Category: Sports

The Golden State Warriors are back in the NBA Finals for the sixth time in eight years, and it’s all thanks to their star core of Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson.

The three foundational members of the championship Warriors have gone through a lot since their first championship run in 2015. They’ve seen it all from failure in the Finals, teammates departing, and injuries. The journey from bottoming out in 2020 and narrowly missing the playoffs in 2021 makes this trip to the Finals all the sweeter for Curry, Green, and Thompson.

“It’s happened multiple times for me now,” Green told Marc J. Spears of Andscape after the Warriors’ practice on Monday. “You go through these moments, and you feel like you put all the work in to get through, and then you get to the moment, and the only two things I can think about once you get to the moment: No. 1, is the feeling of appreciation that I get for seeing guys that have not done it before. That first-time feeling, and just sitting there and watching them, and how they react, and how they smile, and how they appreciate that first-time feeling.

“You go through it, and you like, ‘Man, I got to feel that again.’ And the reality is you never feel it again. You go through it that first time, you never feel that way again — And so, I think for me, I get to that space, and then you just start to look around, and it just brings joy to see guys go through it for their first time.

For Green, he finds as much joy, if not more, when he sees the reactions of guys like Jordan Poole, Nemanja Bjelica, and Jonathan Kuminga, who are making their Finals run. As the Western Conference Finals trophy was moved and the Warriors celebrated their series win, Green recalled the familiar feeling of “you get to that moment after all the work that you put in, and it’s getting the trophy, and you just can’t help but think about the journey. What did it take to get here? How did this happen?”

Green also recollected being fearful of never getting that championship feeling again. Like many other past champions, Green said the only way to get that feeling back was to keep winning ‘ships. He did add one caveat, though. Winning, again and again, didn’t elicit the same feelings as the first title, but he does feel satisfied.

“Once you put yourself in the position to where you thought you would get that feeling back, it’s satisfying enough. I didn’t necessarily get that feeling that I got the first time, but I understand it now, and it’s satisfying, the feeling that I do get. The feeling of appreciation, the feeling of watching these guys for their first time experience the highest pinnacle of basketball, and their appreciation for it.”

When Game 1 of the NBA Finals kicks off on Thursday, Green recognized that the Celtics “have it on the offensive end, they have it on the defensive end.” and that Boston has been the best team in the NBA since January while also lauding their hunger for greatness and the culture they’ve built within the organization. The main thing the Warriors have to figure out, per Green, is Boston’s weakness on defense.

After learning what “the real NBA” is after two straight years of losing, Green and the Warriors are back in the spotlight and playing basketball when it matters the most. Green also said he’s back to enjoying hooping says he has “a much larger appreciation for it now than I did” since playing in the Finals “was kind of all I knew.” All in all, helping lead the Warriors to their sixth Finals trip since 2015 simply means this.

“It just shows the continuity and the focus level that we have. But most importantly, the competitive spirit and nature that we have. When we set out on this journey eight years ago, I can’t say we expected this. But we did know that we had a young group, a young core and that if we can put it together, we can be good for a very long time. And see it actually come to a fruition, it’s special.”

Recently reports appeared that the Raptors could trade OG Anunoby. Portland was mentioned as a potential destination for the 24-year-old small forward.

His teammate Scottie Barnes does not think there is any credibility in these trade rumors. “Close source said it’s bad news,” the Raptors’ rookie wrote on instagram followed by laughing emojis.

The Miami Heat’s challenging Game 7 loss will be tough to swallow for quite some time. The biggest ” what if ” for Coach Erik Spoelstra and his staff won’t just be about Jimmy Butler’s pull-up triple with less than 10 seconds to go on the clock. The question will also be reserved for Max Strus’ momentum-changing overturning three-pointer in the third quarter.

The controversial call came nearly a minute into the third frame. Strus knocked down a corner three-ball to cut Boston’s lead to 56-54. After the Celtics went on a run, League officials at the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey, elected to overturn the ball because Strus’ heel was out of bounds on the ball. The call left Spoelstra “in shock” as Miami’s points were taken off the board.

“I was in shock,” Spoelstra said. “I was asking [assistant coach] [Chris Quinn] about that. The fact that it happened three to four, five minutes in-game time, that does change the context of how you’re playing. We were starting to gain some momentum. You feel like it’s a seven-, eight-point game, and you look up, and it’s a 13-point game, and there’s no other explanation for it other than it’s gone back to the league offices. You feel like if it happens like that, it should happen immediately, and you can adjust accordingly.”

Although the call was a major source of frustration, Spoelstra repeatedly reiterated that the overturned play wasn’t the reason Miami lost.

“Look, that’s not the reason we lost,” he said. “We still had plenty of opportunities. We just couldn’t get control of the game. A lot of that was Boston. We didn’t stop grinding, and we gave ourselves a shot at it at the end. We just couldn’t make enough plays during the course of the game. It felt like most of the game we were grinding from an eight-to-10-point deficit.”

However, because of the nature of the game and how high-profile the controversial the call was, Spoelstra knows it will be discussed at future League meetings.

“I’m sure they will look at that, and we’ll probably be the case study for it,” Spoelstra said. “I’m OK if it happens the way it used to. They would look at it at the next foul or break and look at it and notice it, but it was probably 10 minutes of real-time — somebody check on that.

“I’m not crying or whining. Come on; we got beat. This was two competitive teams going at it. We had a crack at it at the end. Even as uneven as the game seemed, we had a crack at it. Our guys are never going to, like, not think we have a chance at it.”

After Strus’ three was waved off, Miami still had a chance to win in the waning seconds after cutting a seven-point deficit to two with just over a minute to go. Butler’s potential game-winner was shot, and Boston iced their 100-96 win with two free throws from Defensive Player of the Year winner Marcus Smart.

In the aftermath, Spoelstra had no issue with the best player on the Heat taking the possible game-winner, calling it a clean look and “better than anything we could have designed.”

Butler played all 48 minutes of the win-or-go-home Game 7 tilt, finishing with 35 points and nine rebounds.

“My thought process was go for the win,” Butler said. “Which I did. Missed a shot. But I’m taking that shot. My teammates liked the shot that I took. So I’m living with it.”

As tough as it is for Miami, their season is finished. Boston and the Golden State Warriors take center stage for Thursday’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Warriors will host Game 1 of the series at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

The Miami Heat’s challenging Game 7 loss will be tough to swallow for quite some time. The biggest ” what if ” for Coach Erik Spoelstra and his staff won’t just be about Jimmy Butler’s pull-up triple with less than 10 seconds to go on the clock. The question will also be reserved for Max Strus’ momentum-changing overturning three-pointer in the third quarter.

The controversial call came nearly a minute into the third frame. Strus knocked down a corner three-ball to cut Boston’s lead to 56-54. After the Celtics went on a run, League officials at the NBA replay center in Secaucus, New Jersey, elected to overturn the ball because Strus’ heel was out of bounds on the ball. The call left Spoelstra “in shock” as Miami’s points were taken off the board.

“I was in shock,” Spoelstra said. “I was asking [assistant coach] [Chris Quinn] about that. The fact that it happened three to four, five minutes in-game time, that does change the context of how you’re playing. We were starting to gain some momentum. You feel like it’s a seven-, eight-point game, and you look up, and it’s a 13-point game, and there’s no other explanation for it other than it’s gone back to the league offices. You feel like if it happens like that, it should happen immediately, and you can adjust accordingly.”

Although the call was a major source of frustration, Spoelstra repeatedly reiterated that the overturned play wasn’t the reason Miami lost.

“Look, that’s not the reason we lost,” he said. “We still had plenty of opportunities. We just couldn’t get control of the game. A lot of that was Boston. We didn’t stop grinding, and we gave ourselves a shot at it at the end. We just couldn’t make enough plays during the course of the game. It felt like most of the game we were grinding from an eight-to-10-point deficit.”

However, because of the nature of the game and how high-profile the controversial the call was, Spoelstra knows it will be discussed at future League meetings.

“I’m sure they will look at that, and we’ll probably be the case study for it,” Spoelstra said. “I’m OK if it happens the way it used to. They would look at it at the next foul or break and look at it and notice it, but it was probably 10 minutes of real-time — somebody check on that.

“I’m not crying or whining. Come on; we got beat. This was two competitive teams going at it. We had a crack at it at the end. Even as uneven as the game seemed, we had a crack at it. Our guys are never going to, like, not think we have a chance at it.”

After Strus’ three was waved off, Miami still had a chance to win in the waning seconds after cutting a seven-point deficit to two with just over a minute to go. Butler’s potential game-winner was shot, and Boston iced their 100-96 win with two free throws from Defensive Player of the Year winner Marcus Smart.

In the aftermath, Spoelstra had no issue with the best player on the Heat taking the possible game-winner, calling it a clean look and “better than anything we could have designed.”

Butler played all 48 minutes of the win-or-go-home Game 7 tilt, finishing with 35 points and nine rebounds.

“My thought process was go for the win,” Butler said. “Which I did. Missed a shot. But I’m taking that shot. My teammates liked the shot that I took. So I’m living with it.”

As tough as it is for Miami, their season is finished. Boston and the Golden State Warriors take center stage for Thursday’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Warriors will host Game 1 of the series at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

We’ve ranked the best 75 individual season teams ever, which is featured in our SLAM’s TOP 75 NBA Teams of All Time special issue. This week, we’re unveiling which squads made it on our top 10. To find out who else made it on the list, read here.

7. 1990-91 Chicago Bulls

Coach: Phil Jackson

Record: 61-21

Roster: BJ Armstrong, Bill Cartwright, Horace Grant, Craig Hodges, Dennis Hopson, Michael Jordan, Stacey King, Cliff Levingston, John Paxson, Will Perdue, Scottie Pippen, Scott Williams

Even if you’re old enough to remember this team, it’s nearly impossible to remember the baggage that Michael Jordan carried into the 1990s. Emerging from the NBA’s greatest decade, the era in which Doc, Magic and Bird took the League from afterthought to marquee act, Jordan was clearly the guy poised to take the League to the next level. He already owned an MVP award and a handful of the most eye-popping stat lines since Oscar Robertson had averaged a triple-double. Jordan was the present and the future. He was a phenomenon.

The problem was that, by the standards of his immediate predecessors, he just wasn’t a winner.

The ’90-91 season would be Jordan’s seventh in the League; by the time Bird and Magic tipped off their seventh seasons, both had a pair of championship rings. And of course, Jordan’s hated
rival in Detroit, Isiah Thomas, had just led the Pistons to their second straight title, dispatching MJ and the Bulls along the way. It’s not that Jordan appeared to lack any of the qualities necessary to lead a team to a title; it’s simply that he hadn’t yet managed to do it. The narrative is the narrative. You’re not a winner until you win.

As so often happens, Jordan and the Bulls taking that last step to glory was less a question of dramatic change than it was evolution. Fourth-year forward Scottie Pippen was already one of the League’s best two-way players—he was an All-Star the season before—and he nudged his averages upward across the board (17.8 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 6.2 apg, 2.4 spg) despite playing slightly fewer minutes. Jordan himself posted his lowest ppg (still an NBA-best 31.5) in five years. As much as anything, the Bulls’ two most important players were more efficient, more dialed in, focused on a singular goal.

It wasn’t only Mike and Scottie, of course: Horace Grant averaged 12.8 ppg and 8.4 rpg, Bill Cartwright was a sturdy veteran post presence, and guards BJ Armstrong and John Paxson knew their roles. Together, they cruised to and then through the playoffs, rolling the Knicks, the Sixers and—most satisfyingly—the Pistons en route to a Finals date with the Lakers. When James Worthy and Byron Scott went down with injuries, any chance of a competitive series was lost, but it likely wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Showtime was done, and so was that silly narrative about Michael Jordan.

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