Immediately while watching the Golden State Warriors break down in emotion after winning their 4th NBA title in 8 years, my mind went straight to an interview put together by my colleague, Prince Grimes.
He interviewed San Antonio Spurs legend Tony Parker. They talked about his career playing for a dynastic team in the San Antonio Spurs, operating as a front office member on the national scene in France, and whether the NBA was in his future.
But, of course, they broached the topic of the Golden State Warriors. After all, they were playing in the NBA Finals. Obviously, this would be a topic. It was one they got to almost immediately.
When they did, Parker just gushed with admiration at what Golden State had built so far.
He reflected on the fact that he could see how special this team could be back in 2013 when his Spurs played Curry’s Warriors in the playoffs for the first time.
The Spurs won that series in six games, but most of them came down to the wire until Steph Curry rolled his ankle and the Warriors eventually ran out of gas in the final two. It felt like we were on the brink of one of his incredible performances before things went left.
San Antonio managed to escape, but it was close. And Parker knew it. He knew just how close that series was. He told Prince he was happy they were out the way.
“I remember when we played them in 2013, I was like, ‘Man, this team is going to be good for a long time.’ Like, they were so hard. That series was so hard. And I was happy when we were done playing them because I was tired — with Steph and Klay — and I was just happy to be done with that series.”
That’s the sort of respect Curry and Golden State commanded from, arguably, the most successful franchise in the last 20 years at the time. That’s high praise.
But it was easy to tell that Curry and his Warriors could be good at that moment. That wasn’t a hot take. But what we didn’t know was that the Warriors would spend their next decade chasing the same success those San Antonio Spurs had.
After these Finals, that chase is over. They’ve done it. They’ve caught them.
They came into this thing babyfaced. Now they’re grizzled vets. The photos from their first championship run to this one look like before-and-after pictures for some beard growth product.
June 16, 2015: Warriors win first title with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green
June 16, 2022: Warriors win fourth title with the same core pic.twitter.com/OtWdLzLeih
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) June 17, 2022
This journey has been remarkable. But it’s not just the test of time that says they’ve caught up — it’s the numbers, too. From 2015 until now, they’ve run the NBA. There hasn’t been a more dominant force — only LeBron James has an argument.
Let’s run it down. They’ve been to 6 NBA Finals in the last 8 years and they’ve won 4 of them. LeBron James is the only force in the NBA that can even think about claiming to be as dominant.
It doesn’t stop there. We saw them eclipse those same aforementioned Spurs in these NBA Finals. During this series, the Warriors’ big 3 of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green officially passed the Spurs’ big 3 of Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan for the most NBA Finals wins by a trio in the last 30 years, per Yahoo! Sports. They now have 21 total.
At the center of it all is Steph Curry. If the Warriors had a Tim Duncan, he’d be it.
Yes, before you start, I’m well aware he’s far more flashy. And there’s certainly not a physical comparison to be made here. But the comparison was never physical — it’s what they represent.
Duncan wasn’t the flashiest player. He didn’t drop-step and dunk on your head disrespectfully like Shaquille O’Neal and he wasn’t draining fadeaway jumpers while throwing down windmills like Kobe Bryant. He didn’t have the same mean streak as Kevin Garnett and wasn’t as smooth as Tracy McGrady.
But it didn’t matter. He got the job done and did it as well as any of them.
That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Curry is certainly a far more exciting player than Duncan — and he can get pretty cocky, too, which is also quite a treat. But you always hear about what and who he isn’t.
He’s also not the biggest. He’s not the strongest. He’s not the tallest. He isn’t Kevin Durant. And he almost certainly isn’t LeBron James.
But he is Steph Curry. And when the currents get their roughest and when the pressure is piling on, Curry is the Warriors’ bedrock — their foundation. None of this success is possible without him.
Because of that, he might be his generation’s best winner. And that matters more than anything else.
