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Bomani Jones
Wave. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Right Time, a Wave original. My name is Bomani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is Time Machine Tuesday coming to us live from Oakland, California, in the wranger. Well, Oakland. Enough. He from Oakland. Oakland. Come with him everywhere he go. Check out the real ones. Logan Murdoch. What's going on, man?
Logan Murdock
I'm just slow motion with the potion, trying to get to the ocean, Bo. You know how I go. You know the vibes. We miss you out here, man. You need to come through. You need to, you know, take you a flight up out to the Bay, man.
Bomani Jones
Dude, I need to. I haven't been to the Bay since 2009. It's been that long.
Logan Murdock
That is a damn shame. When you come to the Bay, I am picking you up from the airport and we are gonna drive around Lake mary for about 3, 15 minutes.
Bomani Jones
Yo, Lake Mary changed my whole idea today. Like, when I got there and the first thing Lil Mama did, we went ahead, we had lunch in San Francisco. Cause I flew in sfo, we had lunch in San Francisco. And she pulled up, she lived over by the lake. And I was like, oh, I ain't even know y' all had one of these. You know what I'm saying? And the weather was right, and I
Logan Murdock
was like in the middle. I get my haircut on. I'll just say it. I get my haircut on 14th and Oak. And every time I drive back home, I make sure I get a little bit of the lake on the way there, man. I play Picture me rolling. I play checkout time. Just get in the. In the zone. I probably called you a couple of times during that drive, but, you know, just.
Bomani Jones
It's appreciated, man. We got you here talking about something from the base time machine Tuesday, and we're talking about the 2016 Golden State Warriors 10 years ago. Now, I need to let people know we're basically doing like a series over the next few weeks on the warriors because we got, like, three different things to talk about involving this run of the warriors. Who Logan was around that team, working for the. Working was the Mercury News.
Logan Murdock
I was working at Camby already. I had a little bit of internships around there that was like. I was in around college around that time. And then I got to the Mercury News.
Bomani Jones
Yeah, you were around the team. And look, man, just growing up in Oakland, like the Warriors. Even when the warriors are. Sorry, warriors were a thing, right? Like. Like Warriors.
Logan Murdock
It was funny.
Bomani Jones
Most amazing thing is how much warriors fans cared about the warriors in spite of Spider Warriors.
Logan Murdock
Yeah, I mean, they were just kind of omnipresence and they was just rich dudes in downtown. Like, you would hear about, you know, Stephen Jackson being at the Louisiana Fish Market, you know, down the street from my house, or you hear about a such and such player that's 7ft tall getting robbed, you know, or you would hear, or you would see like the we believe warriors always talk about are the last like Oakland. Oakland warriors team. Right? Where they're. They're their. Their community events. Were going to Eastmont Mall and going to the McDonald's there and passing out Big Macs to. To fans. Right? And that will never happen now. That's not going to happen. It was just a different time. But you know, the.
Bomani Jones
Also it was a very particular collection of dudes that fit the idea of playing in Oakland. So what. That's. That's Baron Davis, that's Stephen Jackson, that's Matt Barnes. It's Al Harrington.
Logan Murdock
Monte Ellis.
Bomani Jones
Oh, Monte was on that team. Jason Richardson.
Logan Murdock
Jason Richardson. Then you have Don Nelson, who love to play shuffleboard over there by the Grand Lake Theater. And that would be his initiation for the team, which is like, let's get drunk and let's go play shuffleboard.
Bomani Jones
So, but like that, that squad, like, I feel like for somebody my age, there's like three distinct periods of warriors basketball. It's really kind of four, right? It is the Run TMC era. Like the first Don Nelson era where they just. Hey, man. Just kind of having a good time. Looking back on it a little bit ahead of where the game was going. Had that one year, I think they beat the spurs in the first round where they were the seven seed and the spurs with a two Cs. You got Chris Mul. You know, Chris Mullen, Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway. Like it was. It was a. It was a fun squad. Honorable mention only because of that one thing that happened when, you know, Spre choked out PJ Carissimo. Like that whole team wasn't really an era. It was the end of Run tmc. And hey, don't forget.
Logan Murdock
Don't forget the teams before me and you both were born or in the 70s where they did win some championships and then.
Bomani Jones
Yeah, where you had a coach that was ready to fight everybody.
Logan Murdock
Yes, right, exactly.
Bomani Jones
Your coach's nickname is the Destroyer. That's the greatest nickname, Al. Adults. The Destroyer is You know, rest in peace. Al Adols, Bay Area legend. Y' all love that man.
Logan Murdock
Love him every time. When my first couple of years covered a team on full time, Al Adols would actually sit next to the press area. So you would see him every time. He had his own seat above one of the tunnels, and everybody would, you know, kind of get some whiskey wisdom from him. The security people knew who he was. It was. He was always a G with it.
Bomani Jones
Yeah, but then you had the, you had the, we believe warriors, and then the Mark Jackson Warriors, I think are important to talk about in this because the warriors have been so bad for so long. Mr. Playoffs, I forget how many straight year, you know, how many years out of how many. Because they made the playoffs that year in 07, obviously. But wrap it around that it wasn't no playoffs, man. Christmas missed us over and over again for what was going on there. Mark Jackson got there and that team got better than. Honestly, most people expected it to get at any point. Like the early Mark Jackson days, I think it's easy to forget now. This was like, hey, get a load of the Warriors. Look at them being good.
Logan Murdock
Yeah, I mean, well, so Mark Jackson, if I believe, if I'm correct, he got, he got hired in 2011 because he replaced Keith Smart, who replaced Don Nelson. And as this is going on, you have Steph, who gets drafted in 09, and then you have the. Then you get Klay Thompson who is drafted a couple of years later, and then you have the defining draft of the Golden State warriors in 2012, where you get Harrison Barnes, you get Festus Aili, and you get Draymond Green. Right? So all of this is happening under the, under the eyes of Mark Jackson, who kind of just like sees the talent on this and says, okay, I'm going to make them believe that they could be, you know, better than they think they. They can be.
Bomani Jones
Right.
Logan Murdock
You know, Steph's coming off the ankle injuries and they're kind of trying to find themselves. And early on, you know, Mark Jackson would just say these things where it's like, are you sure? Like, he would say, like, Stephen Clay are the best backcourt of all time. Right. Before that, they've actually have done real damage in the playoffs. Right. But you're starting to see little itty bitty things, right? You're starting to see. And as that's happening, the team is starting to get built. Andrew Bogut gets traded for. They trade Monte for Monte Ellis, who was a real pillar in the community. And I gotten into some Trouble that you guys can go Google, but he gets traded for Andrew Bogut and then, you know, Andre guadala and after 2013, signs with the team and you're starting to see this, this championship roster kind of come into fold. And in a lot of ways, Mark Jackson was the coach that helped not only galvanize this team, but show them they can get to the postseason. And what you see from a lot of coaches are, you know, teams go in steps, right. Different coaches are needed for different types of teams. And Mark Jackson was needed for the type of team that needed to figure themselves out but also know that they can go onto the big stage. Now was he the coach necessarily to once they get to the big stage, you know, get them to winning and being contender status, one will never know. But the jury is probably not. And that's how you get to Steve Kerr. But Mark Jackson was a pivotal point. And if you ask anybody within the warriors organization, at least the players, the organizational, the front office didn't like them. But talk to Draymond, you talk to Clay, you talk to anybody that's with that are as a foundational player, they will go back and say, we're not here without Mark Jackson.
Bomani Jones
So I think the part that Mark doesn't get enough credit for, because the primary criticism of him when he coached the warriors, aside from, you know, some of the way that he brought his Jesus with him to work, was that his offense was a bit antiquated. Right. Like a lot of mid post work for Harrison Barnes and all that. But I think this is where Mark where he deserves some credit. Number one, he called it as soon as he got that job, he said he had the best shooting backcourt in the history of the NBA. And we thought that that was hyperbole. And none of us can come up with the number two answer at this point. Like we would all agree that like that the Splash brothers didn't have a name yet.
Logan Murdock
Yeah.
Bomani Jones
But before Mark Jackson got there, I think he gets credit there. Number two and I think is important his first year coaching them, Steph. That was the year Steph was hurt. Steph only played 28 minutes a game, but he shot 4.7 threes per game. That second year with Mark Jackson, he shot 7.7 threes per game. The next year, 7.9. Those numbers are dwarfed a bit by where they ultimately became. But that was the beginning of expanding the paradigm of how much people shot threes. Curry just took it crazy, right? Like when we get to 2016 now he's taking 11 threes a game. Right. Like now we're at something else. But it's easy to forget that Steph Curry was leading the league and three pointers attempted before that. Right. Mark Jackson made the decision that, hey, we got a guy that is a superstar caliber player, make second team all NBA in Mark's last year there. Right. The thing that happened that last year though, I don't know exactly what happened. Joe Lakob hated his guts and I didn't have to be around the team to see that. I just had to watch games and see Joe Lakob sitting courtside and he couldn't. She hated Mark Jackson so much that he would just shake his head at him. Mark Jackson also had that. But Mark Jackson also had that wild where. Where Darren Erman was working as a spy and recording stuff and taking it back to other people. And then Mark Jackson had the fire. Like it was, it was chaos around him. Like the reason why Jackson does not have another job is that stuff. Right. Like he was a pretty good basketball coach who existed in a world of paranoid chaos, but also made that basketball team better.
Logan Murdock
Yeah, there was that. There was like an extortion too. There was this.
Bomani Jones
There's a funny ass man of God.
Logan Murdock
Yeah, there was a funny story, speaking of being man of God, of like where they. I think it was one of the Clippers series. I think it was the Clipper series. But they were in la. Let's just say they were in la and Mark Jackson brought the whole team to his church. And there's a famous story where Hilton Armstrong gets saved and he is, I don't, I don't want to say necessarily like hallucinating, but like, you know, everybody who's been to a black church know what we're talking about. But he was in the parking lot just basically with, with, with Jesus in his soul and basically like sprouting out hymns. And that was one of the. That's the famous story that gets told about a lot in, in, in the, in the, in the bowels of both Oracle and Chase center to this day. So, So I mean there was a lot of. He got them, let's say Mark Jackson got them to a point. But at, at a certain point it would be like, at what cost? And they had to get somebody in there, the warriors did, who can kind of like professionalize it a little bit. And that's where we get to Steve Kerr. Yeah.
Bomani Jones
Let us not forget in the season of chaos for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014.
Logan Murdock
Yeah.
Bomani Jones
When they won that first round series in a game seven. That was the last game that Mark Jackson coached.
Logan Murdock
Yeah, right.
Bomani Jones
Where the Clippers are going out. Where. Inside out. Inside out warm ups and everything else. And all that went down.
Logan Murdock
And the lake of the Donald Sterling tapes. The tmz Donald Sterling tapes.
Bomani Jones
Yeah.
Logan Murdock
Yes.
Bomani Jones
All of that stuff. That was the last game Mark Jackson coach. And when they hired Steve Kerr, I think it's easy to forget that it did not look good. Right. Steve Kerr had been doing TV at the time and my humble opinion, wasn't very good at it. All right. Joe Lacob was asked why he hired Steve Kerr or how he got to know Steve Kerr. And he said he got to know him while playing golf. So this black man who had just got your team up to 50 wins, a team whose best player at the time was Stephen Curry in the way that we viewed Stephen Curry at the time. Right. You're telling us that these warriors, who have been terrible for the better part of two decades, you are saying the coach that got them to 50 wins and after three years consistently won more games, you're telling us that this team isn't good enough and you not only need a new coach, you need a new coach that's never coached before. And by the way, that you're paying $5 million a year to take the job. And that was so controversial that the Knicks hired Derek Fisher to coach them and they had to give him $5 million a year.
Logan Murdock
Yep. By the way, I would like to add to that too. Right. Because there are a few things also. Steve Kerr failed general manager at the time of the, of the Phoenix Suns. His, his crowning achievement. I wouldn't even call it achievement. His crowning moment as the Phoenix Suns GM was trading for Shaq when the game was going completely the other way. A deal he regrets. And then also this, this team, the Golden State warriors, were about a month removed from considering to strike because of the Donald Sterling racism. Right. And you, you see that. And also, by the way, this is the locker room. Forget what the front office thinks. The locker room loved Mark Jackson. Like they loved who he was and they loved what he had done for them and kind of have furrow brows after he got let go, even though the writing was kind of on the wall that he was going to be let go just like weeks before. And then you put in Steve Kerr, who is not proven as a coach whatsoever, and then has everything that you have, that you have just described and he's already been a failed general manager. Right. And so it was, it was A lot of things that were going against Steve at the time, we did not see what we're about to talk about on the horizon at all.
Bomani Jones
Yeah, it was. I was. I was one of the many people that was like, come on.
Logan Murdock
And one other thing, it looked like the team had hit a ceiling with Mike Jackson, Mark Jackson. And not necessarily. We didn't think it was Mark Jackson's fault, but it seemed like, okay, this was a fun team, right? They got to the second round in 2013, and then they kind of. Then they. They lost in the first round in 2014. We're like, is this just what the team is like, is this. Is this going to be a fun, exciting team that just loses in the first round? That was kind of what we thought this was going to be.
Bomani Jones
Like Don Nelson, Bas. Right? But like, there was. But there was nothing in NBA history to indicate a team that was constructed as that team was constructed, was anything more than a fun team that was going to lose early. And they bring Curry in and Kerr's there. And I think the most interesting thing that happens with this team, David Lee gets hurt. And look, David Lee had been an NBA All Star. It was. It's kind of interesting to think about what they would have been with David Lee because of his skills, right? His ability to shoot and everything else. But they put Draymond Green in as a starter. Something that nobody. An idea that no one had entertained up until that point, right? Like, he was a. Hey, well, he was a excellent college player and an excellent college player in the mold of guys that you call excellent college players, right? Maybe. Let's see. Maybe this will be something. And they jumped out in 2015 or 2014. 2015. On fire. On fire.
Logan Murdock
Like, just. I just want to take a moment to just talk about Draymond Green for. For a second, right? Like, he has the. The career at Michigan State. He. Under Mark Jackson, he's kind of impact because of the David Lee stuff. He's kind of just basically like, we're just going to be. You're a great defender. We're going to put you on Kobe, we're going to put you on LeBron. And that's kind of just what you are, right? And then something happens. He has a couple big games in the 13 playoffs, but in the 14 playoffs, kind of builds confidence in himself. Not to say he lacked confidence, because, Bo, this is a guy that told his veteran, Jeremy Tyler, that you are. I am no longer your rook. You are not worthy enough to beat my veteran. That's what he Says when he gets drafted. So he's a different kind of dude. But he. During that Clippers series, he kind of finds himself and he tells. He tells this famous story about how he told his. His shoe rep, Adrian Staley, like, they don't know what they got. They don't know what they got. And there's all of this pent up anger because you know, he. From a child in Michigan when you know he's at the rec center and he's telling. People are telling him he can't be on the floor, he has to earn his way onto the floor at the rec center in Saginaw. Then, you know, he has the Michigan State career. But then, you know, even Steph, like, had some like, who is this dude? Energy towards Draymond when he gets into the locker room. And then he has to prove himself all over again. And then after, when he's about to get his new deal or try to fight for a new deal, he has a new coach. So he has a huge monumental chip on his shoulder going into this 1415 season. That kind of manifests as David Lee is hurt and he kind of goes into the fold.
Bomani Jones
They started the season 21 and 2. 21 and 2. And I'm looking at it right now. These games weren't really that close.
Logan Murdock
No.
Bomani Jones
Like they. Everything it's like, what is going on? And do not forget what the big story was going into that season. Listen, LeBron went back to Cleveland and then they went and got Kevin Love.
Logan Murdock
Yeah.
Bomani Jones
Like the story was supposed to be Miami took. LeBron took the show from Miami, got to Cleveland. They immediately got their own Big three situation. Everything was that was supposed to matter, was supposed to matter with that team. And suddenly it was all about the Warriors. Like what we thought LeBron and Cleveland was going to be never really happened. And it was be. And look, those teams went to the finals four times. They won a championship. We'll talk about, you know, at another point. But this was not supposed to be about the warriors like this. It very rarely in the NBA does a dynasty emerge from nowhere. This one felt like it was from nowhere. And it was because there was an entire shifting paradigm of how to play basketball. Like Steve Kerr, Mike d' Antoni got in the hall of Fame for the influence of the 7 seconds or less era. Steve Kerr took that and went to a whole nother place. And I think changed basketball even more.
Logan Murdock
Yeah, I think it's funny. I'm gonna take. I'm gonna make a Bow Bomani type of comparison where I Go all the way this way and then come back to the point. But I think one of the people that I'm listening to right now and somebody I've been trying to get you to listen to for a long time is Larry June. And the reason why I like Larry June is because he's the amalgamation of a whole bunch of different types of rappers that we love, right? Like he sounds like Mac Dre one day, he sounds like Warren G one day. He has a little short in him. How a little jacket in him, has a little 40 in him. Has a little short in him, right? And I think about that with Steve Kerr, right, where he has a little bit of Greg Popovich in him, right? Has a little bit of Phil Jackson, has all. Has d' Antoni in him, has all of these little bits of influences in him that he. One of the things that he says that he did going into this 1415 season was he just studied every type of coach in all of their sets. He studied Brad Stevens's after time outsets. He studied the philosophy of Phil Jackson and how he can update some of the intricacies of the triangle offense. You know, he learned a lot from Pop and he kind of brought that into this type of free flowing team. And also if you go look back, it's so funny to look back at the commentary of that, that 1415 team because nobody really knew how to talk about them because we had never seen it before, right? There's a, It's a team centered around a small guard who doesn't really have a traditional big. They did in Bogut, but like he wasn't the guy, the, the actual guy, right. This is a time when Dwight Howard is coming into the fold and that's like a pendulum swing when he goes from the Lakers to the Rockets, right. And so we don't really know how to talk about this team. Yeah, they're winning, but yeah, we. Chuck is saying they can't win because they're a jump shooting team, which completely misses the point of what this team was. The, the. They get a lot of shit for just being a shooting team. But the real thing that they were great at was just being a versatile team. You know, you could play. They could play as they had the death lineup, which I'm sure we're going to talk about. But they could play Draymond Green at the, at the five or they could. If you have a big team, they could play bogut at the 5 or that they can, you know, they could. They were just so interchangeable defensively and, you know, that really came into play. And to your point, though, before you get to your next question, wasn't just the Cavs that, you know, we thought were going to be something. The spurs were really good that season.
Bomani Jones
Well, the 2014 spurs are one of the greatest teams of all time.
Logan Murdock
Of all time. And they're going into. To try. They're going into the next season. So, like, you're thinking about, the spurs are trying to win a championship this year. If you look at even the predictions, I think Ethan Strauss was the only person that said the warriors had a chance to win the title. And even then, we were like, what the hell are you talking about?
Bomani Jones
Right.
Logan Murdock
But it was the spurs, it was the Cavs. The Thunder were in that. In that mix, right?
Bomani Jones
That's right. They had gone to the West Finals. And this is before Durant broke his foot, because.
Logan Murdock
Exactly.
Bomani Jones
Breaking his foot that year.
Logan Murdock
It's the combination of. We've never seen this before. And also we're upending a lot of people's plans who have plans to win a championship for these next few years, and also individual legacies, because you talk about LeBron, but we're also talking about Russell Westbrook, who's like, who's this dude? Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, James Harden, a whole bunch, a whole generation of players who have plans to be in the Finals year in, year out. All their plans is all fucked up. Yeah.
Bomani Jones
And they. I mean, look, they ran through the league. They won that championship, but the championship, they kept running up against teams whose point guards were hurt. Right? Like, there was a couple down to one situation. They were down to one to Memphis in the Western Conference Finals. They were down 2, 1 to the Cavs in the NBA Finals. They won it, but they won it in a way where Andre Iguodala wound up being Finals mvp because we saw Deli get in, get his step shit. For a little while, we were like, yeah, we can't. We can't reward that sort of behavior.
Logan Murdock
By the way, miss the Cavs, miss the Clippers and the spurs on that bracket, too.
Bomani Jones
They did. They did. Like, it was. It was if the issue was confirmation bias. Right. Like, it was a team that we had all kinds of reason to be skeptical of, because jump shooting teams don't win championships. The part that we ignored about the warriors was we think of them as being a team that played small, but they're not small. Draymond Green was the only guy that was undersized for his position, But Steph Curry, this is not The Steph Curry of 2008. Steph Curry had legitimate size as a point guard. Klay Thompson is a big two guard. Harrison Barnes a big three. Andrea Godala a big three. Andrew Bogut a legitimate size center. Festival Festus Azili coming off the bench like they had big guys. David Lee, when he, you know, when he does come back and gets a run. They had big players for their positions. They just played what we viewed as being small ball. But it became important because they could play defensive because Draymond Green had the long enough arms and could guard all the players. Like Shaw Marion, for example.
Logan Murdock
Yeah.
Bomani Jones
With those sons, that's what allows you to play that sort of game. So they win a championship, we come back in 2016. Steve Kerr has got a up back, right? He cannot. I have forgotten that until right now. Steve Curtis not coach to start the year because his back is hurt. And so they make Luke Walton the coach. Except they didn't really make Luke Walton the coach. Lou Walton wore the suit. Draymond Green assigned himself to be the coach. One thing Draymond Green said that would happen. Well, he was the coach was he was going to shoot a lot more threes. And he did. And by the way, he made a lot of them. And they took off on the entire league. Like this was. If you were skeptical before, they were going to shoot you completely out of it. And Steph Curry was as dominant a scorer, it felt like, as we had seen, especially for somebody his size, with his style of game, like he's. He's the greatest player ever who didn't live at the line. He's just making shots, just precise.
Logan Murdock
Very rarely do you see a team who won a championship have the chip on their shoulder the way that that Golden State warriors team did. Right? Because one thing you were talking about where we were just talking about the playoffs in the 14:15 season, where they missed the one side of the bracket that everybody deemed was tough, but also the Cavs law. The Cavs were playing without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irvin in that finals for the most of that final series in 15, right? So everybody just said, oh, you guys beat LeBron. But the. That's cool. But you guys, you know, you beat a very hobbled Cavs team and you still could have lost that series because you guys were down 2:1. And so they're bringing all of that slights and energy and all those things into that following season. And also they're just so good, right? Like there's. They're just really good. And every. There Were. There were so many signature games that I'm sure we're going to get to within that regular season. But I just remember one of the games that really sticks out to me is the game against Boston. It was an early season game. It was. Right. It was. It was when they got their 23rd win in a row to start the season. And say.
Bomani Jones
Say that again. Hold on. Say that again. Because I feel like we're moving past that point a little.
Logan Murdock
It was.
Bomani Jones
It was.
Logan Murdock
It was. It was their 23rd.
Bomani Jones
They started the season 23. Excuse me, 24.
Logan Murdock
You know, they were going into Boston. Excuse me. Winning. Going 23, winning 23 straight games to start the season, and they go into overtime. That was one of Draymond's early signature games, and it was every bit of Draymond because people forget. And I know Draymond gets a lot of. For his offensive or lack of offensive prowess over the last few years, but, like, he was genuinely a. A pretty good offensive player, right?
Bomani Jones
Oh, that. That year. That was not a complaint. Draymond Green is the coach. The offense came around.
Logan Murdock
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, like, we'll get to it. I mean, you'll get to it in the finals when you talk about his performance then. But, like, he gave you every single thing that you could want, right? Like, he basically took over the game, and they had dudes. He took over that game. They went into double overtime. He helps win the game for them. And you could see his force of will kind of come into focus. And what happens is as Draymond. As the game starts to happen, Draymond is pushing them. We got to go for this record. We got to go for this record. We got to go for this record. And because Lou Walton is a substitute teacher throughout the first part of that season, they're able to, like, you know, they're able to do whatever they want. And fortunately, they have guys that can kind of regulate to a certain extent. They have Andre Guadala. They have Sean Livingston. They have a very veteran core. But it comes to a head when Steve comes back, and Steve's like, no, actually, I want you to shoot that many threes, Draymond. And Draymond's like, yo, what the. What are you talking about? And it kind of comes to a head in that February matchup against okc, which was a wild game, yo.
Bomani Jones
So that was the one. I was going to talk about it for people who don't remember this. They're losing at halftime. I forget what the score was at halftime, but the Warriors Were losing at halftime. And Steve Kerr is back now. He has come back from the back injury. And by the way, it is kind of crazy that 10 years later, he's still coaching because he was in that kind of pain from back surgery. That makes. Guy like, I had a buddy of mine was talking to me about this. I forget who we were talking about recently that had something come up. And it's just like, if you. No matter what somebody says they did to avoid back pain after they've had it, I will understand it, right? Like. And that's where. That's where Kerr was. He was physically decimated. But once Kerr was the coach, Draymond wasn't the coach anymore. And halftime of that warriors game, I mean, of that Warriors Thunder game in Oklahoma City, Lisa Saltis comes on TV to report that they could hear Draymond screaming in the hallway, I am not a robot. That was the part that I will always remember was the I am not a robot line, which is basically. Steve Curry told him that he shouldn't be shooting that much, and he didn't see why he shouldn't be shooting that much. But it seemed like they were collapsing right just under the weight of the withering personality of Draymond Green. And then they came back, was big shot Steph hit to at the end of regulation before they wanted it overtime.
Logan Murdock
Yeah. Yeah. Well, there was a lot of things that happened. I want to go back to the. I want to go back to the halftime part, because I remember watching this. I remember being in Emeryville watching this on television, and I remember being scared because he. Draymond Green being a black man, and the police in Oklahoma City talking about how they might have to go up in that locker room and break up that fight. I remember thinking about that, right? And then they're down 11, and then they just start going on a run, right? And there's, like, there was a play where, by the way, I want to go back again, because we have to contextualize this Oklahoma City warriors rivalry going into it, because there's so many things that are kind of convoluted going into this game. The warriors were so good that year, but it was one of those things. Whenever they played okc, it was like, oh, OKC might be a problem for us going into the postseason if we ever play them again, because they just. They play us so well, and they match up so well with us because they have the same length as us, because they have Kevin Durant and they have Russell Westbrook. They have all this athleticism. And defensive prowess. But what you started to see, the warriors make a run and you just see just grave mistakes by Oklahoma City down the stretch of that game, because no matter what was going on behind the scenes, Oklahoma City was. Had very much control of it. And there's a couple of plays where like, Kevin Durant throws some just wild passes. And then you see the worst of Russell Westbrook that kind of previews what we see in the Western Conference finals. But then there's this weird thing where Draymond plays fucking awesome in that second half, even after he yells at his coach. And then. And then there's the, the three pointer that happens by Steph and the Mike Breen moment. And then there's some sort of vindication. But we still got to figure this out. But this, this, this argument that happened beforehand. And it starts. There was a. There's a complaint that happens after this is like when Kevin leaves. Kevin Durant comes to the wars and he leaves. But the, the complaint when he leaves is the warriors sweep too many things under the rug, and that is a problem. And you start to see that with Draymond, like the antics that happen, the warriors continue to sweep that under the rug because they're starting to win more and more. And when you're winning, the Draymond antics don't really matter. But when you start losing, that's when you have the biggest spotlight on you. And all of that kind of came together was the first thing. It was the first time it really came together on a big, monumental type of television game. And that's another thing that's so fascinating about this team is, yeah, they won, but we really just don't have soap operas like that at. On NBA teams right now. And that was like the beginning of the soap opera. And it was like wall to wall. This is when they become the. I think 14, 15 is when they like when they be like open the door of the zeitgeist. But then I think this team is when they kind of just like just take full step into every. They were the top story in sports, which is hard for a basketball team to be in an NBA team to be, especially when they're, you know, when they're competing against the NFL and other things like that. But this was when the warriors became the it team. And what we need to talk about every day.
Bomani Jones
All right, now, coming up next, we're going to stick with that point. Also get to the playoffs with this team. You can predict the playoff action all the way to the finals with FanDuel predicts all you have to do is sign up to get you a $25 bonus. Follow all the playoff dishes, swishes, wishes and misses. Every move is a potential plot twist. Predict the spread, the total points and even the game winning moments that make the playoffs where one run, one rebound, one shot changes everything from opening tip to the final buzzer. Stay locked in with every pass, every play and every moment that moves us closer to crowning a champion. Sign up now for your $25 bonus on FanDuel Predicts offered by FanDuel Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commissions merchant. 18 plus bonus is non withdrawable and expires 7 days after receipt. Trading derivatives involves significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. Restrictions apply. See terms@fanduel.com predicts bonus offer terms offered
Logan Murdock
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Bomani Jones
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Logan Murdock
I'm looking at his stats with you right now on Basketball Reference, and I'm continuing to be floored on this. Right. Like he's averaging, he's, he's unanimous MVP for a reason. He's. He's averaging 30 a game.
Bomani Jones
40.
Logan Murdock
Like 55 or 50 from field goal range. This is just raw numbers. And then 45 from three point range. That's. That's insane. While. Whilst taking 11 shots. 11 threes a game. That's crazy work. Right, Right.
Bomani Jones
And leading the league in steals.
Logan Murdock
And leading the league in steals. I mean, yeah. Say that to people who say Steph can't play defense, which I Mean, he's a below average defender, but that's good for him. But anyways, him coming into the fold. And again, it goes back to. We didn't know how to talk about Steph in that. In that way. And when you look. I was looking at highlights, trying to prepare for this. And when you look at the teams that they're playing, I just put on like a mixtape from a highlight mixtape from that year. It's weird to see the warriors play the style of their playing because it's literally the norm now. But they're. The other rosters that they're playing against have nothing for this team because they just simply don't have the personnel. Right. I saw the, the. If you look at the home opener of that, of that season, when they're getting their rings, they're playing against the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Pelicans are trotting out Kendrick Perkins for picking roles against Steph. And it's just very disrespectful. And I love Kendrick Perkins, but they just simply don't have the personnel to fuck with Steph and by extension, the rest of this team because there's so many people that can get their own shot. There's. We didn't even talk about Harrison Barnes, who can get his own shot, Andre Guadalupe, who can get his own shot. And then you put the greatest shooter of all time to, To. To close the. The game out. It's really crazy. And then also, like, I, the. The. I want to get on Steph and LeBron for this thing because what we fail to realize is LeBron was like Steph's big homie for a while, right? And then, like, I don't know if you've. If you've experienced this, but I've definitely experienced this where the big homie is no longer the big homie anymore. And I'm like on same playing field as the big homie. And the adjustment that goes with that, like, they're buddy buddy now, LeBron and Steph. But there was a real. There was a real angst and animus to them. I don't care what they say. There was a bit of like, nah, bro, this is my show. And then LeBron we talked about earlier is like, no, wait, this was supposed to be for me. You're fucking up my, My, my Disney moment right now. What are we doing? What's going on? And you could kind of see that tension in 1415. But it really. Because the. We. We haven't talked about the cast, but the Cavs were Really good that season. And it was a weird.
Bomani Jones
It was a weird season in 1415 because that was the David Blatt season. Season.
Logan Murdock
That was a David Blatt season. But they got their together and then they did they. And they were really good and the spurs are really good. But this, the. The Warriors 73 and 9 kind of erases all of that. But you kind of see that tension throughout the entire season between both of those guys.
Bomani Jones
Yeah, no, man, you're right. It. It really came to pass. We'll talk more in the finals is when you really got to see it in the 2016 finals. That it was like, oh, I thought it was different, right. Like, Steph is very interesting because we think of Steph is like, you know, like that baby face assassin thing. The assassin thing matters, right? Steph step a killer and we treat him like he a child very often.
Logan Murdock
It's funny, there's a thing that 50 Cent always talks about when he talks about Kendrick Lamar and when he talks about Kendrick, Kendrick tries to. He tells the story about how Kendrick just like, likes to act like, oh, like, yeah, man, I'm just so humble. This is so cool that I'm here and stuff. And 50 talks about this time where he says, like, he looks at him and he's like, like, you know what you're doing, right? And there's like this sly smile from Kendrick of like, what do you mean? Steph is a bit the same way, right? Where he kind of puts a. Projects this, like, yeah, like I'm. I'm happy to be here. You know, he says all the right things, but then when you get him in some private moments, right, like there's that whisper. There's the whisper of like, yeah, I know what's going on and I want to kill everybody. Right?
Bomani Jones
Yeah.
Logan Murdock
And kind of see that when you're around him more so. More so now he's kind of brought it out of him. But in 15, 16, you didn't really see it. You didn't see like the sly. Like it was more smiling and dancing. But yeah, it was in him.
Bomani Jones
No, the. The big thing is basically the big homie looked up. And it's not even simply that he realized the little homie wasn't the little homie no more is that he looked up and he realized that the little homie thought he was the big homie now. Right? Like, I think that people, what people misunderstand about Steph is regardless of how good you think Steph is, I assure you Steph Curry thinks he's Better. And I believe this because at every turn of his basketball playing career, we've all been like, wow, he's really good. Yeah. But. Right, and he's been like, nah. Like we were like, wow, Steph Curry became the. Maybe the best player in the NBA. Didn't see that coming. Guess, guess who did, right? Like, guess, guess who.
Logan Murdock
Look at, look at who he was playing against, right? Look, even the Western Conference of the people that we was talking about, right? Even all the players that are compared to him, who he's beaten. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Brook James, Harden, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, all of his peers, he is beaten.
Bomani Jones
If you look right, like, like Anthony Edwards is on a very similar trajectory, but doesn't have the pelts on it yet. But like I'm saying with Steph, before he even had done that, I assure you, none of the. He is not surprised at where any of this has gone. But as that year goes, I mean, look, man, they run through the rest of the league, never forget that they were a big enough deal that when it was time for them to go for their 73rd win to set the record for regular season wins, Kobe's playing his last game was relegated to ESPN2. He scored those 60 points on ESPN2 because the warriors getting 73 was on ESPN because that was what level of phenomenon this team was. And so something I talked about with Caitlin Clark that I think was interesting in terms of like evaluating how she got to be as big as she had at the time was that that finally women's basketball, what women's basketball didn't have or never has had, is like a high flyer, right? It's not that type of game. But the High Flyers back in the day were the ones that got all the attention and got the people out of their seats. In this day and age, it's not the High Flyers, it's the three point shooters. And Steph Curry is the one who changed the paradigm about what became must see entertainment in basketball. These warriors changed that paradigm of what became must see entertainment in basketball. It was watching them shoot threes, which again, ran counter to everything we believe was necessary for you to be able to do in order to win in the NBA. But it wasn't just that. It was Steph. It's Steph with Klay Thompson. So you got these two dudes who are shooting over 40% from three, and a paradigm shift created by Kerr in understanding that it's okay to shoot more of these threes, right? Like, we're now so far removed from Larry Bird thinking that three point shots were beneath him.
Logan Murdock
Him.
Bomani Jones
Right. These guys put up as many. Right. These just like, I don't even need that. Right. Like they think about what Larry Bird would have been and the way we talked about him if the paradigm had adjusted in that time. Right.
Logan Murdock
Yeah.
Bomani Jones
Kerr took it there, Curry and Thompson took it there. So now they're shooting a zillion threes and you have games where they're down by 15 at the half. And what they became is the best third quarter team I feel like I had ever seen. In part because they could roll out what our man Vinnie Goodwill named. I wish he could have trademarked it, the death lineup. And the death lineup is when they put Draymond at center, Iguodala, Harrison Barnes, Klay Thompson and Steph Curry. And they could only run it for about 10 minutes a game because it was too small. Right? Yeah, but that, that I would find that that would be the winning margin in a lot of games, especially when they got to the playoffs, is that you could think that you could hold even or even take a 10 point lead on them in those other men minutes and then it's all going to fall apart. When they put in this lineup, it would be a.
Logan Murdock
Especially in the playoffs, right. Like you would go get media meals, you know, you get media meals, you probably come out like, you know, maybe two minutes into the third quarter, right. You. And I think when that death lineup came out, we would make sure that we were all out by that 12 minute mark so we could see what was going on. And especially at Oracle in a building like that, where there would be, we would always call it, there would be the Steph roar, there would be the Clay roar, and there would just be the warriors roar. But like you would. What it would do to that building was just. You would felt like it would. Because it was an old building. It was, it was. I think it was made in 1968. And you thought that the walls were, were going to come in, right. And it was just. It was. That was one element of it. The other element of it was again to the commentary. We didn't know how to talk about it. It. We didn't know what we were seeing in real time. And that led to the excitement even more. And I think this was the first Twitter team where you were like, okay, I'm on Twitter. Wait, I got to watch this team. Now Twitter is telling you that you need to get in front of. I think Wimby has a similar phenomenon when Wimy is cooking now but it's not like that where you had to be in front of a television to see what was going on. Because there was a game. There was. And there's so many moments where this happened. Right. I think about game. I think it was game three or four of the 15 first round, where they're down in New Orleans and out of nowhere they just go on a run and they go. They tied a game up and it was a crazy three from Steph. And you would just continually see these types of games and no lead was safe. And I think the third quarter would put the fear of God in other teams because you didn't know who was going to go off. You didn't know if Clay was just going to go on a crazy rampage. You didn't know if it was going to be Steph. You didn't know if it was just going to be the defense that was just going to parlay into a run. It was a. It was a fun thing to watch, and I don't think we're going to see that anytime soon.
Bomani Jones
And look, they get to the playoffs and they beat Houston 4:1 in the first round. But the issue in the first round is that Steph hurts. It was the MCL was the injury.
Logan Murdock
Yeah, he slipped. He slipped on a.
Bomani Jones
We see him hurt to close out that series. He is hurt. Yeah. And he was hurt to begin the series against Portland. But I think the thing that gets forgotten about this squad, they was rolling with out him. Like, I don't think they would have been able to win a championship without him. But they were still rolling without him.
Logan Murdock
Yeah. I think the biggest thing if. If you look back, Sean Livingston was really good in stabilizing that team when Steph was out. Right. And you could definitely. And he really was able to galvanize that team around them was just a different style of play that they had to play. They had to play more methodical play, less chaotic. Draymond had to have a little bit more responsibility. But Sean Livingston was like the unsung hero of that playoff series. And once he got back, you know, they were back up and rolling against Portland. And again, like, that kind of also goes to the teams that they were playing. Houston, I believe, was an 8 seed that year, and Portland was just a terrible matchup. It was a terrible. The wars were a terrible matchup for Portland, and so they could kind of, you know, win. This was a crash course to Oklahoma City, and the warriors were so head and shoulders above the rest of the league that they could kind of carry Themselves without step for a couple of rounds. But they, they had to get him right for Oklahoma City.
Bomani Jones
Well, I want to make this point about Sean Livingston also because it speaks to like the larger composition of this team, which is Sean Livingston was the dude that never shot threes. Like Sean Livingston's game was to kill you at the elbow, right? Being a 6 OG at the park, backup point guard. Right? Right, exactly right. Cause by now we've seen his knee fold over in front of the world. Like, you know, like we, he was a feel good element of his team that this guy who came out of high school and we never got to see what it could have been. But he had such an important role on that squad. But the Steph injury becomes important. Look, they get to the Oklahoma City series and what Oklahoma City did that I feel like a lot of teams were kind of afraid to do because the warriors made them reactive. It just go really big, right? Have Stephen Adams and Ennis Cantor out there at the same time. Ennis Cantor can't guard anybody. That's the issue. But they don't have anybody that can guard him. And when they went up 3:1 in that series, the warriors had home court advantage. But, but it wasn't a quirky 3:1, right. Like they, they were, they were winning that series against the Warriors. Steph did not look like he did in the regular season. Of course, that was a part of it. But they look, the Thunder were doing it in that series and they had that chance. They had a chance to win it.
Logan Murdock
Yeah. Like I said before, throughout the season, the, the warriors swept the Thunder in that season series. But it was, it was, it wasn't an easy sweep by any means. You always knew that it was going to be Oklahoma City, that they were going to play because just like I said, the matchups, they had everything that the warriors did, but they were just bigger. Right. Like if you just look at the, when you switch from, if you look at those first few games when there was a switch of Steph Curry, if he switched from Stephen Adams, he was going to get switched on to Kevin Durant. And Kevin Durant, people look at him as one of the greatest offensive of players. But when he wanted to, he was a, an elite defender. Right. Because he can guard multiple positions and he could be a rim protector. And you saw every bit of that with Kevin Durant and you could, I went to a few games in that series and you could just see just them stifling, basically hobbled Steph and Steph had to get his knee Right. Even when we're talk. We didn't talk about the Portland series, the guy in back game, but he was pretty bad in that. He got to get his. Feed it back up under him. And he probably rushed back from that knee injury because if you remember that kind of. That knocked him out of the Olympics, that injury. And he had to. He had to rehabilitate for the next season. And you could kind of see just the weight of the season and everything going against them throughout that season. Going for the championship, going for the record, all the hubris and the exhaustion that comes with just managing a team like this kind of fold onto them into that three 1. And they had to. They had a real big hole to get out of. It was very assumed that we were going to see LeBron vs. KD in the Finals, which we were all great at as a basketball community. We were fine with that. But it was. We were basically just assuming that it was going to be a five game series and damn, we going to get these jokes off.
Bomani Jones
Yeah, but see, this is my thing about that series that I think is important in talking about this team. So I've always said that this world has two kinds of people. People who think Scottie Pippen is overrated and people who think Scottie Pippen is underrated. I believe that the strongest Scottie Pippen criticism is there is no true Scottie Pippen game. You can maybe talk about Game 5 in the 91 Finals, but the truth is Michael Jordan's flu game should have been the Scottie Pippen game. But it wasn't because Mike had. Mike got the guy. Mike got the goddamn Ebola. And he still got to come out here and do this because that's just not something you can ask Scottie Pippen to do do. Right?
Logan Murdock
Yeah.
Bomani Jones
Klay Thompson has game six against Oklahoma City.
Logan Murdock
Right.
Bomani Jones
Like that's where the. The legend of game six Clay comes there. And look, it's crucial because they were losing that like this season was about to be over. It was all going to be for not. And look, they got a helping hand for Russell. Russell Westbrook kind of shooting himself out of things. Like the Thunder did not hold their water in the opportunity to win that, but Klay Thompson did. I was it 37 in that game?
Logan Murdock
Yeah. Hold on, let me check real quick. Ryan, do your production magic on this. My guy. Let me just make sure I got this right.
Bomani Jones
I got you.
Logan Murdock
I got you.
Bomani Jones
41. My fault. 41. Klay Thompson. 41.
Logan Murdock
41 in that game. But I think the thing was he. If you look back at that game, and I remember watching it, and he was just keeping them afloat, right? Because there was. I think they were down double digits in that game. I think that game was just a perfect amalgamation of the series. And you kind of see that in. When you see playoff series, they typically go down to one game or one play. And that was the. That that tells you everything about the series. And when that 3:1, when the warriors went down 3:1, this is something that they typically do. Right. I think that, you know, a more recent example of what I'm about to Describe is the 2022 finals where Boston is pretty dominant against the warriors for the first few games. And the Warriors, I think they go down 2:1, and that's before Steph goes on his. His crazy run and wins the series. But they kind of use those games as a just like kind of a study period where they're like, okay, we're studying the team, and then once we figure it out, we're going to completely exploit it. You saw that against Memphis when they put Andrew Bogut against Tony Allen and it completely changes the series. This one where they. What they saw in there in that 3:1 when they were down 3:1 is Russell Westbrook can be really erratic, especially when. When games are on the line and they were like, okay, we can exploit that. As long as we stay close, we can beat these guys. And not only was Russ bad down the stretch, KD was bad as well. Like, there was just a lot of. He did not look in control. And I do want to, before we get back to Clay and how great he was during that, I want to. We haven't talked about this throughout this season. One of the other wrinkles of this was the ghost of Kevin Durant upon this season, where there is a assumption that there's an Adrian Woljanowski story, I believe that comes out in February or January, where it's based right around the All Star break. Right around the All Star break where they're talking about how KD is just enamored with the warriors and there's going to be a pitch for him. And that's something to look out in the off season. And you see all of that and that also plays a part into this series because, like, what is KD going to do after this? No way. Because we didn't have a president for somebody getting beat and then going to the team he got beaten by. But then that's also. You can see the weight on him during the back stretch of that of that Game six where he's not. He doesn't feel like he's in control necessarily of the game. And it's crazy because he's Kevin Durant. He's one of the clutch players of all time. But you see just the moment getting too big for Oklahoma City, and then you see the warriors kind of just pulling one out of their ass. And it was Klay Thompson who balled out particularly and made the biggest shots. But it was Steph who played like, I believe, if I remember correctly, did not play well in that first half and make timely shots down the stretch. And you seen the poise that was coming out of them, that wasn't there for Oklahoma City from their stars. Because, I mean, there's plays where early in the shot clock down, then they're up, the. The Thunder are. And Russ is just going full court. He's just throwing the ball out of bounds, right? Like there's. And then KD is getting double team and he's just throwing the ball out of bounds or taking shots that he wouldn't necessarily, you know, take. It's a lot like. Honestly, it's a lot like what we're seeing right now with the Lakers Rocket series where they're just doubling him and there's no recourse for it. But it was. It was one of the defining games of. Of Klay Thompson's career and one of the defining games of that run thus far. And if they would have won that that year, it would have probably been defining games of that NBA season.
Bomani Jones
Yeah, but look, the warriors wound up winning that at games in game seven, bringing it back to the house. Another bad Russell Westbrook game game to close out that series.
Logan Murdock
But by the way, KD was pretty bad in that series too. Katie and Russ, if you look at their shooting numbers were terrible during that. That's the back half of that series. Their shooting numbers were good, but their shooting numbers were. Shooting attempts were pretty bad.
Bomani Jones
Yeah. So like game seven, Durant was 10 for 19 from the floor. Like, he. He wasn't there. Russ, 7 for 21.
Logan Murdock
Right.
Bomani Jones
And this was on a team you got to remember that was starting self check himself, Andre Robertson, who, like, they were playing 4 on 5 on offense. The thing was, he was a monster, monster on defender. Maybe the greatest defender of all time to even justify the fact that he could get on the floor if we gonna keep the buck.
Logan Murdock
Cause I feel bad for how his career ended, man. He had like a nasty knee injury. Like his career was never the same, but he was really Good.
Bomani Jones
Yeah. Cause he couldn't shoot. Like, he just. All. All he could do was stuff that really required knees.
Logan Murdock
Hey, you know what I mean? As somebody. As somebody that. That has his own self check on the. On the basketball floor, I empathize.
Bomani Jones
Hey, look, man, I mean, I'm doing this show. I ain't playing in the league. You know what I'm saying?
Logan Murdock
We got to be professionals at something, right?
Bomani Jones
We do.
Logan Murdock
We do.
Bomani Jones
But no, this will set us up, man. We're gonna talk later about these finals, and then we'll talk later in the summer about everything that came along with Kevin Durant coming to the warriors, but Logan Murdoch. Check out. Check out real. Real Ones Available where all five podcasts are given away for free. My brother, I appreciate you.
Logan Murdock
Yes, sir, I appreciate that. And also Netflix. We gotta get our Netflix numbers right. Make sure you check us out on Tuesday and Fridays. Man, we out here, man. Me, Howard, Howard Beck, and Raja Bell, man, we out here popping Howard Beck.
Bomani Jones
That is exactly what it says on his driver's license. Hey, man. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us here on the Right Time. We do this four days a week. Brian Brumley handles everything behind the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line. 323-59-67767. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.
Podcast Summary: The Right Time with Bomani Jones Episode: Logan Murdock on How Steph Curry, Draymond Green and the Warriors Changed Basketball Forever (04.28.2026)
This episode dives deep into the Golden State Warriors’ transformative era, particularly focusing on their 2016 run and the cultural, strategic, and historical impact Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Warriors core had on basketball. Bomani Jones and guest Logan Murdock (of The Real Ones) look back with firsthand insight, exploring the roots of the Warriors dynasty, the coaching evolution from Mark Jackson to Steve Kerr, the construction of the roster, key playoffs moments, and how the team's style shifted the NBA landscape.
| Time | Topic | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:01 | Bomani & Logan set the scene; Oakland, Warriors fan culture | | 05:31 | Evolution of Warriors franchise; Mark Jackson’s tenure and departure | | 14:42 | Steve Kerr’s hiring; skepticism, how the transition happened | | 16:29 | Draymond Green’s ascendancy and role in team identity | | 18:30 | Warriors’ stylistic innovation under Kerr; “Death Lineup” | | 23:50 | 2015–16 start; Draymond-Kerr locker room tension (“I am not a robot”) | | 26:37 | Warriors-Thunder rivalry; Draymond’s fiery personality | | 32:25 | Steph Curry’s statistical dominance, unanimous MVP season | | 39:46 | Steph’s mentality and the “big homie/little homie” dynamic with LeBron | | 42:21 | The “Death Lineup” and the rise of the three-pointer as basketball’s central spectacle | | 45:11 | 2016 playoffs; Steph’s injury, team’s depth; OKC series context | | 50:14 | Game 6 Klay and “Scottie Pippen Game” comparison | | 53:52 | The comeback and Game 7 victory; Thunder’s collapse; legacy setup |
Bomani and Logan present the Warriors not just as champions, but as cultural icons that fundamentally reinvented how the NBA and its fans see, experience, and talk about basketball. The episode sets up further analysis of the 2016 Finals and the Kevin Durant saga in future shows.
Highly recommended for: