow me to explain how this year's NBA Finals is a little harder to pick than last year...

Scribbler's Highlights of the Week: The NBA Finals Triple Play

Huge congratulations to the Miami Heat for winning their second straight NBA championship.  Truth be told, I was cheering for the San Antonio Spurs because I am a Tim Duncan fan and wanted to see "The Big Fundamental" get another ring before leaving the game.  However, I knew from the beginning that the Heat would win this series.  Although the Spurs came in healthy, rested and with momentum off of a sweep of the Memphis Grizzlies, I knew the defending champs would need every bit of seven games to beat the four-time champion Spurs and could beat them because they had LeBron James.  It is clear that he has vowed not to disappear from an NBA Finals like he did against Dallas in 2011 and to carry the team on his back if it means winning as many Larry O'Brien trophies as possible.  It took more than just James to win this series because, as we saw in 2007, even he couldn't topple the Spurs by himself as he and his "team" in the Cleveland Cavaliers were swept.  However, as Finals MVP for the second consecutive year, he was the major contributor for four out of the seven games--three of those being victories.  Thus, that's why I am giving you not one...not two...but THREE (see what I did there) of the greatest highlights of the week because they were three of the deciding factors in the franchise's third NBA championship and second in Miami's "Big 3" Era.

Scribbler's Highlight of the Week: LeBron Says, "Not In My House"

In Game 2 of the 2013 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena, LeBron James wasn't having the most impressive game of his career.  He ended the first half with only four points, four assists, one rebound and was well under 50% shooting from the field.  However, after the Spurs had a 62-61 lead in the third quarter, the Heat just kept scoring...and scoring...and scoring...and never looked back on the way to a 103-84 trouncing of the Western Conference Champs.  Their defense turned up and forced 16 turnovers--which quadrupled the Spurs' impressively low turnover rate in Game 1.  LeBron ended up with 17 points, eight rebounds, seven assists, but shot 7-17 from the field.  Still not his most impressive stat line ever, but there were certain things that don't show up on a stat sheet such as the above play...

Scribbler's Highlight of the Week: Tony Parker's Improbable Dagger

In Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena, the Heat were starting to get some momentum back after the San Antonio Spurs reclaimed the lead in the middle of the fourth quarter for the first time since the first quarter.  After Manu Ginobili's ill-advised three-ball attempt from Jupiter and Danny Green's foul of Ray Allen beyond the three-point arc, Allen made three straight clutch free throws.  Although he took a few errant jump shots in the waning minutes of the game, LeBron James took the ball to the rim a few times to inch even closer.  In the last minute, they made sure that the Spurs couldn't get off any easy shots with swarming defense.  However, that didn't stop Tony Parker from exemplifying the age-old saying "nothing beats a failure but a try"...