The Golden State Warriors are NBA champions.
Repeat: the Golden State Warriors are world champions.
These are words that I probably never thought I’d ever see in my lifetime; frankly, words that I never considered possibly being a reality in my entire lifetime. Granted, I don’t really care much about the NBA in the first place anymore, but still, with a lifetime of remembering that the Warriors were perennial jobbers, it’s pretty fascinating to see how much things have changed, and not only have they ascended to the top of the (paltry) NBA food chain, they’ve clearly reached the pinnacle of it.
This ranks with casual surprise as would be sports teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves or Milwaukee Bucks winning the NBA championship. The Jacksonville Jaguars or the the Oakland Raiders winning the Super Bowl. The San Diego Padres or the Houston Astros winning the World Series.
Or the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Indians, or Cleveland Cavaliers winning their respective sports’ championship.
Frankly, I think the Cavaliers losing to the Golden State Warriors surely cements their place as one of the worst-suffering sports towns in the world, because shit, if you can’t win, against the Warriors, with the current Michael Jordan clone, then you really just can’t win period.
I think the rule of thumb is, that when pitting the upstart franchise that is having a good run, versus a team from Cleveland, just bet the upstart; any team from Cleveland is just destined for failure.
Anyway, I’m actually happy for the Warriors. Usually, I’m not really a big supporter of upstarts, and like to claim their legitimacy as flukes and lightning in a bottle, but when I think about it, I kind of like the Warriors, even if the last few games were viewing debacles as players threw up brick after brick and couldn’t sink a free throw if their families’ lives depended on it.
It mostly has to do with the fact that Steve Kerr is their coach, and I have fond memories of the nerdy white guy with a great three-point stroke being part of NBA teams that I liked when I still watched. But I do find it impressive that Kerr, in his very first year of coaching, not only led the Warriors to an absurdly good 67-win season, but proved that his own pedigree and experience were up to the task at navigating them through the postseason and all the way to the top of the mountain. A true, classic case of what I think is a good guy getting good results, and I couldn’t be happier for him.
Also, the potential for claiming the champion Warriors as being truly Ultimate are fair game for the next year, and any opportunity to drop Ultimate Warrior references are always positive.
