Old Men in Sweats! ™
By: Tommy T. & Barry D.
Volume 25
Quit crying & whining NBA fans!
The Golden State Warriors are not ruining the NBA.
Stop it, Celtics fans. Cavs fans. Spurs fans. And especially Thunder, Rockets, and Clippers fans. You sound like a bunch of impetuous whiny little babies. How is GSW ruining the NBA? Because they assembled an incredible team that has won 3 of the last 4 championships? Because they signed superstar FA Kevin Durant after blowing a 3-1 Finals lead WITH home court advantage? What, they’re not allowed to sign a FA even if he can fit under the salary cap?
I’m so sick of fans, media, analysts, ex-players, ex-coaches, and radio personalities whining about how the Warriors are making it less fun. Less fun for whom? And since when is it a championship team’s responsibility to make it fun for everyone else in the NBA? It’s not. Each team has one goal and one goal only. To get to the Finals and win. That’s it. That’s all professional sports franchises are supposed to do. And GSW does it better than anybody in sports today.
Oh and to address all the crocodile tears about their signing KD three summers ago… they drafted the entire core that won 73 games in 2016. Yup, drafted Curry 7th overall in the 2009 draft. Drafted Klay 11th overall in 2011. Drafted Draymond in the second round, 35th overall, in 2012. Drafted Harrison Barnes, the guy they let go for KD, 7th overall in the same draft as Draymond. That’s 4 great players in three drafts covering four years. So relax about signing a top FA as the reason they’re so good. If the other 29 teams drafted properly the Warriors core players should be spread all over the map. Instead GM Bob Myers and Warriors ownership hosed the league and compiled a ridiculous roster. They signed Andre Iguodola from Denver. Picked up Shaun Livingston off the scrap heap, and littered the rest of their roster with cast-off big men like Andrew Bogut, Javale McGee, and ZaZa Pachulia. What a lousy group of bigs. And somehow Steve Kerr and gang make it work out to the tune of 3 championships. We’re supposed to hate that? We’re supposed to whine and cry about how they do it? I don’t think so, babies.
The other big complaint is there’s no competitive balance. Because we hear that dynasties are bad for the league. As if the NBA doesn’t already stand for Dynasty-Central. Come on, even us old men in sweats weren’t around to see the original, hideous Celtics’ dynasty of the 60s. They won eight in row from 1959-1967. All punctuated with the obnoxious Red Auerbach lighting a victory cigar ON THE BENCH!. Then it was Lakers Showtime of the 80s when Magic & company made it to 9 Finals in 11 years. Nine out of eleven is beyond dynasty. It was sheer domination. How about the Bulls of the 90s? Six Finals appearances, six championships covering an 8 year period. The only reason it wasn’t 8 for 8 was because Jordan got on a bus for two ridiculous summers. The Spurs won 5 in 12 years. Shaq & Kobe won 3 in a row, with Kobe & Pau following that up with 2. The NBA has been chock full o’ dynasties since we’ve been watching tv. Hell, even before television there was George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers winning 5 championships in the 40s & 50s. In fact, there has never been a decade in the NBA when we didn’t have a dynasty. And not all dynasties are assembled the same way. Back in the day the Lakers got most of their star players through trades. Magic, Worthy, Kareem, Byron Scott, Mychal Thompson, and Bob McAdoo were all acquired via trades in the 80s. Sure Magic, Big Game James, and Byron were drafted by the Lakers only because they hosed the Jazz, Clippers, and Cavs in one-sided trades. Now we’re supposed to hate the Warriors because they drafted only 3 or 4 of their core and not all?
But there are haters covering every aspect of the NBA these days. Charles Barkley hates the Warriors because of their style of play. He says he hates jump-shooting teams. Well, I used to hate Barkley’s dribble-out-the-shot clock, backing-down-your-man-for-20-seconds of offense too. In fact, so did the NBA. They changed a rule to stop Barkley from dribbling out the shot clock with his big butt to the basket. Everybody is hating for no reason at all. Steph, Klay, KD, and Draymond are all good, intelligent, hard-working players. All come with their share of flaws yet together they cover for each other and play a beautiful brand of basketball. Everybody can shoot, pass, dribble and they all hustle to play D. Where’s the problem? What, you prefer the badboys from Detroit? Who were hell bent on fighting you while beating you. Thank God they were only here for a few years. Oh how about the Knicks teams of the 90s with Oakley, Mason, Starks, and Ewing. Talk about ugly basketball? They were horrible to watch in the playoffs. You like the final score of 82-81? I don’t.
The Warriors are great for sports. A great team with a bunch of great players in a great city for basketball. Come on haters give it a break. And don’t worry because the normal course of sports is taking form. Like all dynasties the Warriors are starting to run on fumes. They barely got past the Rockets this year with Chris Paul clutching his hamstring like a 55 year-old YMCA player. How does one of the best players in the NBA turn into an Old Man in Sweats right before our very eyes? He looked like us playing at the Y. If it wasn’t for Paul hobbling off the court GSW probably would have lost this year. Then no dynasty to talk about because 2 in 4 years is no big deal. But win they did and here come the haters, the whiners, the crybabies.
Suck it up NBA fans and hope your team does it the right way and beats GSW.
-OMIS
“PREACHING SPORTS KNOWLEDGE FOR A LIFETIME!”