The Finals 2016
SEQUEL
EZRA SHAW/GETTY IMAGES
The Golden State Warriors have followed up a great season of 67 wins and a Championship with one that could possibly be the greatest of all time.
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he Golden State Warriors mantra during the 2016 NBA Playoffs continued to be “Strength In Numbers,” a rallying cry they used for two seasons to up the Dub Nation pride, boasting of every players’ importance on their deep 15-man roster. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The three words remain inscribed on everything from arena backboards to practice T-shirts to social media hashtags. Only now, these 2016 Warriors are better identified by the strength of one specific number, namely 73. Seventy-three is the number of wins Golden State accrued in its historic 2015-16 campaign when the defending NBA champions improved on their 67-15 season in 2014-15 to finish 73-9 in 2015-16, breaking a 20-year-old NBA record set by the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls, who went 72-10 in the 1995-96 season, a mark that many thought was untouchable. Seventy-three says it all. It puts the Warriors on a historic plateau, up there with—or even up above—the 1996 Bulls, the 1997 Bulls (69-13) and the 1972 Lakers (69-13). It gives Golden State fans the right to compare two-time-andcounting MVP Stephen Curry with all-time great and five-time MVP Michael Jordan. It connects All-Stars Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Sixth Man of the Year runner-up Andre Iguodala with 1995-96 award winners Jordan (MVP, All-NBA, All-Defense), Pippen (All-NBA, AllDefense), Dennis Rodman (All-Defense) and Toni Kukoc (Sixth Man of the Year) respectively. It places Warriors head coach and Bulls’ 1996, 1997 and 1998 NBA champion Steve Kerr in line—as a player and now as the 2015-16 Coach of the Year—with his own legendary 11-time NBA champion head coach Phil Jackson, who led six Chicago teams to titles. If we wanted, we probably could even come up with another 73 reasons how these all-time great teams are so similar. But truth be told, these 2015-16 Warriors still have the business at hand of winning the 2016 NBA Championship before any claim of “greatest team of all time” can be made. “As bad as we wanted to win 73 games, it means nothing if we don’t win the title,” said Green on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “When you go to Chicago, and you look up at those banners, there’s no banner all by itself that says 72-10. The championship banner says 72-10. I’m pretty sure if they didn’t win the championship, you wouldn’t see 72-10 in their gym. So we’ve got to finish the deal.” At his Coach of the Year press conference, Kerr said: “Seventy-three
The Finals 2016
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