Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Dynastic - Chuck Todd & J.A. Adande tell the fascinating (and frustrating) history of the Warriors

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Dynastic - Chuck Todd & J.A. Adande tell the fascinating (and frustrating) history of the Warriors · The Chuck ToddCast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Dynastic. I'm Jaya Adonde and I'm Chuck Todd.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: So this episode's franchise subject is the Warriors. You might
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: think of them as some new money, Silicon Valley and
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: fused squad, but the Warriors are sort of the underrated
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: franchise of NBA history. Their roots go all the way
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: back to the very beginning of the NBA, an original franchise.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: There are so many contrasts to this franchise, starting with
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: the two of the most iconic players in basketball history,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Wilt Chamberlain and Stephen Curry. JA are there two more
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: extreme styles of play that one franchise could represent?
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: You really can't get any further on the spectrum, Like,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: all you need to know is that the NBA didn't
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: count block shots until Wilt's last season in seventy two
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: seventy three, and he still has more official career blocks
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: than Steph Curry.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Of course, Yeah, but you know what, George Micahen has
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: something to say about that. But if we're gonna you're
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: really gonna go back.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But right, Bill Russell, do you think he might have
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: wanted to get some of his blocks counted?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: But Curry, specially a three point shot.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Of course, wasn't even part of the NBA until nineteen
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: seventy nine, and that was well after Wilt have retired.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So how do you capture a team with so many facets?
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: A team that's called Pennsylvania in California home, it's called
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: eleven different arenas home. How do you captch all that
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: in just one snapshot? I think you have to go
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: to the night of March nineteen, twenty twelve and halftime
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: ceremony when the Warriors retired the number of Chris Mullet.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: Oh Man, the See and Run TMC. What are the
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: great nicknames for a team that never wins a title?
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: A fun group? Right?
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: So of course it's along with Tim Hardaway and Mitch
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Richmond and that high score in Trio led the Warriors
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to an average of one hundred eleven points per game.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: That's where the run part comes in.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: And the other part of the nickname was Court was
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: a playoff the Semino Rap Group Run DMC. I know
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: you're replacing the first names of Tim, Mit and Chris
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: for the DMC. All three of them were drafted by
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the Warriors, right, Mullan eighty five, Richmond in eighty eight,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Tim Hardaway in nineteen eighty nine Open nine a year two,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: they beat the Nuggets one hundred and sixty two to
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: one hundred man eight.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I loved watching those teams. That was a lot of
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: fun to watch. But you know, you did wonder if
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: they were going to run out of gas, Like.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: They didn't get the chance to though, Like they pulled
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: off into the side before they before they even had
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a chance to run out of gas.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: But you know, even though they only lasted two years together.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: That they were an indelible part of the franchise affects.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Steph Curry wore a run TMC hat during the twenty
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: eighteen parades is to shout out to his predecessors with
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: the Warriors in twenty eighteen.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: You know, there's a through line with the Warriors, and
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: we're gonna get to it throughout this thing that you know,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: even though Wilt is in there, you know it sits
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: there right as a foundational member. They've actually always been
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: a running team, a smaller team. And you know the
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Rickerry Championship, the Steph Curry, like you look at all
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: their teams, even the run TMC team, they were all
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: a little more run and gun always looking for space.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: They were not the sort of down low, pick and roll,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: that sort of that sort of team.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: It is interesting. The thing that I took away the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: most in our research JAA is how there really is
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: a through line frankly in this Warriors franchise after Wilt
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: leaves that they're almost Their style of play always ends
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: up a bit different than whatever the rest of the
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: league is doing.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: And even though Wilt Chamblain was one of the prototypical
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: and the og dominant low post presences and big man
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: forces in the league, he still liked to get up
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: and down the court, right, And we'll talk about that
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: as we get into the Wilt era of the Warriors, well, the.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Run TMC era.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: It both peaked and started the decline the same night,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and that was during Game three of the nineteen ninety
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: one Western Conference semi Finals against the Lakers, off the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: only playoff series victory that they won in the first
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: round other against the Lakers. The Wars is one game
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: to in LA. They get to split. They now secure
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: home court advantage for the rest of the series. They're
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: back in Oakland and Chuck, they bring out the original
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: run DMC yeah to hype up the pregame introductions.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: That turned out to be a mistake.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a good intention went a little ride. Maybe they
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: should have had them do something at halftime, but they
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: have to do the pregame. They run out on the court,
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels take the court, mix and Ann.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: They've got the turntables set up for jam Master J
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: and they're getting down right this whole elaborate thing.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: I got to ask, any chance you were there covering this.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: This is a young JA.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: I'm still young. I'm watching on TV. Yeah, you can
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: see the video.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: That had to be When I think about Oakland nineteen
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: ninety one peak run, I mean that had to be amazing.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: It was rocking.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And even Don Nelson this you wouldn't think this would
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: be his type of get down.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: To Nelson as it ends he's coaching that team. He
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: kind of has a spurk on his face and then like.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Running MC they go over and they like wrap them
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: up on their way off, and he's still kind of smiling.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: You know, it wasn't smiling the Los Angeles Lakers the
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: whole time this is going on, and I was watching
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the Laker broadcast, and they keep cutting over to them
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: and they're just scowling and they're glaring. Yrons Skuy to
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Magic Johnson just have these angry looks on their face.
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: So the Lakers win the game, and then.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Ask Michael Thompson on that team, right, Klay's dad is
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: on this team.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Clay's dad would have been there in ninety one,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: I think so, I think so. Right.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So the Lakers win, and Magic's still mad about
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: it after the game, and then the postgame intervy on
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the court, he scols the Lakers, delivers a stern message
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: you don't party on the Lakers. That's why he has
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: to tell the wars you don't party on the Lakers. Right,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: So then the Lakers win the next two game, they
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: finish off the series and run TMC only last one
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: more game, opening night of the next season. Then right
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: after the game, Mitch Richmond's traded the Sacramento and so
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: much for run CMC.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that goes to well, that goes to you know
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: that it's the story of the Warriors before they get
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: to this dynastic period of their franchise, isn't it real? Yeah,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: they get right, they get moments right, they get these
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: incredible moments, like, you know, whether it's in the sixty
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: six sixty seven season or what they did here in
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: ninety one, it's like they you think, oh, are they
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: on the verge of something? And then it's like Lucy
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: pulls away the football.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: So they're split up.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: But on this night in twenty twelve, they're all reunited, right,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: They're here to honor Mullen and Tim Hardaway and Mitch
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Richmond are there, and so many people from the history
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: of the Warriors, Rick Barry and Alvin Addams, the star
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: player and the coach of the nineteen seventy five championship team,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the Warriors first championship in California, Tom Meshery, who's.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: The arguably the only one right the only one in
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: California at the time. People forget this, So it's a
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: it's more of a revered title that titles means still
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: means a lot to that Warriors fan base.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: And it was kind of the north star to when
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Joe Leco took over the franchise in his ownership group,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: he pointed out to the banner that Loan California banner
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: hanging up there is saying I want another one.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Of those.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Tom Meshery who kind of epitomized the Warriors in a
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: lot of ways, you know, not a MVP type, but
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a fascinating character. We'll get into history in a little bit.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: He was there.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Nate Thurman, the Warrior's other Hall of Fame center, was there.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: And Will Chamberlain, who had died in nineteen ninety nine,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: he was there, represented by his sister, so he was.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: It was oder.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: It really was almost like this is your life for
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: a franchise, right. You had the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: at that moment, all represented there that night, all being
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: brought together. It was in some ways a nostalgic night
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: for many fans they had. You got to remember, by
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: this point in time, they'd only had four winning season
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: in the twenty one years since the breakup of Run TMC.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, my word, they were kind of a I mean,
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: you know, look, I'll be honest. You were like, why
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: are they called Golden I was a kid in the
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: eighties Golden State. Why don't they just call themselves San
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Francisco or Oakland?
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: You know you know that, you know you're a kid.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: You just want them all named after cities, right, and
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: the present wasn't a lot of fun. The Warriors had
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: a record of eighteen and twenty four going into that
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. They were eighteen and twenty
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: five when the night ended, and they finished the season
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: twenty games below five hundred.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: I guess you could say that you have to hit
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: bottom before you can get to the top. Huh.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: But at least they had Steph Curry on the roster, right, Chuck.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Well, let's see, let me let's go through that. So
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Curry was in his third year, he'd already played in
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: his last game of the season ten days earlier. This
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: was the initial fear of Curry come into the NBA.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Was he durable enough? He had been sidelined by his
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: ankle issues. Troublesome ankles. That would that was the whisper
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: campaign about him in the draft itself. Right, He would
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: need surgery that summer to reattach some torn ligaments. It
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: felt like his body was just, you know, too frail
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: to succeed in the NBA. Right, There's always been this
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: question if you're six three or under, can you survive
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: in the NBA for a long period of time? So
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: he was a long way away from turning the sport
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: upside down at this point. In some ways, he was
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: he was he was, it was he was having the
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: career people feared that he was going to have, not
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: the one that he would eventually have. So we'd seen
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: glimpses of what he could do. He had already had
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: a forty two point finale in his first season, so
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: you knew it was there. He finished second, that to
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: Tarik Evans and the Rookie of the Year voting, And
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: of course you remember Tarik Evans and all his MVPs, right.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Ja, Yeah, that wasn't a very prescient vote by the
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: media that you're I just want to say I did
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: not have a vote in that year's balloting. But you
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: know who did end up looking like fortune tellers at
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: least on that night in March of twenty twelve, Rick
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Berry and the man of the hour, Chris Mullen. Well,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: they have to wonder if they truly believed what they
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: were saying or if they were just trying to calm
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: a crowd that had quickly turned like Roman Colisseum levels
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: of ugly.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Well, this is what I don't know, whether you I'm
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: always proud. That fan base is care so I think
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: ultimately the fact that they were so upset that night
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: maybe tells you something about the fan base. But the
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: mood shifted when the new Warrior Ownership group head Joe
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Lacob took the microphone. If only the Knight's MC Warriors
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: broadcaster Greg Papa had stayed true to his words what
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: he said that concludes our ceremony following Mullen's speech, But
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: then he realized he had forgotten that the boss needed
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: to speak the new boss, so he brings up Lacob
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: and the crowd just immediately boosts. And some of this
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: might be just you just always boo the owner, trust me,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: and that's fans. I'm booon the owner. We're all boooning
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: the owner. You're mad at the owner, right, You never
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: want to get mad at the players, You get mad
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: at the owners. But at the point, why were they
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: so mad? Well, lacap had only had two years so
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: far to try to turn around two decades of what
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: was mostly futility. So and ultimately, of course he did
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: replace what is easily the worst owners in franchise history
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: for them, Chris Cohan.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the fans had had their chance to give
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: it to Cohen too, right, So it wasn't like this
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: was like kind of misplaced or no.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: They knew Cohen suck, let's be honest.
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: And they let him know.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: When the All Star Game was in Oakland in two
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: thousand and phone was introduced and boo like there was
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: no All Star break apparently for the ownership for Chris.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: You know, Laca was a venture capital guy. He and
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: his partner, Peter Gouber is a Hollywood producer, the Rest
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Ownership Group. They beat out tech megabillionaire Larry Ellison to
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: buy The Warriors from Cohen in twenty ten.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: So the Eleisons, now of CBS and paramount fame owner
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: of the Warriors. Just throw that in your house.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah anyway, God, and apparently their philosophy has shifted, because
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: what I was told by somebody from inside the Warriors
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: is this ownership battle, this bidding war was was taking place,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: was that Ellison did not like to overpay for things,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: even though he and his well he I was just
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: gonna say, they do.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Now that's the whole Warner Brothers And yeah, well maybe
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: maybe next generation likes to overpay.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: Maybe Daddy didn't like to overpay.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: But anyway, but whatever that amount is, I mean, this
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: seems like paltry compared to it because even though Lakeab
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: and Goober they they had the weaker hand, they weren't
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: coming with as much money as Ellison was. But uh,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: you know, they they kind of bluffed their way and
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: forced him to fold because the price got a little
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: too high for his liking. So they get the Warriors
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: for the sum of four hundred and fifty million dollars,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: which at the time was the highest for an NBA franchise. Right,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: no one had ever seen that high.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: So once again we're at twenty ten. This happened for
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: four hundred and fifty million dollars.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and just.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Know that today if they put them for sale, we're
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: taping this in be essentially the start of summer twenty
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: twenty six. So how many other investments at four hundred
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: and fifty million dollars could grow to ten billion in
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: value in essentially sixteen years. It's pretty good.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Amazing you can get such a high multiple for something
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that costs so much even back then. But you know,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the Warriors fans, they were wary of this group from
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the get go, right because they had their first introductory
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: press conference after it took over the team. They held
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: it in San Francisco, not in Oakland. So they were
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: sending the signals that, yeah, the Warriors probably aren't going
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: to be long for Oakland if these guys have their way.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: And in that night in twenty twelve.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: By the way, they were right about that.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: They were right, but they were wrong in this sense.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: In twenty twelve, they were still angry because just the
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: week before, the Warriors had traded away Monte Ellis to
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Milwaukee for Senator Andrew Bogan. And remember, Ellis had been
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: the leading scorer on another one of those brief, short
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: lived moments that the Warriors had, the we believe team
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: that beat Dallas in the two thousand and seven playoffs,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: and now five years later, that last real link to
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: that squad was gone.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: And up until the Heat knocked off the Bucks a
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: couple of years ago, that was the first time an
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: eight seed had ever knocked off a one and at
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: best of seven.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Right, you had to get Miami into this somehow, right.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: But you're right, you were right.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: That was historic victory and it wasn't just you know
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the fact that they won and they beat a favorite
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: heavily favorite Dallas team. It was the way that they
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: did it right. They had this care free style. They
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: were liable to pull up and shoot a three anywhere
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: at any time.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: Well, and people forget that Dallas team. That was Dirk,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: that was you know, he get the empty title eventually,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: but that was supposed to be the team.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: You know, it's funny. You know every franchise.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: Coming off the finals lost the year before.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, every franchise has this where you have the team
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: that didn't win the title that you always thought should have.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: And Dallas fans probably would say that that, you know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: they thought that was going to be their title year
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: and they get it a couple of years later, So
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: there's no there's not the same probably anger about it.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: But that's what made I mean, that wasn't it wasn't
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: like an eight over a one in a week year.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: You were like, that was the that was the favorite
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: for the championship that year.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: And to just kind of make it even better is
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: that they they kind of like manipulated their way. They
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: wanted the Warriors, you know, they thought they did because they.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: By the way, this is the most fun part of
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: why we do this, right, You know, I always say
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: it's the I didn't know that the we believe story.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: You know here, I did not know anything about this
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: part of the we believe story. It's much better than
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: even the naming of the Immaculate Reception. So here's how.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Here's this story. Okay. So Paul Wong, a resident of Alameda.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: He's owner of a Korean bararbecue joint. On March seventh,
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: twenty and seventy, prints one hundred and fifty placards and
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: hands them out at a Warrior's Nuggets home game, and
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: the sign reads we believe. Warriors beat Denver Wang. Prince
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Moore beats the Clippers two nights later, three game win streak,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: so the signs become more visible on a T and
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: T game. Wong took the signs to Sacramento on April thirteenth.
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: He's back home, so was Wang. It becomes this thing.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: So Wong told everyone the idea came from The Secret,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: which is some self help book from Oprah. But what
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: he didn't tell everybody is that this was about his
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: own marriage. His wife of ten years had given him
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: the book. Their marriage was in trouble at the time.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Wong was a workaholic. She didn't believe he believed in
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: their relationship anymore, so Wog started. A stated reason for
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: starting this campaign of we Believe was to motivate fans
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: to be zealous about the team again, but the real
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: reason was he was trying to also prove to his
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: wife that he believed in their own marriage. Here's the
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: good news. Here's the good news. Paul and my Wong
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: are still married. They got to watch the Warriors within
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: the twenty fifteen Championship together. They are true believers in
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: every sense of the world. I just man that that
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: is that it's better than than than I love these
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: weird origin stories, but that's a that's a good one
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: and a happy endings.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: And it's great when it's organic, right, when it's not corporate,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: although it kind of quickly got absorbed.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Of course it does. It's like the Terrible Towel, right,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: it was kind of fun, and then you know, hey,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: it's a bit. Everything's a business, right, everybody monetizes everything.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: By the way, speaking of that, you could of course
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: call our folks an advertise. No, I'm just kidding, right,
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: we're everything. We all know. Everything becomes a business at
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: some point and so did we Believe.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: So they started printing and giving out T shirts. You
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: know in the playoffs when everyone wears the same colored
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: T shirt at the home games, so they had the
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: we Believe T shirts that the crowd was wearing, you know,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: certainly by by the end of that series, and you'll
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: still see you go to Warriors games, you'll still see
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: some kind of faded, old yellow we Believe T shirts.
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: When I look at that, you know, it reminds me.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it reminds me. You know, if you go to
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: an Angel's game, you'll still see people with rally monkeys. Yeah,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: and remember there was that real brief period of time
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: where it worked, like you know, and it's funny how
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: this stuff can stick to a franchise. The year the
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Nats won their World Series title, they had a guy
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: who was a pinch hitter named Horaldo Para and his kid.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: He had little kids at home, and so he decided
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: to make his walk up music, baby Shark, that kids sung. Well,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: it became the theme song of the entire Gnats playoff run,
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: and then it became and even to this day, when
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: they introduced them, they play the song and it gives
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: you know, and that's sort of how I think we believe.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: Even to this day, they never win a title with
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: We Believe, And yet there's somehow this idea that like
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: it's stuck more with this franchise than something that isn't
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: a title.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: And even when the Warriors did become championship teams, there's
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: still love, you know, Baron Davis or any of those
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: we Believe guys show up and the crowd still adores them, right,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: But by twenty twelve, that era was over, you know,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: and now they're in completely. They've got a new coach,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Mark Jackson. He's focused on getting the Warriors to be
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: serious and play defense, and that was actually the first
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: step towards the rise of the Warriors.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: But it just didn't seem like it back then.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: And man, if you want to see a painful three
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: and a half minutes of video, just look up Warriors
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: fans boot Laco on YouTube.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: The booing was so bad that lakeup ends up acknowledging it.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, you don't ignore it, although some
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: people say you ignore it. You know, we're all taught,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: you know, don't yeah, fight through it. And he says, well,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: now that we got that out of the way, he
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: says before it begins, except it didn't get out of
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: the way. Lakeups starts off tonight is about two things,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: embracing history and respect, and then someone yells out, we
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: want Manta and things just got lately fall apart.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: If you look at it. Lacobs shook right.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: He starts struggling to get his words out coherently. He
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: keeps pausing, he laughs nervously. None of it's work, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: finally Mullan comes up to rescue him. He puts his
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: arm around Lakeub says I got it. I got it,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: and he tells the crowd sometimes change is inevitable and
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: it's gonna work out just fine. Use that passion in
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the right direction. He says, this thing is going in
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the right way. That brings some cheers and Mulla walks off.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: He's smile and thinks, okay, my work is done here.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: But as soon as he sits down, the boy starts again,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and this time Rick Barry gives it a shout to
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: try to.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: You know, this strikes me. You know, sometimes rich guys
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: aren't used to having somebody say no to them, and
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: that had to rich. I think I don't think we
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: fully appreciate. You know, he's probably only had people tell
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: him great things for so much, so this was probably
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: that kind of extra sort of her full experience in
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: his head. So anyway, Barry comes up and he's in
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: his brown Swede jack jacket and sort of grumpy Rick right,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: grumpy Wrick chastises the fans because that's the rick Berry
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: we all know and love. Right, he goes, come on, people,
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: you fans are the greatest fans of the world. Show
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: a little bit of class. This is a man that
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I've spent some time talking to. He's gonna change this franchise.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: This is crazy. Seriously, come on, you're doing yourself a disservice.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: So rick Berry telling If you only understood the story
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: of rick Berry's first five years, you'd be like rick
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Berry is telling people to calm down.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: But anyway, but.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: It was unusual too, because you know, we've seen fans
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: give it to people. We've seen fans give it to
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the commissioners right at the draft.
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: Or wait the appearances. But I mean, I don't think
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: give it back to the fans like this did well.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: But in some ways though, that's rick Berry man. Yeah,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: rick Berry was unafraid he'd give it back to anybody.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: He's lucky. He's lucky he didn't have more broken jaws
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: back in the day that the Barry went. Oh, he
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: keeps going. He goes all the wonderful act of being
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: said to you, for you to treat this man who
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: was spending his money due to the best that he
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: can turning this franchise around. And I know he's going
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: to do it, So give him the respect he deserves.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: So Okay, the fans they hated him though.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: They start cheering, and Barry walks off to go stand
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: with the other Warrior greats. As it turns out, he
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: and Mullen stood on the right side of history, as
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: we see as for Lake of years later, in recounting
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: his reaction to that night in email to local sportswriter
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Marcus Thompson, he called the booing quote perhaps the singularly
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: most important moment for me. As awful as it was
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: for me and my family, I had to recognized the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: situation that I was in Warriors fans that endured so
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: many terrible years and false promises. I know, as I
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: was a fan too, that this was a single moment
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: where the courage of my convictions was required, So I
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: made the decision. It was really more instinct than decision
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to accept the criticism and defiantly move forward.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Now, look, we're about to find out how the Warriors
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: turn those booths into ear drum rattling cheers, how they
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: defiantly move forward to become dynastic. But Jay, I want
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: to sit on this quote here a minute, because look,
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: we're doing this and we've got two more years of
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Steve Kerr. We know we at least have two more
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: years of Steph Curry, maybe three more, we'll see, Right,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: we're going to find out how much more time with Draymond.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: But I wonder, and I just throw this out there
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: as a question to you. You know this franchise so well,
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: you know this league so well. Will he be thinking
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: about those boozze? Was he thinking about those booze when
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: he decided that he really wanted Kerr back? Was he
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: thinking about those booze when he inevitably decides that he's
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: not going to trade Curry or he's not he is
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: going to recite, Like, I just wonder if this is
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: going to how much that if it had this kind
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: of impact, how is it going to impact how he
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: transitions this franchise from this generation to what he wants
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: to build for the next iteration of the Warriors. What
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: do you think.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I think that never leaves you. And as he said,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: it became a guiding principle. But I think it also
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: is he implied in that quote, it reinforced that if
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: you're going to do this, you got to have conviction,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: if you're going to be in for half a billion dollars,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: you've got to believe that you know what you're doing,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: and even when it's unpopular, and sometimes the right move
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: is the unpopular move, and you just have to trust
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: that it's going to work out in your favor.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: Well, look, the fact of the matter is, and let's
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: be honest here, would we be doing the Warriors today
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: if it wasn't for Joe lacups.
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: Era, Absolutely not.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: You know, it's under his watch that the Warriors did
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: truly become dynastic and a lot of the accolades, a
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: lot of the glittering trophies that we have, and what
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: we call our trophy case segment come during his watch
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: and we'll get into the trophy case. We'll open it
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: up and take a look. King side, we come back
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: right after this.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: All right, it's trophy case. Let's open it up and ja,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: I think this is the thing that you know, if
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: you did the standard and I know, there's no more
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: fun bar trivia questions anymore because you just open up
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: your phone and you get the answer.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: But if you told somebody, all right, who are the
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: top three? Who's got the three most NBA titles? Immediately
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: someone's going to tell you Lakers and Celtics. You might
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: have an argument, Wait, do the Lakers have more? Do
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: the Celtics have more? Isn't that back and forth? Do
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: you count Minneapolis? Do you not count Minneapolis?
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: There's but either way, you know everybody see everybody. I
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: think the casual basketball fan knows Lakers Celtics won two.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: How many even hardcore NBA fans would say Warriors are next?
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Right? Or NBA journalists. I gotta admit I didn't know until.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: Would you have said both go? If you had a guess,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: I would.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: Have thought bulls right? And then of course the the
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: Spurs will be up there pretty soon. They're they're sitting this.
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: I was just going to say, I have a feeling
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: the Warriors have a little bit of work to do
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: if they want to make sure the Spurs don't pass them.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: Here are coming.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: But honestly, I bumped into Raymond Ritter, the AHPR guy,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: And it's funny because I told he's always pushing this
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: stuff constantly, right like anytime you see him, Hey, did
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: you know?
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: Did you know this? If you know that, I said, Raymond,
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: this is your chance.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: We have a whole dedicated this. We'll use everything that
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: you tell us. What do you got?
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: And so here it is exactly here's.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: You waited your whole career for this.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: But he always mentions that did you know we've got
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: the three third most championships? And I will say Raymond
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: was actually pretty instrumental in kind of bringing back some
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: of the Philadelphia Wars and the early San Francisco era
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Warriors stuff into the end of the mix and like
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: hanging the banners of the retired jerseys from Philadelphia and
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: the championships from Philadelphia and the in.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: The practice facility at least.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: But yeah, he I didn't know until he pointed it
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: out that the third most championships belonged to the Warriors franchise.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: And you know, it's one of those things. I mean,
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: you know to take you a little bit behind the
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: scenes here and our debates about you know, which franchises
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: we should do next, and and you know you were
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: you you were all over on the Warriors here ja
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: and then the more you were like, oh, absolutely, this
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: is the most I think it's fair to say, the
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: most underappreciated all time great franchise in the NBA.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: And because we don't think of him that way, you know,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: as we said at the beginning.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: They're just thought of as this like internet startup.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Right, Although I will say that I don't know if
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: they would have really qualified to do the show.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: I don't you know, they wouldn't have popped up.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: They certainly wouldn't have been you know, at the top
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: of my mind to do because even though they they
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: and again are kind of unofficial. Thing is you got
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: to have at least three championships to qualify, which they
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: would have qualified. But they were so spread out and
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: they were so long ago. But the fact that they
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: they they had this run under lake of you know,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: that really made them strong candidates.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean it's like if you and I had
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: met and started doing this in nineteen ninety nine with
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: the Patriots, even Dar right, you know, it's like and
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: that's what happened. Sometimes it's just like and that's the beauty,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: that's the that's why we enjoyed it, all right.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: So seven NBA champions or new bau reach. But they
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: do have a tradition that goes back to the to
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the beginning the league. They won the first championship, back
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: when before there was an NBA. They won the first championship.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: That's not recognized by the end the Basketball Association of America.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: They're not first one. That's not that Celtics don't have
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: the first one. That's one thing they have over the Celtics.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: The Celtics, by the way, in the in this original league,
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: it's the Warrior. Celtics and Knicks are the only teams
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: left from that league where they won that first championship
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: in it if it, I think, you know, even cements
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: them in even more. But their championship wins forty seven,
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: fifty six, both in Philadelphia, seventy five and then of
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: course the run of twenty fifteen, twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen,
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. At some point we're going to get
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: into this seventy five one because seventy five is one
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: title that many people thought would have been the first
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: great run of the Warriors. Many fans thought was going
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: to be sixty seven to two seventy five, but we're
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: good into that later.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: So the Warriors not only have the best regular season
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: record in NBA history seventy three and nine single season,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: the best single postseason record in the NBA when they
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: went sixteen and one the very next year. And so
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: there's a little bit of dubious and I think a
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: little sour, you know, the fact that they didn't win
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the championship and go on a great run in the
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: playoffs when they win seventy three and nine has kind
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: of removed the luster the allure of that seventy three
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: and nine record, much to my chagrin. And I actually
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: really was rooting for them to win that year because
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: I knew if they didn't then people wouldn't talk and
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: wouldn't revere that seventy three and nine seeds And then
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: there's no recognition of it, Like don't you think they
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: said an I'll throw that question to you, Chuck. Should
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: they put a banner up for doing something no one
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: else in the history league has done? The Bulls the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: way they handled it because they did win a championship
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: the year that they won seventy two. So they have
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: their championship banner from nineteen ninety six and below. It
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: is like a little had on that says, you know,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: seventy two wins.
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: All right?
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Do you have the Seattle Mariners put up a banner
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: for their when they win one hundred and fourteen games
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: that year that they did not get to the World Series.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: Team But what was different was it felt like everyone
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: knew that they weren't going to win the World Series
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: that year.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: No, the surprising thing about the Warriors is that they
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: should like, I don't know, is that a is it
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: an is it a black mark on the Warriors? Or
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: is it just the make Lebron's that year that Lebron
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: did this that much more amazing? Hey right, yeah, you know.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: If you're a Lebron fan, it makes me that much
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: more significant that they came back from three to one.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: So that's the only thing is not only did they
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: you know, not follow through on the seventy three one season,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: they then became the first team to blow up three
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: to one lead in the finals, and all the memes
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: and the jokes that came as a result of that.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I feel like it stirs too many bad memories. But
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I feel like we should honor and respect and revere
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: the seventy three wins because that was the last time
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the regular season mattered in the NBA's they lost.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: That's interesting. Okay, now you get at the game. I
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: know we're going off on a tangent here. Now you're
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: getting that to the issue that I have with a
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: regular season versus the playoffs, right, And you know, by
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: the way, I this idea that the playoffs count more
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: than the regular season. You know, we think this is
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: a near a new phenomenon after reading Rick Berry's sort
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: of mid career tell all book, and we're going to
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: get into that later. That's how he viewed it. That's
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: how everybody viewed it, right. The championships were everything, The
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: playoffs were everything. I don't know how to feel about
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: regular season records anymore. And I'm I I hear you,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: but I don't think fans care about the regular season.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Well do we throw out MVPs then, because that's a
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: regular season award?
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: Well, I say those don't mean anything.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: And that's another question of I. And again, we're siding
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: we're going to go off on a diatribe here, but
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: let me you're in it. You're you're a you've been
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: a beat reporter, so you've been in knee deep in this.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Should the MVP voting happen before the playoffs or after?
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Yes, because I think it's a regular season award, and
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: I think we need to have the regular season have
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: some value. So I hold two thoughts. One, I revere
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. It's such a it's a different type of basketball.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: There's nothing like it. And yes, you're who you are
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: is defined by what you do in the playoffs. But also,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: I believe the regular season matters. I believe the playoffs
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: are a reflection of things that develop during the regular season.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: I think championship habits are cultivated during the regular season.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: And also it helps us sort of frame the postseason
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: right based on what has happened in the regular season.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Who is the favorites, who's the underdog, who could maybe
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: catch fire and go on a run in the post?
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: All these things happen as a result of the regular season.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: But here's the don't want, you know, so many months,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: in so many games to have no significance oh.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: Look, and and they're about to mess around with college
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: football playoff even more. And if they do that, they
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: could dilute the regular season. I'm with you, right, the
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: regular season needs to mean something. The NFL regular season
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: still mean something. The NBA has a regular season problem.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: I think we all, deep down inside know there's kind
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: of a problem. The question is how do you how
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: do you still revere it? But let's talk about the
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: record that matters more. And an undefeated and an undefeated
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: postseason is still is still a north star for an
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: all time great team. Who has yet to do it?
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Not the Sixers in eighty three they lost one, Not
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: the Bulls that know, and the Warriors came close.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: The Lakers in two thousand and one when they lost,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: they didn't lose until the first game of the of
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. And not the Warriors when they got
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Kevin Durant and ran the table. They came within a
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: game of running the table. And then Lebron and company
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: put on a great game in Game four of the
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Finals and denied them that ex So.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Let me ask you this, what's a better what's a
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: greater record? Sixteen and one in the postseason or seventy
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: three and nine in the regular season.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: Seventy three and nine.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, to sustain it that much, and when all
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: the things were against you, having to win on back
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: to back nights for example, I mean getting through the
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: regulars with all that. I mean, there are some coaches
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: will tell you there are scheduled losses right just as
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: you're in your third city in five days.
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: I always love that people say that, yeah, we've got
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: we got ten scheduled losses on our schedule.
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: I mean you look in and it's just kind of
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: built in. And the fact that the wars overcame so
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: many of those, right, you know that the NBA, it's
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: a little more favorable in the playoffs because you don't
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: have to play back to backs, right, you don't have
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: to go to multiple seats, I know. And you're not
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: having to prepare to play Toronto one night and you
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: know Milwaukee the next night, in Indiana the next night. Right,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: You're just locked in on one team. So I will
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: say in some ways, now, granted you.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, I think the playoffs right
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: where where somebody you can figure out your tent. You know,
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: you can fool them one night can you can you
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: use you know, you have to change your game plan
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: by game three, game four, right, you can't do the
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: same thing if they figured out what you're doing. I
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: don't know I could. I will say this, I think
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: the next great all time team in NBA history will
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: be the first one that find that somehow goes undefeated
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: in the playoffs.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Well, the Thunderhead has shot at it this year and
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: lost in game one of these.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: There's a there's a guy named Wenby. That's uh, I mean,
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: I hesitate, you know again, we're taping in the middle
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: of in the middle of oneb's run here, But boy,
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: where that is something I do feel like. I don't
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: know about you. If you were, if you were right
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: in your column, would you have written the something has changed,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: like the type the teutonic plates have shifted, haven't they?
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: So there's another moment where I saw something changing. We'll
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: get to that later on. I actually did write that,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: but I think this was even a greater case. I
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: think this will be a more lasting shift, tectonic shift
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: in the NBA than actually what the Warriors were able
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: to do in twenty fifteen, what they did in twenty seventeen,
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: though they did start fifteen and oh before they lost
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: that game four, you know, and they're.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: Still amazing they got that far. I mean, you know,
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: and I remember that game four because we were all
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: waiting to see are they about to you know it,
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: We all knew the Warriors were winning the championship, although
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: because of the three to one comeback from there, you know,
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: there was sort of like, wait a minute, they just
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: want to They're not gonna They're not going to do
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: a three zero comeback? Are they runs not doing that?
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: Is he?
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: It was out there like, oh now, crank up all
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: the three one Warriors blows the three one lead memes
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: again that everyone used in twenty sixteen. So they had
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: a fifteen game you know, they won fifteenth straight games
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: that year, fifteen game winning streak in one single postseason.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: They also going back to that that seventy three win season.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: He had the second longest winning streak in NBA history
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: over a two seasons ban because they.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: Lived now the Miami Heat. My Miami Heat friends would
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: complain about this, okay, because he had the second longest
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: in a single season twenty seven I think.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Right, But I counted because the franchise, did I know,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: the rosters aren't the same. But we say, like, like
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Steph Curry had that streak of you know, making a
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: three pointer in whatever game that was, right, you should
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: have this in the trophy case. But you know, he
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: had a lengthy streak of making at least one three
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: pointer in consecutive games that covered multiple seasons. Right, So
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: I'm perfectly willing to cover the fact that they were
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: eight straight games over multiple seasons, last four games in
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen fifteen, and in the first twenty four games
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: in the twenty fifteen.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: To start twenty four and oh is something else?
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's that's the best start to a season, right.
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: Wars had six players on the NBA's seventy fifth anniversary
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: team who were with Wars at some point in their
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: careers significant that's all.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: That's like eight, that's like what eight point eight percent.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty that's pretty good, I say, at some
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: significant point in their careers. Raymond added a seventh, Chris Paul.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: But we don't think of him as a Warrior at all. Right,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: so I'm gonna say six Paul Arison.
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: And he wasn't really his best years weren't as a Warrior.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: Now, So Paul Arison, Rick Berry, Nate Thurman, Will Chamberlain, seven, Curry,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: Kevin Durant all got together on the seventy fifth anniversary team.
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: You know, you love Paul Air. You feel like we've
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: been doing this and you've you've been on this the
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: entire time. You think Paul Arison is is sort of
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: the overlooked super you know, sort of superstar and Warriors history.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: We will talk about him later, but for right now,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: let's just say ten time NBA All Star, three times
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: All NBA First Team, two.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: Time scoring champion, et cetera. Right, and and then well he.
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Shares a number with another star.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll we'll get into that later on. Klay Thompson
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: holds the NBA record for most three pointers in a
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: game fourteen. It's kind of amazing that Curry doesn't hold
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: that record, but his backward mate holds it.
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll say record for the moment. That's a record
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: that I'm just I would say Eddie Clay record that
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: the Warriors have. Don't assume it sticks.
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: Well, Curry's thirty seven points in a quarter. You think
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: Steph's gonna get that one.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: Remember when did Kobe record and when did Kobe get
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: his eighty point game, mister Adonde, what year or when
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: it's let Yeah, it's last season, wasn't it.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: No, No, Kobe's eighty one. That was in two thousand
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: and six. He got his sixty point finale. It was
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: a sixty point finale.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: That's what it was. Right point is is that I
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: just think that there's some more records coming Curry.
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: You think Curry's got a forty quarter.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: I think that if Curry it's one of those we
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: know when he feels it and you know it and
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: if you're at a certain point in his career, I
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: don't know. It's like watching when you watched Bam and
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: his eighty three point game, where there was a point
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: where the whole team wanted to see him keep going.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: I just think that there's every chance that we're gonna,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: you know, as the cell. I don't know.
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: I am.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: That's how much I believe in Steph. How's that I'm
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: just and that I could picture scenario. He hits four
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: threes in a row in the first two minutes of
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: a quarter, He's got twelve in a quarter or something, right,
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden, they're like, just feed
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: them just feed them, right, you know how that gets well?
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Here.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Here's something I used to say though, when the Splash
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: Brothers were together, that you know Curry, first of all,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: he was splashier, right because he had a higher trajectory
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: on his shot, so when it dropped through is a
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: bigger class.
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: So he put the splash and Splash Brothers, yes he did.
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: He'll go down and is known as the greater shooter.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: But I used to say that Clay's hot is hotter
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: than step shot. And people around you, including Steve Kerr,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: will tell you that Clay had the more precise and
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: more textbook shooting form. Clay had the perfect shooting form,
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: and Steph was envious of how he used to say
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Clay would get in his pocket. So like Clay has
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: a more consistent shot, there's less room for variants. Curry
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: put more of his body. Like Curry's shot is like
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: a bottom all the way to the top, whereas Clay
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: is just his arms, so less can go wrong. Again,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: this is what STEP's going to have to beat if
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: he wants to take Clay's record. Clay was thirteen for
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: thirteen from the field, nine for nine from three and
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: two for two from on free throws, did not miss
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: a single shot in that incredible, incendiary quard.
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: It's a basic actually that the Warriors have had a
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: couple of guys with quarters like that that made the
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Sleepy Void. You know, it was one that's always been
• 41:57
  Speaker 2: in my head for some reason, and it's all because
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: it happened in a playoff game.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: But it was like and against Michael Cooper, who's now
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame, largely basically defensive prowess.
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: Well, so the guy who could cover Larry Bird, right,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: Michael Cooper had one job back in the day, you
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: have to cover less.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: And Sleepy gave him twenty nine in the fourth quarter
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: against the Lakers, a big, big comeback. So the Warriors
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: own the greatest single season scoring quarter and the greatest
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: postseason scoring cord. And I'm sure Wilt at some point
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: held the record for best scoring quarter, probably on the
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: hundred point nine, so they're probably represented multiple times.
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: Well, we also got Steph holding the NBA record obviously
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: most threes of all time numbers keeps growing most threes
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: in a single season order, and two that you know,
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: with the way everybody shoots threes, that's probably a vulnerable
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: record at some point. We just don't know when it'll
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: be really weird if Wemby ever breaks it. But anyway,
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: I digress. Draymond Green had the only triple double in
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: NBA history achieved without points being part of a triple double.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: So in a four point game, he had twelve rebounds,
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: ten assists, ten steals in twenty seventeen against the Memphis Grizzlies.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: That that is something else. I'm surprised Draymond didn't end
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: up with a couple of quarter any of the quadruple.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: Doubles had one that he could get.
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: I know, I have a feeling mister Wemby is going
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: to create new standards for quadruple doubles at some point.
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: He's made his way into this podcast a lot already.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: I know, how do you not? It doesn't it? I
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: know it, but it does feel like, you know, and
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: this is a recency bias. We're both afraid of it,
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: you know, and somehow the Warriors.
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: He wanted this podcast to age.
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: Well right, yeah, but it is one of those feelings
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: you're like, I think Michael Jordan, a new Michael Jordan
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: just showed up. That's what it feels like I think we.
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: All well curated something that Jordan never did and went
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: in the MVP unanimously. It's kind of hard to believe
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: that Jordan never got into unanimous MVP. Including the year
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: that they won seventy two games, you would think you'd
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: be unanimous. Curry two MVPs, Wilt won. So that account
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: they have, they have six, one account the.
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: All Star ones.
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Well, I think all Star MVPs mattered in the twentieth century.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: I think in the twenty first century, the All Star
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Game because comes like what it is today, right, it's
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: now just sort of look, Steph Curry has two of them.
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: The last one was because it was in the New
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: Arena in San Francisco, right, But I think those those
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: players cared a lot about the All Star Game in
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: the fifty six st and seventies because you know, it
• 44:35
  Speaker 2: was frankly, the All Star Game would be one of
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: the few times that everybody was watching, right, it was
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: not you know, remember we forget the NBA was kind of,
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: you know, a secondary sport as far as the national
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: coverage was concerned. But they've had they've had six All
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: Star Game MVPs. Paul Arizon we're going to keep talking
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: about Wilt did it once. Rick Berry in his second
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: year in the league was the All Star MVP. Kevin
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: Durant did it in twenty nineteen, and then it's Sef
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: Curry twice.
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: And then.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: That's a pretty full trophy case, you know, for a
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: team that doesn't have any we don't think of them
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: as having extensive history, but this, and I think.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: I'll give you one more in the trophy case. How
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: about the fact that a team that costs fifteen thousand
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: dollars to get in nineteen forty seven became worth ten
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: billion dollars in less than one hundred years, in about
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: eighty years. That's pretty good. That's a trophy all in itself.
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: As type of trophies they love in Silicon Valley, right, yeah.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: Which is what I mean. This is what you know.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: It's so funny in hindsight of course, Golden State, right,
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: the rise of Golden State in this era does go
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: follow the stock price of tech stocks, doesn't it.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: Well, it is.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: Always and I've always sort of thought it was intertwined
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: in like now you know, look, look who's buying the
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: sky boxes, Look who's buying the court side seats right.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: It is arguery to them, Chuck, but I don't think
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: that they're necessarily in entwined. And so as we transition
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: into the Blueprint, I feel like that's a good segue.
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: As we get in our blueprint segment, one of the
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: things about the Warriors is they've never quite synced up, right.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: So they're in the Bay Area when San Francisco is
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: sort of the epicenter of the counterculture and the revolutionary
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: you know, youth movement in San Francisco, and you've got
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: you know, you've got hate Asbury on one side of
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: the Bay and you've got the Black Panthers on the
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: other side.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: And the Warriors really aren't leading the.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Way in a way that we had seen sports do
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: so in the past, somewhat ironically or however you want
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: to put it. Later on, they're at the forefront of
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: sports political activism. With Steve Kerr and how outspoken he's been,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: you know about the need for gun controllers speaking out right.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: You didn't have that with the Warriors of the.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Sixties, not in the sixties, but at a time when
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: when sort of the rhetoricas is down from sports and
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: you know, the time when the country is boby is
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: divided as it's been since the nineteen sixties and the
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Vietnam process and all that. Here's Steve Kerr speaking out
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: and at the forefront of that. So that was one era.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: But the other thing, Chuck, is during the rise of
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: Silicon vat well not right, the tech rise in the nineties, right,
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: the doc com boom is with the phrase I'm looking
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: for the doc com era in the nineteen nineties, that
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: coincides with a terrible run for the Warrior, right, I
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: mean the runting.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: Sort of theis web two point now right right after
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: the financial crisis, when the tech stocks sort of become
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: the economy. It is also happens right at the same
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: time as Golden State, right.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: And it's also somewhat a cruel twist of fate that,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: as you know, they moved to San Francisco and they
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: want to be on that side of the Bay and
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: they want to be closer. What happens when they open
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: up this grant vision that what became known as the
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: Chase Center and I think one billion dollar project that
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Rick Weltson dedicated himself to getting across the finish line,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: and they envisioned you know, this being being able to
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: charge whatever they wanted to because they'd have Steph Curry
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant to sell.
• 48:15
  Speaker 3: Well. Kevin Durant leaves and then.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: What happens the year the building opens, there's a pandemic
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: and the entire first season they can't have anyone in
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: the building. It's sitting there, the stands are empty because
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: of COVID. So again another time when what the Warriors
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: were doing and the way the world or the way
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Silicon Valley or the tech business was going, we're just
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: out of sync.
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: That's no, it's it's a it's a fair point. And
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: now in the post pandemic era that the twenty two championship,
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: by the way, sort of cements it right that it
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: became an era, right, more than just a run with Durant, Right,
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: just like Kobe getting one without Shack, Steph getting one
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: without Durant was a big deal.
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: So the best way that I would summarize the Warriors,
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to, you know, distill it down
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: to the cent or two, but they part one is
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: that they used to be unable to keep the good
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: times going right. All the runs were short lived. The
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: seventy five championship was kind of one and done. Never
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: get back to the finals in that era. Run TMC
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: two years, that's it. We believe that's over.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: They they draft some great players and end up trading them,
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: like Chris Webber.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh oh, so you've got this era of like, yeah,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: future Hall of Famers that slipped through their grass. So
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: they had Robert Parrish was a warrior. They trade him
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: along with the pick that becomes Kevin McHale to the
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: Boston Celtics. So there's two thirds of the Celtics Big
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: three Hall of Fame front court that well, think.
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: About this, they've traded. They did it almost in every decade.
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: They trade Welt Chamberlain, although I will you could defend it.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: Actually it was probably the right trade. They do go
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: to the finals the very a year after they trade them,
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: but they trade. They're the franchise that traded Wilt Chamberlain.
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: They're the franchise that traded Robert Parrish, They're the franchise
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: that traded Chris Webber. I mean Dark Kid, if for
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: dark the franchise that trades for Darkcake. I mean, you know,
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: there's there's a lot of goat and not in the
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: good way that you could have gone here in this direction.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: And by the way, there's even a moment where they
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: think about trading Stephan Clay early in their careers.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's uh, you know, and it's self inflicted. Right,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Sometimes there's you know, you think of the Portland Trailblazers
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: and what they could have been if.
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: If if you know, Bill Walsh hadn't hurt his foot.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: You think of, you know, the Boston Celtics could have
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: been even more dynastic without the tragic death of Len Bias,
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: who they drafted right after they won the championship.
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: They might not have a dip in the nineties.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: If yeah, they run it all the way through, maybe
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: we don't even have Jordan and the Bulls, Like, there's
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: all kinds of ways that that could have gone. You know,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: these are beyond their control. The Warriors, you had these
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: guys and you traded them. Or you know, Chris Weber
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: wanted out because he couldn't get along with Don Nelson,
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: like all these things. Then you chose Nelson over Weber, Right,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: maybe you keep Weber if you get rid of Don Nelson.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: You chose Nelson, and you really didn't have anything to
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: show for it, and then you know, Weber goes on
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: to become a Hall of Fame player and elevates the
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Sacramento Kings, your regional rival right and gets them, you know,
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: to the brink of a championship in the two thousand
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: and two season. So all these self inflicted wounds that
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: the Warriors had which prevented them from having sustained success.
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: Prick Mioli, one of the owners, the owner from the
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: mid sixties to the mid eighties, he talked about that.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: He said, I'd captured lightning in a bottle, and I
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: insisted on trying to recapture it. It's easy enough to
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: capture once. It's not hard work or brilliance that does it,
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: but luck, a stroke of good fortune. It is harder
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: to recapture it once it gets loose, and I'm kept
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: alive by my dreams of stuffing lightning back in a bottle.
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: It's hard to sustain, say, Chuck, anyone can get rich,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: you can win the lottery. Yeah, staying rich, staying relevant
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: is a different thing, and the Warriors struggled with that
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: up until the past decade.
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: No, it really is this ownership group that has been
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: able to keep this state that this to sustain this
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: going forward. Look, they start as the Philadelphia Warriors. They
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: were part of this original BA Basketball Association in forty seven.
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: They there are two other teams, the Celtics and the
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: Knicks that the Warriors came into the league with that
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: still exists there of course, now the Golden State Warriors.
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: There were eight eight other of these franchises from forty
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: six that are all gone. I love these. They were
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: the Providence Steamrollers, the Toronto Huskies, the Washington Capitals. So
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: the original iteration of the Washington Caps to our our
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: co partner, mister Steve Hall, here was not a hockey team.
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: They were a basketball team. First, live with that brother,
• 52:57
  Speaker 2: Chicago Stags, you gotta love that, Cleveland and Rebels, Detroit Falcons,
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: Pittsburgh Ironmen, and the Saint Louis Bombers. It is interesting
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: that the Warriors, this now pillar of the West Coast,
• 53:10
  Speaker 2: was actually the one of the founding triumvirent of key
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: franchises in the East obviously Nickson Celtics, so that sometimes
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: gets lost. They're this cornerstone of the Bay Area now,
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: but they actually were an East Coast tent pole back
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: in the day and at the time, of course, the
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: NBA developed as a way for hockey owners to sell
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: tickets in the arenas on knights that the hockey teams
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: weren't playing. So to think, you know, now you have
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: basketball owners trying to acquire hockey teams. Back then it
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: was hockey owners looking for extra dates. Oh, this basketball
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: league might work, so let's try that.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: And it's funny because it was a Canadian owner of
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: the Los Angeles Lakers, Jack Can't Cook, who added the
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: Kings basically as a way to fill and justify building
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: an arena for the Lakers. The Lakers are playing the
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Sports Arena, King has a fallout with the people that
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: run the LA Sports Arena, wants to build an arena,
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: but he says, well, if I build arena, I got
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: to have another team. So it had kind of come
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: full circle. I think that's late sixties, early seventies when
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: the Forum gets built. So now that the LA Kings
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: exist basically to sell tickets on the night the Lakers
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: weren't playing. But you know the I feel like that
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: that origin story the NBA explains the difference in the
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: way that the NF the NHL has.
• 54:29
  Speaker 3: A reverence for its original six.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: Right, we still talk about the Montreal Canadians, the Boston Bruins,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: the Toronto Maypleiefs, Detroit Red Wings, York Range.
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: Chicago Black Parts.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: We never hear the Warriors, who are an original three
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: in the NBA discussed with that same type of reverence.
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: Right, but well, the original six. Look at the original six.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: They're still there, the Canadians, the Canadians still playing Montreal,
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: the Bruins still play in Boston, the Maple Leaf is
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: still in Toronto, Red Wings, Rangers, Blackhawks. I think that's
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: the problem.
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: The Philadelphia Warriors became the San Francisco Warriors became the
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: Golden State Warriors, Right.
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: But we don't deduct from the La Lakers starting in
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: Minneapolis before.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: They moved west, unless you're a Celtics fan.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Although although it took a while, it's funny there's some
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: contention so kind of a cool story of how they
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: came to honor the past the Lakers, because it used
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: to be there was no signs, no banners or anything,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: no way to tell that the Lakers had ever played
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: Minneapolis when he went to a Laker game, and then
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: in the last years of George Micn's life reporter from
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: the La Times, Steve Springer, went down to Arizona, where
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: he was living at the time, and Miken is kind
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: of pleading, like I'm you know, he's not saying it,
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: but it's implied like IM not gonna re have that
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: much longer. Like I want some ways, I want to
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: proof that I existed. Right, my franchise, there's nothing for
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: us in Minneapolis. You know, the Lakers are still going strong.
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: I'm the one that got them going. And Jerry Buss,
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: to his credit, the owner of the Lakers at the time,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: sees the story and like within a week done, here's
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: a banner.
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: That's what for all the.
• 56:09
  Speaker 2: It's such a Jerry Buss thing.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Right, there's all the hired numbers that the that the
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: Minneapolis Stakers retired. We're going to put a banner now,
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: not one for each, but just one for all the
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: retired Laker numbers.
• 56:20
  Speaker 3: They put up there with the LA Laker numbers.
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: And then they also put up the banners to represent
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: all the all the Minneapolis championships.
• 56:28
  Speaker 3: So that was pretty cool.
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: So the original franchise fee was fifteen thousand. Mister Gottlieb
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: buys them for twenty five grand in nineteen fifty two.
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: Steve Markup. Yeah, he was the original coach.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: You know, it's not too often you see a guy
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: go from coaching the team to owning the team. But
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: it was a little more possible back there when you
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: could buy the NBA dollars. Yeah, money sitting around.
• 56:54
  Speaker 2: You know, all these owners and in fact, the Warriors
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: had a lot of owners like this, Gottlieb. And in
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: some ways nearly was like this too. They're kind of
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: they're local promoters, right. They could easily have been restaurant
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: tours or the nightclub owner, and instead they owned they
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: owned a local ball club. But in some ways it
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: was the same type of mindset, right, a nightclub owner
• 57:15
  Speaker 2: is always looking for a marquee name to get people
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: to come to their clubs and all this stuff. And
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: in many ways, there were a lot of owners of
• 57:23
  Speaker 2: sports teams in the fifties that essentially had this thought
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: the same way as a nightclub owner. What what can
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: I do to get people in the seats tonight? You know,
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: you know, all these guys like this.
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: You know, basketball in the early part of the twentieth
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: century and the formation of the NBA largely Jewish, both
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: players and.
• 57:46
  Speaker 2: A lot of Jewish players in their early NBA.
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: Well, I've always said it was a sport, you know,
• 57:51
  Speaker 2: in many ways basketball and it's this way around the world. Right,
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: Basketball is an inexpensive sport to play, Right, if you're
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: a poor kid in a poor neighborhood, you don't need
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: all this extra equipment like you do for baseball. You
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: just need a hoop in a ball. And I think
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: it's why you've seen now around the world, after soccer,
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: what's the next sport that's that's taken hold, it's basketball
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: because it's I think the most affordable. It's a it
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: is it cuts across socioeconomic lines, don't you think.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And so you know, it was a sport for immigrants,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: and it's funny become a global sport.
• 58:26
  Speaker 3: But you know, at the time, yeah, it was.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: It was popular among you know that East Coast immigrant Jewish.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: It's always been among inner city kids, and inner city
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: kids were Jewish in the fifties. Yeah, it's right, you know,
• 58:39
  Speaker 2: in subways. It's always been a city sport. It's you know,
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: just depends on who the who, you know, the demographics
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: of the city.
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know, the Jewish troops from York's also
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: took basketball up to the Catskills in the summertime. So, right,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: basketball was really big up in the hotels and the
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: Cats Skills as well, again because that influx of the
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: New York.
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: Jewish community.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: So Golic buys the team they win their second championship
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: in fifty six by Paul Aarison and Neil Johnston and
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: Gottlieb is influential, you could say, plays a big role
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: in the drafting of Will Chamberlain. It's not that he
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: made the decision. It's just that there used to be
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: something called the territorial draft, where you could pick someone
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: in the regions. It was designed to kind of garner interest, right.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: They thought it would be good if you could keep
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: a star from your area.
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: But it was time for college players.
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: This was true in the football too, because in the
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: forties and fifties, college basketball and college football were more
• 59:36
  Speaker 2: popular than the.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: Pro versions, right, absolutely, yeah, yeah, but yeah, both sports
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: basketball and football.
• 59:43
  Speaker 2: So yeah, that's why they both instituted this territorial type
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: of draft.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: So you're hoping to capitalize, right, But in this case,
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: Will Chamberlain played college basketball at Kansas.
• 59:54
  Speaker 2: Right, he should have been at Saint Louis Peck, you
• 59:56
  Speaker 2: should have belonged to the Saint Louis.
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: But Gottlieb said, hey, this guy's from Philadelphia. You know
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: we could need some help at the box office. And
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: because he was well liked by his fellow owners, they said, all.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: Right, well we'll kind of bend the rules.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: This isn't the true spirit of the rule, but you
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: know you can have Will Chamberlain as your territorial pick,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: and you know that kind of changes the course is
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: certainly that franchise and to some degree the NBA. So
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: it was kind of a personal favor to Gottlieb.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: So then.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: We get to Franklin Majoli, which you could argue is
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: probably the second most important owner of the franchise, right
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: after the current ownership group. And I love this little
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 2: detail diners Club. And I know people we're going to
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: have to tell people who the hell diners Club was. Right,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: But before there was a card though, right, that's right
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: before there's Visaid MasterCard, Right, there's Diners Club. Well, anyway,
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: they as a company, they were the broker of the
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: deal for Gottli to essentially sell the team for a
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: pretty good chunk of change. I mean, to go to
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: a it was eight and fifty grand and merely doesn't
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 2: have this money on his own. I mean, he has
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: to have his own set of ownership groups and over time,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: in fact he he he ends up buying out his partners.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 2: But the Diners Club as a company broker the deal
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: helped put together the group to sell it out West
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: and and and this guy, this gentleman Franklin Emili who
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 2: really is he just he's this he's sort of the
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: same type of early owner that we've described actually previously, right,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: I mean there's a there's a pattern here, right. The
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: owner the essentially Art Rooney, the first founder of the Steelers,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: was local sports promoter. Well that's really what Franklin Mealy was.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 2: He was the local promoter, local sports promoter, if you will.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: And he wanted this, and he gets the team in
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: sixty two and arguably it's it. You know, I could
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: make a case that from sixty two to seventy five
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: that's the Warrior's second best run.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, certainly nothing that came in the next twenty years.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: Right, No, I mean they have two finals appearance, there's
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: one victory. I mean, it is it it, you know,
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: and none of it involved Wilt Chamberlain ironically.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: But the thing so he was good, he was effective,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: but he was sort of scattered, right, the offices were
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: a mess.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: People described, well, he wasn't like he didn't right, he
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: was sort of he was we talk about he was
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 2: an owner coach, but he was sort of owner GM
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 2: but he was also friend like he liked having a friendship.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: And you know, Rick Berry loves the guy, still loves
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: the guy. And he was actually beloved enough and even
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: when he sold the team, you know, merely sells the
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: team in eighty six to two gentlemen named Jim Fitzgerald
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: and Dan Finnane, who were the former owners of the Bucks.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: He's so beloved that they just sort of let him stay.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 2: He keeps, he's kept around. He he keeps a minority stake,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: and it was simply because he just you know, he uh.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: He actually in some ways was a precursor to the
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: modern owner who understands you better have a good relationship
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 2: with your star players, that you're that and you got
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: to treat your star players differently, not the same. And
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 2: he got that early. And for him, it was a
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: business decision, his star players would get a piece of
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: the gate. I mean, in fact, Rick Berry's first contract
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: included a bonus if they if attendance went over a
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: certain amount, right, Like that was sort of how it worked.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: And and and now these days I think, like whether
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 2: it's Bob Kraft and the relationship he developed with Brady,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: but the best owners figure out how to develop great
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 2: relationships with their star players.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 3: But now you can't cut them in.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: No, it's illegal because of the salary cap. You'd be
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: circumventing the salary cap. Which bring us to another current
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: owner in the spotlight.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, waiting, we're still waiting to see.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: Uh, we're still waiting. Now what happened the results of investigation?
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: How do they go from the San Francisco Warriors to
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 3: the Golden State Wars because originally they come out there,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 3: they're playing in San Francisco and they're called the San
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 3: Francisco war.
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 2: Well, but you know it's funny, My my favorite little Nuggets.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: So in sixty seven they make the NBA Finals, they
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: lose game in the playoffs. They're playing the Lakers, and
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: they played game one in Oakland and it was this
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: brand new arena that was that the Oakland what these
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: now became Oracle eventually, and then they played Game two
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: in the Cow Palace, which to me is one of
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: the great names of a crappy arena you could come
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 2: up with. And then you know, you know, they were
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: sort of nomadic contract cow yeah Palace, like yeah, and
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 2: the idea that and I don't think of cows when
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 2: I think of San Francisco, I'll be honest. But so
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: before the what happened was is that he he it
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 2: all involves the San Diego so look, mainly doesn't have
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: a home arena. It's part of a problem. And before
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: the seventy one season, Meoly decided to split the team's
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: home games between the Barrier and San Diego. San Diego
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: had just lost its own NBA team and nearly was
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: trying to keep the franchise afloat, and he thought, you know, hey, yeah,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 2: if he could have if you could have San Diego,
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: it might help him get a better He was basically
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 2: looking for leverage, right like a lot of owners do
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: when it comes to arena, and he thought he could
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: get a better deal on a Bayar arena if they
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 2: thought he might move to San Diego. But he had
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 2: a name issue. He didn't know what to call the team.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 2: He wanted the team to represent California. He rejected California
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: Warriors because he thought it sounded too much like cow
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: Bears for Berkeley. So he decided and in order to
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: scare a permanent the Warriors do officially move to Oracle
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: Arena in seventy one, and then they changed their name
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: to Golden State, be a statewide name.
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 3: And also remember what Oracle Arena.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: So here's the thing, Like nothing was simple back then, right,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: So the arena that they moved into, uh, you know,
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: they do finally get to one place.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 3: So prior to that, even when they were.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: Just playing, they were even when they're in the San
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: Francisco Warris like they would play their games all over
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: the San Francisco, they played in San Jose, Yeah, Richmond,
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: you know, presno, Sacramento.
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 3: They were aliable play anywhere.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: So late Thurman had a great quote to Mark Purdy,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: the longtime Bey or Sports Friday. He says, when you
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: got up in the morning back then, you looked at
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: the schedule not to see who you played, but where
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: you played. Then you got in your car and you
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: drove to wherever like that was life as a Warrior
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: back in the late sixties early seventies. But then they
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: do move to an arena, but even then it's not
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: it doesn't roll off the tongue, right, So there was
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: a whole complex built. So there's the Oakland dash Alameda
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: County Coliseum, which is where the Raiders and the athletics played.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: Right next to it was the arena called the Oakland
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: Alameda County Coliseum Arena, right.
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: Eventually would be known as Oracle. No it didn't, but
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 2: they stick to this Golden State name. And what's interesting
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: is I don't think people realize how close Golden State
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 2: got to becoming the San Francisco Warriors. Essentially, if Steph
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 2: Curry doesn't win a couple of titles the war this
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: ownership group makes them the San Francisco Warriors. And we're
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: not just speculating. Rick Welt admitted it in an interview.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: So the whole plant they were going to go to
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: the when they when they were going to start get
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: the Chase Center in San Francisco was to become the
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: San Francisco Warriors. And Rick Weld even Center radio. The
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 2: reality is, if you'd asked me that question, three years
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: ago at the time he's given this interview when they're
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: opening the arena, I would have lied and told you
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 2: we were still thinking about it, because we were absolutely
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: set on changing the name of the team back to
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 2: the San Francisco Warriors. But here's what happened. They win
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: a couple of titles. Steph Curry becomes a global phenomenon,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: and he says, if you go to Beijing or Paris
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 2: or Buenos Aires, you know, they knew who they knew
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: who Golden State was, and they thought, we don't need
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: to change. They didn't want to mess with their brand
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: one more time.
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's the only franchise in pro sports right
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: known by their state nickname. I mean, we have some
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: places known by the state name, you know, the Minnesota Twins,
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: for example, Indiana Pacers, but no one's known by the
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: state nickname.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there was never a Sunshine State, you know team
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: in the state of Florida. There's been a movie called
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: Garden State, but there's been no Garden State nets. You know,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: maybe that would actually help New Jersey. I have that
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: we haven't.
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: Had another unique distinction that they used to hold that
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: they it's kind of gone by ay, they abandoned it,
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: and now it's kind of gone by the wayside now
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: that anyone's liable to wear any jersey at any time.
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: But did you know, for a while back, when home
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: teams were supposed to wear white and the road team
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: wore a dark color uniform, the Warriors and the Lakers
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: were the only teams that were allowed to wear gold
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: or yellow uniforms at home. Everyone else had to wear
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: white at home. But they were grandfather Then they were
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: allowed to wear a uniform of color in it at home,
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: but then they willingly abandoned that and went to white.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 3: And now it's just all this.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: I can't. I was just gonna say, who's away, right,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 2: you know? I like the tradition of the city name
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 2: on your road uniforms, the nickname on your home uniforms.
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 3: Right, like white at home and on the road.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 2: Give me that. That's all, you know. But those days
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 2: were now, But we're now old guys in the era that.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: We both preferred when the home team were white. The
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: only two that didn't were the Lakers and the Warriors.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 2: All right, So when we come back, we're going to
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: go through three distinct with moments and eras if you
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 2: will of the Warriors, but really this sort of the
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 2: you know, probably the three of the more iconic periods,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: both moments and eras in Warriors history.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: We'll do that after the break, all right, Chuck, Let's
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: go back to the night of March second, nineteen sixty
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: two in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Why Hershey, you might ask, Well,
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: the short answer, where's owner? Ed Gottlieb liked it. Used
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: to hold training camp there. There are a lot of
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: basketball fans and driving distance, and it was the home
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: of America's great chocolate factory, so they'd play some games there.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: So this arena it opened during a great depression in
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six, so you can imagine it's not very elaborate.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: It's very spartan. Had a unique barrel shaped roof that
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: was inspired by European style wooden seats in the stands.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: There's folding chairs along the baseline. The attendance that night,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: March second was four one hundred and twenty four. It's
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: about half of the arena's capacities, a very unlikely locale
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: for one of the memorable nights in the history of
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: the National Basketball Association. But then again, it wasn't that
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: surprising because the NBA at the time is still pretty
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: small time, right. The Lakers had moved to LA in
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty. They're the only team west of Saint Louis,
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: and the Words played a game that season in a
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: high school gym in Indiana against the Chicago Packers, So
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: the league was there at that time. Will Chamberlain not
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: won to spend more time in Hershey than he needed to.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he lived in New York. He drived down to
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: Pennsylvania for the games.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't even live in Philadelphia, did he?
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So he gone out the night before in New
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: York and then dropped his date for the night off
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: at Earthplace in Queens at six am. That's according to
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: the book Will nineteen sixty two by Gary Palmerantz, which
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: is really centered around this game in that season. And
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: I feel that, you know, we see guys like this
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: all the time. But there was some and about Wilt's
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: seven to one. Maybe it was the two to sixty
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: part of I'll Never Forget. In nineteen ninety seven, the
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: NBA fifty Greatest Players all assembled in Cleveland for the
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary of the league, and they were all in
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: a room together on Saturday, and me and a couple
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: of other reporters were hanging out outside that room as
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: they were gathering and exchanging tales, and Isaiah Thomas comes
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 1: walking out, the original Isaiah Thomas from the Pistons, and
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: we're just asking his thoughts and impressions of what it
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: was like to be in his room and like what
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: stood out to him, and he goes, man, Wilts is
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: a big dude.
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 2: And by the way, I I you know, at this
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: point in ninety seven, Shack to me is the biggest
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: guy in the NBA.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 3: Right, yeah, and he is.
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: And but you know, there's something about Wilt that that
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: just just stood out right, you know, and kind of
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: the state of the league at that time and the
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: perception of Wilts. It's funny he wasn't seen as like
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: the savor of the league, like the way we've been
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: talking about Victor Webbin Yama and how he the next thing,
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: like Will Chamberlain was the next thing. He was really
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: in some ways the first thing, right, like unlike anything
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: the league had seen, Like everything that Shack did was
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: reminiscent of Wil right, and like.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: Shaq was really the first like yeah, yeah, Shack was
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 2: not Kareem Shack was Wilt.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: But anytime anyone does something that's amazing, statistically, you know,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: it traces back to Wilt somehow. But like I said,
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: he was seeing as a problem.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 3: Literally.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: The cover Sports Illustrated October thirty first, nineteen sixty one,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: going into that season, featured the new coach of the Wards,
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: Frank Maguire. He's in the foreground, Chambin was in the background.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: The cover headline is problem for a new coach. The
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: subhead for the story said Philadelphia's problem player. Will Chamberlain
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: gets a strong new coach whom we also forced the
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: pro game to change his brawling, hustling ways. So you
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: can sense in that the popular perception of the unpopular NBA.
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: You know, the common feeling is that, oh, it's too
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: rugged and rough, and you know, they need more discipline
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: like the college game. And maybe this college coach will
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: bring some of the college basketball that style that we
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: enjoy to the NBA.
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: What's interesting, though, college coaches still to this day struggle
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: with the transition.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: Don't think yeah, and Maguire did better than most, and
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: there was some question as to whether he could but
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: another line and again this kind of reflects how Chamberlain
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: was perceived. This is in the story huge Insensitive Wilt. Chamberlain,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: the highest score in pro basketball history, already just a
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: few years in his career, had gone into a season
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: long sult. He was in a world of his own.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: A fellow player recalls he once refused to play the
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: second half of a game. He swore at Neil Johnston.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: He complained about his treatment by officials. He would always
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: go days without speaking to his teammates on or off
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: the court. When he got the ball, he shot it. Defense,
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: he often ignored.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about another player in Warrior's history.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: That that sounds very familiar. I mean, you and I
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: have been talking about this. But tell me that doesn't
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 2: sound like a certain player that we're going to talk
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 2: about later.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: In this episode. One Rick Barry.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: Well, and then how about one from the most recent.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 3: Run, although not as many questions about his defense, but
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 3: fair enough, fair enough, but not the same criticism of
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 3: crunch time.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 2: No, No, Kevin Durant would would certainly, yeah, Rick Barry
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: was another one, hornery and all that stuff. But boy,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 2: I have to tell you, Rick Barry certainly was no
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: Wilt fan either.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: No, So one of the quotes he says is when
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: it comes down to the closing minutes of a tough game,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: an important game, he doesn't want the ball. He being Wilt,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: he doesn't want any part of the pressure.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: Pretty indicting well to Barry's to Wilt's defense on that,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 2: Barry writes that in the seventies after Frankly, that is
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 2: Wilt's reputation, right, that he always seems to lose out
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: to Russell.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, anyway, So that's another thing we should point out though,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: that how the Warrior is getting uugh credit. We don't
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: talk about them as a historical franchise. So Will versus
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: Russell was really the foundational rivalry, right. George Mikeen is
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: the first kind of star of the NBA, the first
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: big man, but the first rivalry is Will versus Russell,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: and maybe to this day even still remains the standard
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: of how we think of rivalries and clashes.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 3: Well, the first three iterations of Will versus Russell come
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 3: with the Philadelphia.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: Warriors and the big rivalry between Philadelphia and Bought, which also,
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: by the way, actually is the seeds of the Philly
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 2: Boston rivalry that's still there. Even as the sixers of
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: the Philly team.
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: Now, so you know again this franchise that we think
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: of as being Johnny cum lately as well, they're at
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: the start of what becomes the defining rivalry of the
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: Of course Will goes to the seventy six ers and
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: it continues there, but it starts with him with the Warriors,
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: back to kind of Wilton his place with those warriors.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: Book Wilt nineteen sixty two was the book I read
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: for this episode by Gary Palmers, and this was written
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: he comes from someone of the very favorable opinion in Wiled,
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: in which I think he was inspired to write this
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: to sort of get more out there and more positive
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: stuff about Wilt out there. But even that aside, he
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: still had this line. It didn't keep him from being objective.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: He said.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 3: Quote.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: These Warriors were subdivided socially into four clicks, white veterans,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: white rookies, black players, and Will Chamberlain differ was the
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: only Warrior to room alone on road trips, a contractual perk.
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: So back then again a lesser version of the NBA,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: everyone had roommates on them.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, So if you're seven to two hundred and
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 2: sixty pounds. You shouldn't have to share a room with
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: somebody that you read together.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: Yes, so that passage indicates the NBA was physically integrated,
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: but not socially, And there was kind of an unofficial
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: quota of four black players per team back then. Remember
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: only about a little more than a decade removed from
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: the first black players in the league in nineteen fifty.
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 3: That's orl Lloyd, that Sweetwater, Clifton, and Chuck.
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: The NBA integrated after the NFL and the n MLB.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so Frank McGuire spent four hundred dollars on phone
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 3: calls researching Chamberlain, talking to people like his coach at Kansas.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: And by the way, kids, phone calls used to cost money.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 2: But anyway, long distance phone calls a big deal. I
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 2: know we're sitting here going, what do you mean he
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: spent money making phone calls? Trust me, this was like
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 2: and it was a huge amount of money back then.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 2: But anyway, we digress.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Worth noted, but and it's funny he does bring
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: college type drills to the team, and Chamberlain buys in. Uh,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: you know, he tells Sports Illustrated. We definitely a proper supervision. Now,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: this man is very very good for us. In part,
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: Wilt wasn't a problem as the headline and forecast. He
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't a problem for McGuire because McGuire made the very
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: stude decision to ask Wilt what he wanted, example, many minutes,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: and what Will said was I don't want to come out,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: so he didn't. He averaged good forty eight point five
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: minutes per game in nineteen sixty one sixty.
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 2: Wait, wait, how do you average more than the actual game?
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 2: How many?
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 3: Eight?
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: Right? Yeah, I mean that's amazing.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: Every minute of every game, when the game's going to overtime,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: you play in those two You only missed eight and
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: a half minutes of one game that season because he
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: got ejected for technical fouls, not for falling out.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 3: You know, he never filed out his entire career.
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 2: But some would say because he never played defense. But no,
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: thank you very much, I'll be here on with defense.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: So he gets ejected, miss is eight and a half
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: minutes that year, But statistically he averages forty eight and
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: a half minutes.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 3: You know what he also averaged that year, chuck, Yeah,
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 3: fifty points and twenty six rebounds per game.
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 2: Is that good. That's good, right, that's out. But you know,
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 2: we know fifty and twenty six. I mean, imagine you're
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: good for fifty eight. We're impressed if you if you
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: do twenty and ten, you're a Hall of Famer.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 3: Right right, And imagine that year if he scores forty
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 3: eight and grabs twenty four rebounds, it's a subpar night.
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 2: But by the way, not to go down this road,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 2: but he actually he actually got fewer than his average
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 2: rebounds on the night of the Big Game. He only
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 2: got twenty fives.
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: Yes, but he does not win the MVP that year.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: Bill Russell wins it. The Warriors won forty nine games,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: the Celtics won sixty is the eighty game season back then,
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: and so it kind of establishes that, you know, Will
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: puts up the numbers. Russell is a winner. But what
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: the president that it's said is that I never want
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: to hear someone has to win the MVP because of
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: this that right, So like this year, you could have
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: sent oh nikolae Jkic led the league in rebounding and
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: led the league and assists. How can you not make
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: him the MVP in that case? Well, because they did
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: not make Will Chamber of the MVP when he averaged
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: fifty and twenty six, so that erased any future argument
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: that because of some type of statistical argument, Will anyone
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: should be the MVP.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 2: So that brings us to March and that game in Hershey.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: When Wilt makes twenty two field goals in the first half,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: which is still an NBA record. It's funny a quirk
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: of Bam out of Biles night when he scored eighty
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: three points on March tenth, twenty twenty six, March Big eerily.
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 2: I was just gonna say eerily close to the same
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 2: nearly the same week as Wilts.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, shout out to the Pisces. Both my mom's parents
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 3: were Pisces.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: So that night he scores eighty three, but with twenty
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: total field goals obviously three pointers, had a great three
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: point shooting night, a lot of free throws near the end.
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: But it's just funny to me that on the night
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: he scored the second highest scoring total, he didn't even
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 1: have the second highest number of field goals for a half.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 3: Letlone a whole game his.
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: Twenty field goals win and qualified as the second most
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: for a half. Will had twenty two your guy. Rick
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: Barry scored twenty one and a half March twenty six,
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: another March date, nineteen seventy four, So I just thought
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: that was an interesting court. Will finishes with thirty six
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: field goals that night, still the record second time that
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: season he had more than thirty field goals. But really
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: what made this such a record setting night was that
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: he went twenty eight of thirty two from the free
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 1: throw line's.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 2: And he was not known as a great free throw shooter.
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, fifty one percent from the line throughout his career,
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: sixty one point three percent that season, although if you
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: take away that game it would drop to sixty point
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: six percent. It's pretty amazing, Like almost a percent difference
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: is based on one game.
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 3: That is amazing.
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: That's how incredibly was that night. There's three unsung heroes
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: that enable us to have what little documentation there is
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: for that night.
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. This game is not available. You're
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 2: not You're not going to NBA TV and seeing a
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 2: replay of this game? Are you?
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 3: No?
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 2: And no video? It's like it's like this Kofax Perfect
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 2: game that there's no TV of, there's just radio audio.
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 3: There's a Vin Scully call. That's all we know.
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 2: We have the Vin Scully call. In this case, there
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 2: is some radio, right, but it's a weird way that
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 2: we got it.
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, only because some guy going to college in Amherst
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: named Jim Felice, a student at UMass, used his girlfriend's
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: real to real tape recorder to capture Bill Campbell, who
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: was calling the game on w c AU radio. He
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: captures the fourth quarter, so we at least we have
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: audio of this historic moment. Another unsung hero is an
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: AP photographer who was off duty that night. He's at
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: the game with his son, man named Paul Bathist maybe
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 1: Beathos sorry. So at the end of the third quarter,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: Whil's up to sixty nine points and Paul goes out
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: to his car or he's got the camera in the
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: car and brings in his camera. So we get shots
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: of the uh of you know, Wilt scoring the hundred
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: point you know this the aftermath celebration, and that's on
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: the cover of Wil nineteen sixty two, and so we
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: have that.
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 3: And then probably the true hero of.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: The night is Harvey Pollock, who is the Sixers publicist
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 1: and the statistician. So that night, triple duty he's strung
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: stories for the United Press or Universal Press.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 2: Was the UPI stand for United Press centerntion.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: She's not a press inter national. He writes for the
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: Associated Press. Theo's a story for the Philadelphia Inquired. Keep
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 1: in mind, the Philadelphia Inquire, the main newspaper, didn't send
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 1: their beat writer to this game.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 3: This is the NBA in nineteen sixty two.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like you, just like the Redding Phillies
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 2: may or may not have a beat writer from Philadelphia.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 2: I mean they did sometimes the NBA if you weren't
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 2: playing in the city and you were off in Hershey,
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 2: you know, maybe they the local paper wasn't going to
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 2: pay expenses.
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: We'll have hers for us, right, So Harvey writes it up.
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: Not only does he do all that, he's after he's
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 1: in locker room. He's like, we need something to commemorate this.
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: Grabs a sheet of paper, writes one hundred on it,
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: and is it to Wilt who holds it up? For
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: that photo? That's the photo that night.
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 2: Defining photo that night. If I had told you you
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 2: had to pick five photos in NBA history to tell
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 2: the BA easily one of the five, right, So let
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 2: me ask you this. Ja If I told you that
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: the Knicks starting center was sick that night, Phil Jordan,
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: and then sidelined by the flu, does that put an
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 2: asterisk by the one hundred?
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 3: No?
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 2: Do you care? I know you don't care, but it
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 2: is you know, it is remarkable these all time great
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 2: scoring games. There's always something and you're like, well, how
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 2: did this happen? You know, it's like with the Bam thing,
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 2: how did this happen? I just have the other fun
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 2: little fact I loved is that the Knicks didn't want
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 2: Wilt to get a hundred, and so they started fouling
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 2: other Philly players to try to keep the ball away
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 2: from Will. And then the Warriors said, fine, we're gonna
• 1:26:04
  Speaker 2: At that point, they wanted Will to get the hundred,
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 2: and they started you know, so I like the fact
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: that the Knicks actually tried to stop it, right, because
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 2: what's the big complaint about BAM's eighty three point game
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 2: that the Wizards just sat around.
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: And wait, yeah, yeah, back to those you know, those
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 1: three individuals that chronicled, you know, responsible for us having
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: some type of record of that night. That plus you know,
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: the fact the game was in Hershey, like all that
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: reflects the state of the NBA at that time.
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 3: And by the way.
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 2: The recording, the recording is in the official National Recording Registry.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 2: Now wow, they put that recording into twenty sixteen. Yeah,
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, how cool is the fact that
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 2: it's so important historically that it's in the National Recording Registry.
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: And the NBA was late to understand the importance of
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: this type of documentation. Right there's there's you know, all
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: those great Russell Chamberlain battles, like, there's very little footage
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: of that.
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 2: I could argue the NBA doesn't ever really figure this out,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 2: arguably until social media. I could make a.
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: Cat well I would, I would push back and say
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: the video cassette era. So they come out with those
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: NBA video cassettes, starting with the Michael Jordan one nineteen
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: eighty nine Michael Jordan Come Fly with Me. So those
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: were really popular in the eighties and nineties, the NBA
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: video cassettes, and then Inside Suck starts in nineteen ninety
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: though now Hall of Fame and trying Inside stuff with
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: the motor Shots starts in ninety that's the first year
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: the NBA has the TV rights.
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 3: But you know, Chuck, you made a good point.
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: We think of the NBA as being just on top
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: of it now, and especially they they mastered social media
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: ahead of really and better than all the other leagues,
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: but decades behind when it comes they weren't even playing
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: itself on video.
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 2: And I will say, you know, it's funny whether or
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 2: now it's the world of politics, the world of business,
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 2: or the world of sports. If you don't know how
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 2: to tell your story, your business is going to fail.
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 2: And you know the NBA's inability to tell its story
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 2: for so many decades. I mean, you know, I I
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 2: spent some time with the with the former owner of
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 2: the Cavaliers that the early owner of the seventies, Gordon
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 2: gunn I got. I was sent next to him at
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 2: a at a dinner and you know, even as late
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 2: as the late seventies, early eighties, this was a league.
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 2: No no, no, no, this is Gordon gun But even
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 2: in the late seventies early eighties, I mean, you know,
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 2: you know, David Stern begged Gordon gun to take the
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 2: calves like it was just like teams were going to fold,
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 2: Like this was a league that took argue. It took
• 1:28:46
  Speaker 2: him decades to figure this out. And really, I think
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 2: what I think you. I would argue that once the
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 2: NBA had a footing on television, that's when they finally
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 2: found their footing. You know, they just were this incredible
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 2: league that nobody was watching because there wasn't enough places
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 2: to watch them.
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: The NBA Finals are on tape delay. Magic Johnson's great
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: Game six when he fills in for a Kareem that's.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 2: My that's that's my memory of my of the Lakers.
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 2: I became a you know, as a kid, it was
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 2: Magic Johnson was my guy. So I ended up a Laker.
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 2: You know, back then that was always the NBA, right
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 2: player had to.
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: Get permission from your mom to stay to watch the
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: game because it was And he came on after Dallas
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: on Friday night.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 2: And the only reason my dad was kind of into
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 2: the Lakers is he loved John Wooden and there was
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 2: always a lot of U. C. L a Guys on
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 2: the Lakers, right, so he was he had this, you know,
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 2: he liked he enjoyed watching the Lakers because of the
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 2: old Wooden guys and that's what he liked. Wilkes And
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 2: when Wilkes a UCLA guy, I think I know, obviously
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 2: Kareem was and so that so thank goodness he actually
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 2: liked those teams or I don't know if I'd have
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 2: been able a lot of stay up late.
• 1:30:00
  Speaker 3: So, you know, the pre eminent night, the.
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: Arguably the greatest single night performance in NBA history, comes
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: in obscurity, and you know, we're lucky to have what,
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: you know, scraps that we do have, and thanks to
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: Harvey Pollock and everybody else that did their best to
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 1: preserve it and to commemorate that night. But it's really
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: reflective the fact that there isn't more about it and
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: the fact that we don't celebrate the fact that there
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: was even this kind of you know, typical everything they
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theorything argument that it never really happened because we
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: don't have video of it happened, So how can we
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: really sure Will scored one hundred points? And Harvey Pollack,
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 1: the statistician, like furiously was you know, double and triple
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 1: checking the stats right afterwards, making sure like, oh, did
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: we miss a basket? Like I want to make sure
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: that they actually it's funny because the nixt score on
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: the initial thing that went out was erroneous and so
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: that led some people to think like, oh, if they
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: got the nixt score wrong, maybe they got Wilt's total wrong.
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: But Republlock, you know, would would He lived for a
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: long time after that and he would tell people that
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: he was there and he documented it.
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 3: But it was a different era for the league.
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: And you know it almost not not forgotten, but probably
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: an undercovered, undermentioned, underdiscussed aspect of Warriors spry.
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 3: And again we don't connect it to these Warriors right.
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 2: Right, because it isn't. It was the East Coast instead
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 2: of the West coast. But let me before we get
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 2: and we're gonna we're gonna leave Wilt here, and you know,
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 2: well the Wilt legacy. Let me throw something at you, Jay,
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 2: what if there's no one hundred point game and everything
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 2: else is the same with Wilton, what's the legacy?
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's still fifty points and there's still again,
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: anytime anyone does something, you have to compare it to Wilt.
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: Shaq in two thousand and one goes back to back
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: over forty points and twenty rebounds in the first two
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: games of the conference semi finals, first time it had
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: been done since Will time and time again, George Gerbon
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: once told me, you know, if you think you've done something,
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: you're in the record book.
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 3: Dig deeper is the record book? Okay, he will humble
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 3: you so and yet is it?
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 2: But this is the proof that rings seem to shine
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 2: up a player better than anything else in the in
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 2: basketball history. Right because he short rings. He's got two,
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 2: so there ain't zero, but he doesn't have five. Right,
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 2: Kobe has five, Magic has five, Jordan has six.
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 3: Lebron right, Bill Russell has eleven.
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 2: All right, you there's always been this butt with Will
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 2: and the question is is it fair that there's a
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 2: butt or is it there's unfair there's a butt? I
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 2: get it. Look, he clearly earned the butt, right his
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 2: own personal reputation. Look at how other players talk about him. Right,
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 2: there was a little bit of that. Right, he was
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 2: not beloved, and maybe because he wasn't beloved in the moment,
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 2: there was an underselling of his achievements. Would you do
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 2: you buy that?
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 3: Well? You wonder what happens if there's not Bill Russell
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 3: to provide this counter?
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 2: Right, So it's really ultimate team player, right, Bill Russell
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 2: the ultimate team player? Probably you know, you know the
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 2: idea of a passing center, right, the idea of that
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 2: guy essentially that you know, coach on the court, all
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 2: of those things. Russell is the antithesis of everything. Will
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 2: isn't right.
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 1: I found this great story and research in this and
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: it's just like this little kind of clip in a
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: in a like sports story kind of a sports roundup
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: in Time magazine, and it just details a regular season
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: matchup between Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. And he spends time
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: with Russell and the Locke. Remember Russell used to like
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: famously like throw up before games, and he's like lily
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 1: sick to his stomach, think about the prospect of having
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: to go against Will Chamberlain. And I think Will gives
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: them like forty eight points or something that night, But
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: Russell's team wins, right, And Russell just been having to say, like,
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: I don't care how many points get scored against me.
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 1: As long as I can secure a victory for my team,
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 1: That's what matters the most. And it's that that classic matchup, Right.
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: Would you rather have the stats? Would you rather have
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: the championships?
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 2: All?
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 2: But let me throw something else at you. When I
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 2: say shack, you'll also say in Kobe and he could
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 2: even early, say in Penny. When I say Kareem early,
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 2: there's Oscar late, there's magic. When you say Russell right,
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 2: you have Koozi, you have host of Hall of Famers right, correct?
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 2: What does it say that there is no Wilt and.
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 3: Right until you get Wilton Jerry West right for.
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 2: A brief, brief period gives you your one Jerry West title.
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 2: So at Matt and I would who is that title
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 2: more meaningful for Wilt or Jerry?
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 3: Jerry at that point?
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: Will you know Close already had his career, Wilt already
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: had a championship. You know, Jerry had been fighting, So
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: I think it means more for Jerry and to Jerry.
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: But you're right, and Wilt would point that out himself.
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: He would say, yeah, Russell has the championships. Look at
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 1: who he was played. He didn't put it this plainly,
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: but you know, look who he was playing with. Look
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: who I was playing with, and you know, but the
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: fact is Russell played with more Hall of Fame players
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: than Wilt Chamberlain played. He gets Paul Arison at the
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: tail end of his career. I think that might be
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 1: the last year of his career sixty one sixty two,
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: So he gets Arason a great player, but you know
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: that he's in his thirties now, and you know al addles,
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 1: but you know, not a great play. Like there's a
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: reason that no one else came even close to Will's
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: scoring total that night, Right, it's Wilt because he had
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: to score all the points. So that's the other thing too,
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: And one of the reasons he didn't play defense, like
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: they needed him to score points. He said, I could
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: play defense, but my job is to score the points
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: for this team.
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 2: And yet four years later, once they became the San
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 2: Francisco Warriors, the owner, mister Muli, has a choice. He's
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 2: got essentially two centers, Nate Thurman and Wilt Chamberlain. Nate
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 2: Thurman is younger, Nate Thurman is playing the four, Chamberlain
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 2: the five. There's a lot of thought, who do you trade?
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 2: And he decides to trade Wilt instead of Thurman. And
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 2: after the break Chamberlain era ends the Welt Chamberlain era,
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 2: and it brings us to one more era. We'll get
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 2: into that after the break. Well, Jay, there's we were
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 2: talking about this with the Warriors. When you're looking at
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 2: him as a as a holistic franchise, we've sort of
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 2: split it up right. We've got obviously the current make up,
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 2: the dynastic, the thing that most the recency bias, dynasty
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 2: part of the words, which is where the heart.
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 3: Of it is.
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 2: But there's two distinct other sort of corners stones of
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 2: this franchise. We've done Wilt. The other is rick Berry,
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 2: and in fact rick Berry is the centerpiece of the
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 2: the the only championship the Golden State Warriors won before
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 2: Steph Curry. And we're very specific on Golden State Warriors there,
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 2: considering we know that the Philadelphia Warriors are there. And
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 2: the seventy five Golden State Warrior championship team is still
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 2: remembered as one of the surprise championships in NBA history.
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 2: But it was not a one year fluke. In many ways,
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 2: it was a what could have been on the Warriors.
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 2: There's always been this thought that had had the ABA
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 2: business hadn't happened with Rick Berry and all of this stuff,
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 2: seventy five might have been the third of a championship run.
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 2: But instead it was there their one run. Because you
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 2: got to go back to the original decision by Frank
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 2: Muley to tray Wilt Chamberlain instead of Nate Thurman and
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 2: to then get a young top five pick in one
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 2: of the first four picks. He gets it because the
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 2: Warriors the year after Wilt are terrible. They earn you
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 2: know them, and the Knicks earned the first picks the
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 2: same year Rick Berry's drafted ja you know who, the
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 2: Knicks draft number one overall, Fraser, No, Bill Bradley. Who
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 2: So it's Bill Bradley goes one in that draft, and
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 2: then the Warriors end up with Rick Berry. And it
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 2: is this relationship between Barry and the owner, Franklin mew Lee,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 2: which is just fascinating. I have to say I got
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 2: a lot of these stories.
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 3: Yep, sorry about that.
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 2: I have to say I got a lot of these
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 2: stories off of this out of print book, Confessions of
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 2: a Basketball Gypsy. By the way, I say that, I
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 2: don't know if you could say that today, could you.
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 3: No, There's a lot of things that Rick Barry used
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 3: to say that you could not say today.
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 2: Here's what's remarkable about this book before we get into
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 2: seventy five, because I think it's sort of you know,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 2: everybody talks about the modern NBA player. This is a
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 2: player driven league. The NBA's always been a player driven
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 2: league and Rick Berry he writes this book in the
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 2: middle of his career, three years before the seventy five title,
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 2: while he's in the middle of lawsuits between the ABA,
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 2: the NBA, the Warriors, Him and the ABA, the ABA
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 2: and the Warriors, the Warriors and Rick Berry. There's just
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 2: lawsuits galore. When can he and he's had to sit
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 2: he plays in all these crazy ABA leagues. But it
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 2: was basically rick Berry wanted to tell his side of
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 2: the story. And it's just fascinating to get a player
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 2: memoir in the middle of their career, not at the
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 2: end of their career, but in the middle of their career.
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 2: By the way, it's in this book that he trashes well,
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 2: it's in this book that he sort of and what
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 2: I what, I'm really impressed with this book. He writes
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 2: it with a sports run named Bill Libby, who was
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 2: just a freelance writer won the National Magazine Award in
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixty four, so certainly was in that world. The
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 2: way this book you get you get the rick Berry's
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 2: take on things, and then he would allow people he
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 2: talked about to give their responses, so you'd have these
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 2: middle of the chapter entire paragraphs from rick Berry's wife,
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 2: from Franklin the owner, Franklin Mulei, Nate Thurman gets a
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 2: chance to respond Bill sharmon a coach that Rick Berry
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 2: can't stand. So it's it's it's it's a remarkable book
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 2: in some ways and in other ways it feels right
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 2: out of today's NBA, where.
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: The drive different, right, instead of the social media. You know,
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: it's justicing that Johnson actually did something similar. So remember
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: early in his career when the Lakers fired Paul west
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: Heead and you know, pat Riley winds up being the
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: coach after having the job lateral to him by but
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: Jerry West at a press conference. But I think the
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: main purpose of that book was to address the controversy
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 1: and to let him have his say. Right, You couldn't
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: go on a podcast, didn't have a blog, couldn't post
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: through it, couldn't do a thread on social media on
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: your side. So the way to do that was to
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: put out a book. And so there's a lily chapter
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: of magic book. You know who really fired Paul west Heead?
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: And I think the whole purpose of that book was
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: to address the notion and to try to refute the
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: notion that he was the reason why Paul West had
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: got fired as coach to the Lakers.
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 3: So better time in publishing, right.
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 2: I was just going to say where books could be
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 2: when you couldn't wait to find out where the books
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 2: broke the news. These days it is rare to get.
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 2: Even if you get breaking news in a book, what
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 2: does the reporter do make sure that gets out into
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 2: some other news organization? First, right the excerpt. So here's
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 2: what Mealy says in this Rick Berry book. He said
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 2: why he traded Wilt and not Nate Thurman. He actually
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 2: could have gotten more for Nate Thurman, but he said,
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 2: I felt we could build a winner better around Thurman
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 2: than around Chamberlain, which when you look at the status
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 2: you think is unbelievable. But if you go back on
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 2: what we discussed in the previous segment, Wilt didn't play
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 2: well with others. Nate Thurman played really well with others.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 2: And then, of course, so they trade him. In sixty six,
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 2: he goes to the Sixers. They trade him back to Philadelphia.
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 2: But there's this new franchise, the Sixers, that are there,
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 2: and then it's that year that they draft Rick Berry.
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 2: So rick Berry and Wilt never play on the same
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 2: team at the Warriors. Literally it's a trade. Now Nate
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 2: Thurman is there and Rick Berry joined Nate Thurman. And
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 2: and what Mealy said about this team with Nate Thurman
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 2: and Rick Berry is with Nick and right, we had
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 2: captured lightning in a bottle. And they get to the
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 2: NBA Finals in sixty seven. So it looks like this
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 2: is rick Berry's second year. He leads the league in
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 2: scoring that year. It looks like this Barry Thurman is
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 2: going to be like Russell and Halichek and those guys,
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 2: right that they have something. They have the two, they
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 2: have the guys to build around. They make it and
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 2: they lose to Welt seven game series, Wilt's first title.
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 2: It's important to Wilt because he has to go through
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 2: Boston that year.
• 1:43:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but he finally breaks through against Russell and the Celtics.
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 2: In the Eastern Conference finals with the seventy six ers,
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 2: and then of course it all comes full circle. He
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 2: gets to basically gets a little revenge on the team
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 2: that trades him, the San Francisco Warriors. But look, that's
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 2: sixty seven year. Rick Berry becomes a superstar. He wins
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 2: the scoring title, He's the MVP of the All Star Game.
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 2: He gets he's a national celebrity. He's the spokesperson for Snickers,
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 2: to the point where it's some games people come with
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 2: Snickers bars. Well, they're mad at him. They kind of
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 2: threw Snickers bars at him.
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 3: I love this.
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 2: This is a fun little fact that you learned in
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 2: this book. So Rick Berry's favorite player growing up as
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 2: a kid, he grew up in New Jersey. His favorite
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 2: player growing up as a kid Willie Mays. He was
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 2: a Giants and Giants fan.
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 3: He said he was why war twenty four right, That's
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 3: why he.
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 2: Wore number twenty four. In fact, as a kid, he
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 2: literally jumped a barrier at the Polo Grounds simply to
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 2: shake Mays's hand. And of course, years later he and
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 2: May's would share a spotlight as sort of beloved San
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 2: Francisco sports heroes. But what's great about this rick Berry
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 2: version of the Warriors is that in hindsight you see
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 2: glimpses of today's Warriors. The Warriors were a fun team.
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 2: You know, this wasn't old school East Coast basketball they
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 2: were playing. This Warriors team had movement, creativity, there were
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 2: scoring and so it looked like they were going to
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 2: bring this new style of West Coast basketball, a little
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 2: showier to the game. And then they run into Wilt
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 2: and you know, it's one of those things. They lose
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 2: this finals and they think that's okay. It's kind of like,
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 2: you know, the team that's one year too early, right,
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 2: like the Celtics team that loses to the Warriors. You're like, yeah,
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 2: they got there probably a year too early, but they're coming.
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 2: And that's what this Warriors team felt like. Look, they
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 2: lost to Wilt. They lost to a team with Billy
• 1:45:31
  Speaker 2: Cunningham on it. It was that Sixers team sixty eight wins.
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 2: At the time, it was the best record any team
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 2: had ever had in the NBA, that seventy six ers team.
• 1:45:41
  Speaker 2: So you know, they lose in seven games to a
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 2: team that was worthy, that was a big worthy team,
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 2: and then the whole thing comes apart. Barry leaves after
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 2: that finals run in sixty seven. He goes by the
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 2: way that he did win. He does win an ABA
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 2: title with the Oakland Oaks. For what it's worth, Boon,
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 2: right by Pat Boon of all people. Uh, he has
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 2: to spend a year in exile because of his is
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 2: a sort of a litigation, He's forced to sit out
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 2: an entire season. So there's always going to be a
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 2: few what ifs about Rick Berry's career because he lost.
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 2: He lost his season in the heart of his of
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 2: his abilities, and that really was you know, it changed
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 2: rick Berry because the Rick Berry that comes back in
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 2: seventy five and leads his team to a title is
• 1:46:33
  Speaker 2: a bit more of a humble man. I mean, humility
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 2: and Rick Barry didn't always go hand in hand, but
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 2: he's he The ABA years were were were rough on him. Yes,
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 2: they win a title with the ABA with the with
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 2: the Oakland Oaks, but then they're forced to move to Washington.
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 2: By the way, This version of the Washington team very
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 2: briefly is called the Washington Caps, by the way, so
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 2: it comes back full circle with the originals again Capital
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 2: not the original Washington Capitals, which of course we now
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 2: know is part of the original precursor of the NBA.
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 2: That team plays literally a year in Washington, then they
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 2: go to Virginia, and Rick Berry doesn't. He hated playing
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 2: in Washington and he hated even more playing in He
• 1:47:19
  Speaker 2: didn't want to go and play in Norfolk, where the
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 2: Virginia Squires were playing and he also said, look, he
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 2: didn't like he didn't like the ABA. It was very polarized.
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 2: The Washington team was very polarized. He complained about he
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 2: thought there were too many racial too much racial tension
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 2: that sort of upended the teams, and he talked about
• 1:47:43
  Speaker 2: that in this book in ways that Frankly, if this
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 2: came out today, I don't know how well that would
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 2: rick Berry would be received on the court. And I'll
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 2: just leave it at that. But he has to stay
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 2: in the ABA. He keeps losing these lawsuits, and through
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 2: seventy to seventy two he plays on the on the
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 2: New New York Nets in Long Island. So rick Berry
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 2: seventy to seventy twos with the New York Nets and
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 2: no Ja he's there. He's with the nets, literally leaves
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 2: the year before Doctor j ends up on the back man.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: That would have been a great tandem, although from what
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 1: you just said prior to that, I don't know how
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: well it would have worked out. So it's interesting to me, Chuck,
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 1: that I wasn't aware of this, you know, racial polarization
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 1: or conflict, because when I think of the ABA, I
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 1: think it has so much black aesthetic that it really highlighted, right,
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: like yeah, Doctor Jay and his afron, Darnell Hillman and
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: his afron. Just the style of play, it seems more
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: accommodating and more elevating of the black basketball aesthetic.
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 2: Well, what Barry would say, it was behind the scenes, right,
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 2: he'd have he said, players would complain, it would just
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 2: race was just inserted, he claimed. And this is his
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 2: point of view, inserted into everything, whether a game was
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 2: officiated poorly, if player was benched, and it was just
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 2: he that's I'm giving you the Rick Berry perspective. So
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 2: I don't you know, I think that that I'm with you.
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 2: I've always viewed the ABA as sort of a Black League,
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 2: the league that didn't, you know, keep black culture buried, right,
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 2: that allowed allowed culture to thrive there. But look throughout
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 2: this entire time in the ABA, the Warriors still owned
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 2: the NBA rights to Berry, because that's how this original
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 2: reserve class right, the whole reason he had set out.
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 2: But they still kept his rights. And by the way,
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 2: Franklin Muly loved Rick Berry like a son. And he said,
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 2: just like when your son makes bad decisions, you still
• 1:49:42
  Speaker 2: love your son. And that was the relationship then, and Look,
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 2: the ABA years in some ways makes Berry a better
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 2: NBA player by seventy four to seventy five. Because a
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 2: young Rick Berry believed his talent solved everything oper you know,
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 2: and that you know, he we he was endless. The
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 2: older Barry now realized just him scoring alone wasn't going
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 2: to win games. He had to figure out how to
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 2: play with different types of players if you wanted to
• 1:50:12
  Speaker 2: do that. So he comes back to the Warriors in
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 2: seventy two. At this point, Nate Thurman is getting older,
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 2: the league's changed, the Warriors have changed, and at this
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 2: point when he comes back to the Warriors, he played
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 2: for the San Francisco Warriors. Ja when he comes back,
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 2: there now the Golden State's Warrior, Golden State Warriors.
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 3: He's back in the same plays, but it's got a
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 3: different name.
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 2: It's got a different name. So look, he's a different player.
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 2: He's a better player. He's not just worrying about how
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 2: to score. What's interesting grick Berry always said, even in
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 2: his own game, he said, I was a scorer, not
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 2: a shooter, which I thought was an interesting self reflection
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 2: on his part. But when he comes back in seventy five,
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 2: he's actually a better passer. He starts to play defense.
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 2: He admitted he wasn't a big fan of defense. He's
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 2: a better floor general, and he keeps his you know,
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 2: he's more mature. He's thirty years old at this point,
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 2: so he's got a little more emotional control of his emotions.
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 2: And even Rick Berry himself admits that the ABA years
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 2: forced him to expand his game because he was the
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 2: only guy that could play. I mean, he'd say he
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 2: didn't think much of the ABA players. He said, there
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 2: was like a handful of guys that could play in
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 2: the NBA, and that's it, you know, And usually they
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 2: were the guys that had left the NBA and could
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 2: do that. So here they are, and by the seventy
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 2: three seventy four season, he's a much better player. And
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 2: then the most important new figure in his life is
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 2: Al Addles and he comes in as a coach. He's
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 2: not you know, Bill Sharmon is the coach of the
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 2: sixty seven team that makes the NBA Finals, and Bill
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 2: Sharmon was coach in LA. He replaces a coach that
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 2: the players love.
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 3: In in.
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 2: Hannam, And the players loved Hannam. They did not like
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 2: Sharman Charman was actually a man ahead of his time.
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 2: Bill Scharmon used to make the players watch videotape. Think
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 2: about this in nineteen sixty seven. This was not being
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 2: done in many In many teams, this guy practiced, made
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 2: them practice every game day, made them practice every off day.
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 2: They had to practice hard. Rick Berry did not believe
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 2: in practicing hard. He had a little Allen Iverson in him,
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 2: and he's in practice. Why am I doing that?
• 1:52:33
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: He didn't like that, causing though Chuffey say, like how
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 1: reviled Charmon was with with with Warriors. Because in La
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: So I got to go to a reunion of the
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one seventy two Laker team, the team that
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: had the thirty three game winning streak and win a championship, And.
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 3: I didn't hear this.
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 1: You know, maybe it's because a lot of time had passed,
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: but you know, I just didn't recall hearing all this,
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: the stuff about Sharman. And you know, another thing that
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: he innovated was the morning shoot around. Teams didn't used
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 1: to practice the day of the game, to which he
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: institutes this, all right, we're gonna come over at morning
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 1: shoot a round and go over everything.
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 3: We'll come back to wilch Well.
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 1: Chamberlain famously replies, Look, I'm only going to come to
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 1: the arena once per day.
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 3: You can pick what it's gonna be.
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 1: Do you want me to come in the morning or
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: do you want me to come in night in the game,
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 1: and so to which Charmon decided, I think we'd rather
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: have him at the game.
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 2: Well, what you're describing though, see the Bill Sharmon is
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 2: sixty seven. Would have done that, That's what I'm what
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 2: I've gotten what I think he wouldn't have gotten dated
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 2: will that way? Yes, And the sixty seven version of
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 2: Bill Sharmon was my way of the highway, hebbi. I
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 2: you know, I can't help but look at Sharman and
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 2: think and Rick Berry's description, and think everybody tried to
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 2: be Vince Lombardi at a certain point as a coach,
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 2: and I think, you know, the strong alpha type of guy.
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 2: But Al Addalls comes in former player and he's not
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 2: quite two player friendly like Hannam was accused of being.
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 2: And he wasn't, you know, too hard on him. Like Sharman,
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 2: he commands enough respect, but he gets that she got
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 2: to treat the stars differently.
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 3: I think it helps that.
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 1: His nickname was the Destroyer, and they came from a play.
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: I think it was at high school and everyone's going
• 1:54:28
  Speaker 1: for the ball and everyone's collides and like Adel's pretty
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 1: much emerges unscathed and like the other guys have to
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 1: be help off. So from that point on, his name Destroyer.
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: So do you really want to go at someone whose
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: nickname is the Destroyer? Which makes him scene meaner than
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 1: he is. And I was never in the huddle with him,
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: but I got to know him a little bit. You know,
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 1: he stayed on with the Warriors. He coached him into
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties. Right of course it played for them too,
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: and he stays on with the Warriors, and it's like
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 1: a community ambassador.
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 3: But he'd beat all the game.
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: So as we would walk up at Oracle Arena to
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 1: go sit in the press seating area, al Addeles sat
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: in the row in front of us, so we'd see
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 1: him all the time and just could not have been
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: nicer for a guy nicknamed the Destroyer. Is as friendly
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: a person as you'd want to come across, and had
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: this great deep voice, very forceful voice.
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 3: But al Addle's one of the just the real pillars,
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 3: foundational figures of the Golden State Warriors.
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 2: No, and it's in this team. I mean, he gives
• 1:55:26
  Speaker 2: Barry something that he didn't have, you know, which is
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 2: just you know, somebody who created some structure that he trusted,
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 2: emotional steadiness. You know, young Barry fought authority all the time,
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 2: and yet in al addles and I think the humility
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 2: of the ABA right, also he plays a role in this.
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 2: But look, Barry's you could argue, while he won the
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 2: scoring title in sixty seven, his seventy four to seventy
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 2: five season is amazing in a lot of ways. He
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 2: averaged over thirty thirty points six points per game. He
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 2: leads the league in steals. Again, this was not rick Berry.
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 2: Was not mister defense in sixty seven. Yeah, but he
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 2: leads the leagan steals, He's top ten and assists. That's
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 2: another thing. Wasn't a big disshirt back in sixty seven.
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 2: By seventy five he is. And of course, you know,
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 2: you can't talk about rick Berry without the underhanded free throw.
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 2: Even my son, nineteen year old son, I told him
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 2: we're doing the Warriors. He goes, well, you know who's
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 2: on the word Rick Berry. Oh, that's the underhand free
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 2: throw guy, right, Like everybody.
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 3: Knows that, right. It was so distinctive, right.
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: And also because he would pop up, you know, Shaquille
• 1:56:38
  Speaker 1: O'Neil would be having to struggles. Anytime a prominent play
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 1: would struggle from the free throw line, Rick Barry would
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: start of magically appear and do a media tour and say, hey,
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: if he wants me to help him work on shooting
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: on her handed free throw, I'm here.
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 3: It worked for me, It could work for anybody.
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: There's no reason not to do it, of course, the
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: reason being that just people just can't bring themselves to
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: you know, shoot this, you know, the granny shot as
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 1: it was called.
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 2: I should we should go through those playoffs a little bit,
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 2: and I just want to give you a little taste
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 2: of the of the seventy four to seventy five plays.
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 2: So the Warriors, by the way, only win forty eight games.
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 2: I say only forty eight. You tell me this, Ja,
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 2: It's not often that a team that doesn't win fifty
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 2: wins the title. Right.
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: Going back to our conversation about the regular season, like
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 1: you got to prove and develop things in the regular
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 1: season to show that you're worthy and yeah, forty eight
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 1: win team winning a championship. But also, you know, a
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 1: different NBA back then too, So you know there wasn't
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: there wasn't that powerful that the seventies was. You know,
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 1: the Celtics dynasty had ended, Russell retired and you're transmissing away.
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 2: It was a transition. Yeah, yeah, we hadn't quite you know,
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 2: Kareem gets traded to the Lakers, but the Lakers haven't
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 2: become the Lakers yet. Yeah, at this point, the Celtics
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 2: obviously get that seventy sixth title. That's kind of there.
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 2: I don't know what we refer to that title, right,
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 2: it's this title, but I don't think there's any players
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 2: on the by the eighty one team. But it's also
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 2: got a little exhaust fumes from the sixties era. So
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 2: this team actually has the seeds of players that would
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 2: actually be part of future championship teams on other on
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 2: other franchises. So Rick Berry's the hub of this team.
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 2: He's averaging thirty at nine. This is the season that
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 2: a young Jamal Wilkes. At that time, he's known as
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 2: Keith Wilkes, but this was his emergence season. It becomes
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 2: a great compliment to Barry. He doesn't need the ball.
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 2: He's not an ego guy at the time, and and
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 2: he fits. You know, one thing Barry made clear in
• 1:58:41
  Speaker 2: his own book, because you've got to play with me.
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 2: I don't play with others, right, and when you're younger,
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 2: you learn to play with others. Phil Smith was was
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 2: a big player on this team, a young guard, say
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 2: the Clifford Ray Butch Beard, but really Al Addles. It
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 2: is the core of this team. They beat the Seattle
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 2: SuperSonics four two in round one. That one has. Spencer
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 2: Haywood is part of that SuperSonics team.
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 3: JA, so Heywood's really relevant.
• 1:59:13
  Speaker 1: It's funny as you were talking about Barry and his lawsuit,
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: it just got me thinking what a litigious time it
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: was for NBA stars because he had Oscar Robertson in
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy buying a lawsuit which really helped lead to
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 1: free agency in the NBA. Right, he fights against the
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 1: basketball version of the reserve clause, which was the famous
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: thing that was fought against by the Baseball Union.
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 1: So that and then Spencer Haywood is the guy that
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 1: bought for players to be able to come into school early, right,
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 1: You wouldn't have had Lebron James going from high school
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: straight to the NBA, Moses Malone or you know when
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: Kevin Durant and they era of one and done guys,
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 1: or basically all the guys that left college early before
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 1: they had Spencer Heywood from in the NBA, including Magic
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: Johnson and Michael Jordan, like you named it. Basically, from
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: the late seventies on, almost all the great players in
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: the NBA either came straight out of high school or
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 1: left college early, right. And Spencer Haywood's lawsuit was the
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: one that enabled all of that to happen. And for
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 1: a long time he felt like he didn't get appreciation
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: from these young players who had made so much money
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: off of his efforts. And then finally kind of came
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: around and Spencer was at peace, including Lebron Jame acknowledging
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: him as Lebron came in his rookie year.
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 3: That just made Spencer feel very satisfied.
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: But among all the things that we think of the
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: late sixties and early seventies, he's forgotten legal battles in
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 1: the world of professional sports that changed the landscape and
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: made it You know the landscape that we know today.
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 2: Now absolutely Look we know it in baseball, right with
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 2: Kurt Flood in some way Spencer Haywoods Kurt Flood huh.
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: A little bit, yeah, yeah, for basketball and Oscar Robertson.
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: You know, in addition to being one of the all
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: time great players, he's also one of the ones that
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: took the stand. So like, imagine if like Kurt Flood
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: was like Willie mace on the fight like that much.
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 2: So they beat the Sonics four to two. The real
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 2: NBA title, this may sound familiar, was the Western Conference Final.
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 2: This was a seven game series against the Bulls and
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 2: guests who got traded to the Bulls before the start
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 2: of the seventy fourth to seventy five season, Nate Thurman.
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 2: So it's aging Nate Thurman on the Bulls. But suddenly
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 2: you want to talk about adding a little extra juice
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 2: because a lot of Warrior fans were mad at the
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 2: Warriors Muly for trading Thurman. Thurman was beloved, right, he was.
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 2: He stuck the whole time. He didn't jump to the ABA,
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 2: and Rick Barry kept saying it was Thurman that was
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 2: going to jump to the Aba, which was he basically
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 2: was either going to stay with Thurman or jump with Thurman,
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 2: and Thurman stayed me only got you know, paid him
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 2: ninety grand to stay and Barry goes. So Thurman, uh,
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 2: it'd been you know it was he was aging and
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 2: all that, but he's on this Bulls team. Warriors win
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 2: game one.
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 3: In in out in in uh in the Bay.
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: So I'm not sure which venues, but this was another
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: funky one, I think because of the c because of
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: the venue availability. Right, So like game one is in
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: the Bay, Game two and three are in Chicago, Game
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: four and five are back in the Bay, and then
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: they alternated for the last two games. Like typically it's
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: two games, two games one one one, but this was
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: like one two.
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 2: But the most significant I think what's significant here is
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 2: they win game seven in Chicago. You know they had to.
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 3: But again a rare series.
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 1: How many times in NBA history does is Game one
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: played in one city in game seven is played in
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: the other the other city.
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 2: It's crazy. Meanwhile, the Warrior is going to sweep the Bullets,
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 2: and the Bullets were the favorite. The Bullets had West Hunselt,
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 2: Elvin Hayes, Phil Scheneer, they had more size, more playoff credit, pedigree,
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 2: more national credibility. The Warriors looked like they were just
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 2: sort of this cute story from the West and they
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 2: just come in here and what what this is Why
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 2: this seventy five Warriors team, weirdly is a little foreshadow
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 2: into what the Warriors would do literally nearly forty years later,
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 2: is they basically sped up the game and and and
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 2: and went with speed over size.
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: And again we I think we don't think of Alvin
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: Adams is someone you know, ahead of his time coaching wise,
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: but but yes, innovative, different, you know, adapting, changing with
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 1: the times and in that style.
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 3: And also you wonder, you know a little bit, does
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 3: Barry bring some of the ABA with him to the NBA?
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 3: You know the NBA, the ABA was a more up
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 3: tempo league.
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 2: And hey, that's what he learned. He learned to play
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 2: more up tempo. And so by the way Nate Thurman
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 2: would end up coming back to the Warriors, He's still
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 2: considered a good franchise elder, if you will.
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 3: They couldn't quit each other.
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 2: Here's what's interesting. You know, seventy five is an important year,
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 2: right the merger happens in seventy six. Everything seems to
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 2: change in seventy six, and so the question is, how
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 2: come the Warriors couldn't do this again. Ironically, the Warriors
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 2: had a better record in the next season. They won
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 2: fifty eight games in that year, but they lose in
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 2: the Western Conference Finals to the Phoenix Suns, and that
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 2: team that featured pat Riley.
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: And the Suns go on to have that classic series,
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: you know, with one of the all time great games
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: against the Boston Celtics in the finals.
• 2:04:44
  Speaker 2: But in many ways, losing to the Suns, that basically
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 2: was the end of Rick Berry's career.
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 2: He wasn't the last, obviously, he kept playing. But what
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 2: the seventy five Warriors were was was the ultimate what
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 2: if the owner believes it, the ABA doesn't happen, the
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 2: idea that we might have had an interesting you know,
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 2: could have had an interesting Warriors Lakers showdown right in
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 2: seventy or seventy one. There's a lot of what ifs
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 2: about the Warriors in sixty eight, sixty nine, seventy and
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 2: seventy one. That a health a younger Thurman, a younger
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 2: Barry playing together in their fourth or fifth year without
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 2: the ABA, without all of that, who knows.
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: But uh, that's that's the theme of the Warriors though
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: for up until the Steph Courier is that these brief.
• 2:05:39
  Speaker 3: Moments just like then.
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: So it's and this is probably the high the highest,
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 1: but and and the longest relatively right, it was more
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: than the two years of the run teams era, but
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: it's still it's just one highlight that they just can't sustain.
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 2: So you know, it's funny. I look, I grew up
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 2: in Miami, which meant if and I was a huge
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 2: My parents were huge University Miami fans, and so you
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 2: know the irony the University of Miami basketball JAA is
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 2: that so Miami had one of the greatest NBA players
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 2: of all time, Rick Berry, and Miami basketball was so
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 2: successful in the sixties that they dropped it in the seventies.
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 2: The University of Miami did not.
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 3: He was so successful that they dropped.
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 2: Yes, meeting, I'm kidding right, Like they were successful, but
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 2: it was not a well fought like univers of Miami. Hey,
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 2: you want to talk about nomads and where you played
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 2: your games. They had no campus gym. They played at
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 2: the Miami Beach Convention Center. Sometimes they'd play in little
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 2: other where. I mean they they yours of Miami back
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 2: in the sixties. Even with Rick Berry, they were winning
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 2: twenty plus games. They were going to the n I
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 2: t which is really was almost as as as prestigious
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 2: as the NCAA Tournament back then. And you know, Rick
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 2: Berry has he's great. He actually holds a holds a
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 2: record or two for games played in Madison Square Garden,
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 2: you know, all time great college games at Madison Square
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 2: Garden during the n IT years. But Miami actually, like
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 2: it had it, just didn't care about basketball. They dropped basketball.
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 2: They don't bring it back until nineteen eighty five. And
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 2: Rick Berry is, weirdly this sort of lost icon of
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 2: the University of Miami that only very recently. And I
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 2: feel the same way. And you tell me, I feel
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 2: like it's only been with this era of the Warriors
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 2: that Barry's been embraced back in. And I feel like
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 2: it's only now that Miami basketball is a little bit
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 2: more competitive in the acc that they they try to
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 2: sort of enhance their history a little bit and say, hey,
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 2: don't forget we have Rick Berry to give themselves a
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 2: little bit of a history. But it all goes back
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 2: to this Rick Barry reputation. What was his reputation for
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 2: a long time?
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 3: Not good jack.
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: So yeah, there's a remarkable Sports Illustrated story late seventies,
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: early eighties. So Rick Barry's playing career has come to
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: a close, and he just wants in in the NBA somehow.
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 1: Can he be an announcer, Can he work in somebody's
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: front office, Can he coach? You know somewhere that you know,
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 1: this lifetime of dedication to basketball, he wants to continue
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 1: it at the highest level in the NBA now that
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 1: he's no longer playing. And the gist of the story
• 2:08:18
  Speaker 1: is he wants back in, but nobody wants him because
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 1: nobody can stand him. And it was written by a
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: young writer named Tony Kornheuser. Familiar with him, Chuck, I
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: think I've.
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 2: Heard of him. Yeah, he's going to do pretty well
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 2: in business.
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 3: He used to do some stuff from Sports Illustrated.
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 2: You know who would not remember that piece? Tony Kornheiser, No,
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 2: he remembers. He's hilarious things. Sometimes you're like, you know,
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 2: you wrote a piece on Rick Berry.
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: I did, oh right, yeah, Okay, this one stands with
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 1: him because the amount of people he got to say
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: on the record with their names attached. Yeah, I can't
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: stand rick That's basically the theme. Basically the subhead, like
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 1: I said, that subhead for Wilt Chamberlain, he's a problem.
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: And this at the other the subhead very easily could
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 1: have been Rick Berry wants in the NBA, but nobody
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: wants them because nobody can stand him. And all these
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: people said it on the record. That's what You would
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: never have something like that today. That'd be all these
• 2:09:11
  Speaker 1: anonymous sources. Well everyone's putting their names to it, but
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: former teammates.
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 2: But I go back to this book, Ja rick Berry
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 2: named names, So you know, you tell me people were
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 2: willing to put their name on it. Well, rick Berry
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 2: put his name on criticisms. So I kind of think, like,
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 2: you know, if you're going to give, you better be
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 2: prepared to get. So there it is the Warriors what
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 2: could have been?
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: They don't get one last thing I mentioned seventy eight
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: kind of the one good thing about the Warriors after
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 1: that championship. I know it certainly mattered to a certain
• 2:09:48
  Speaker 1: local marine mammal. So there's a story in nineteen seventy eight,
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: workers are cleaning the dolphin tank at Marine World Africa, USA,
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: and I still remember the theme song, I've been up
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: there in the Bay Area in seventy seven to seventy
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 1: eight Marine World Africa.
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 3: You had say.
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: So, they're cleaning the tank and a bolt comes loose
• 2:10:10
  Speaker 1: and one of the dolphins, dolphin by the name of
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 1: mister Spock. How seventies that sounds right, a dolphin named
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 1: mister Spot. So he thought it was food and he
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: snatched it up. And this bolt gets lodged in the
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: dolphin's stomach and where it could do you know, major damage.
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: They didn't get it out, and veterinarians didn't have anything
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 1: that was long enough to reach that far down the
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 1: dolphin's stomach to retrieve the bolt. The Parks publicists knew
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 1: Clifford Ray, so she calls him up. Clifford Ray, being
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: six foot nine, had a different reports. Have his reaches
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 1: forty five inches or forty seven inches whatever, he had
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 1: long arms.
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 3: Let's suffice it to say.
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: Right, So, while the Warrior's flight waits to take off
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: for their trip to Washington, Member this is at a
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: time when NBA teams flew commercial, So this commercial flight
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: is waiting based on the tarmac, It goes down to
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: Redwood City, throws on some surgisical scrubs, loves up his arm,
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: reaches in with guidance from the venarian by the phone,
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 1: and retrieves the bolts from the dolphin's stomach, pulls it out,
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 1: is a hero, and then makes it to his flight.
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: Turns out he's sitting next to Elizabeth Taylor on his
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: flight across country.
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 2: And this is a great little post And they made
• 2:11:23
  Speaker 2: a movie about a fish that say, Pittsburgh, we should
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 2: have done the Warriors the dolphins.
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: So the post of the PostScript is that apparently, you know,
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 1: whenever Clifford Ray would would go down to Marine World,
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 1: that dolphin recognized him and appreciated him, and we kind
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 1: of come over and was excited to see him.
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 2: I hope that every time we want to believe, we believe.
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: We believe before we're believing in the words, we're believing
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 1: in Clifford Ray the savior of dolphins.
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 2: And so now Steph Curry.
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 1: To skip forward a couple of decades, it's because there's
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: only a couple of years we're talking about. But once
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: Steph Curry arrives and gets going, there is plenty to
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 1: talk about. So Chuck, the peak of the Curry Revolution
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: was a moment so stark and just jarring that even
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: I could notice. And I have to admit this came
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: in an era, the post Twitter era, when I didn't
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 1: maybe pay as much attention to the NBA games during
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 1: games as I used to before we were on Twitter.
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 3: But you know, now during the game.
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 2: That's an interesting admission because I think I think I'm
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 2: the same way, but explain.
• 2:12:37
  Speaker 3: So before i'd.
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: Really just notice everything that was going on and keep
• 2:12:40
  Speaker 1: it down, but now you're you're scrolling through Twitter because
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 1: you want to see what everybody else is saying, right,
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 1: maybe somebody has some observation and kind of more important,
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 1: when you're at the game, you're not seeing You're not
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 1: seeing what they're showing on television.
• 2:12:55
  Speaker 3: Right, they might have an angle.
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 1: You know, you're sitting high up in the arena and
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 1: maybe there's some close up on TV that they're showing
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 1: you what's happening, or they're showing the broadcast, but that
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 1: feedback is coming back to you through Twitter, right, So
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm curious, I'm like, what are they saying
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 1: on the broadcast And I'm missing out on or what
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: is somebody noticing or you know, maybe there's a former
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: player that's got some commentary on Twitter. It's weird you
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 1: kind of have fomo when you're actually at the event.
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 1: But that was the world we're living in. However, early
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: on in the Game five to twenty fifteen Finals, I
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 1: look down on the court at Oracle Arena and I
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: realized I was getting a glimpse of the future. There's
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: a version of the NBA where no one on the
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 1: court is taller than six foot nine, and everyone on
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 1: the court is capable of putting up a three pointer
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: at any given moment. Before I kind of get in
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: the details, I think it's important let's go back in time.
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 2: Well, it's in this period, and it's interesting because we
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 2: may go back and isolate this period when we say,
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 2: when was the last time somebody under six? How many
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 2: times we had people under six nine win MVP? So
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 2: starting in twenty fifteen, we had four straight years, I know,
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 2: and I'm wondering if we're ever going to have that
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 2: ever again, let alone in a row.
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 3: I'll say this because because it was it was Curry
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 3: twice in a row, James Harden, Russell and Russell west
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 3: Russell Westbrook and then James Harden right, right, So four
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 3: straight years you've got guys under.
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 2: And well in the But you know, in some ways,
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 2: and I think, I know you believe this that the
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 2: seeds of the of the of the Warriors were actually
• 2:14:27
  Speaker 2: planted in Phoenix.
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 3: I believe that when you had a small guard, the
• 2:14:33
  Speaker 3: guy even Steve Nash, even shorter than Steve Nash, went
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 3: in back to back MVPs.
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 2: And then Mark D'Antoni seven seconds or less Suns, right,
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 2: which was just you know, they average average fifty eight
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 2: wins over a four year stretch. The fact that that
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 2: team never makes it to the finals, though, probably does
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 2: give some pause to the does this work right exactly?
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 2: You know, it's sort of like, you know, it's funny.
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 2: This gets into the you know, introducing analytics, but it
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 2: is important to know who was the GM of that
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 2: Sun's team, Steve Kerr, right, and that and Alvin.
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 3: Gentry on that team and who let her take over
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 3: as the head coach of the Suns after they tried
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 3: to go away from the D'Antoni style and that wasn't
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 3: working that well and the fans weren't like and the
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 3: fans missed the up tempo style.
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 1: So Alvin Gentry takes over and and immediately reinstalled, reinstates
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: the seven seconds. Lest I want to say, they scored
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 1: like one hundred and forty points like the first two games.
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: After he comes back, they scored some absurd number like
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: the first two games he comes back.
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 3: I texted him the coach of the.
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 1: Year, and like all he did was just kind of
• 2:15:41
  Speaker 1: reinstalled the D'Antoni system, right, So clearly he buys into it.
• 2:15:44
  Speaker 3: He believes.
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So when Kerr comes to the Warriors, Alvin Gentry
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: is his assistant at least for that first year, and
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: so they incorporate elements of that. They also have some since.
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 2: The beginning of analytics and not basketball is it not.
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 3: Not exactly? I mean it. It was the basic math
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 3: of three is more than two? Right, and well what
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 3: dance that math was.
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 2: True going back to you know, the late seventies when
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 2: they brought.
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 3: Into right the in corporation, but.
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 1: The you know that just there was this belief that, well,
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 1: you're going against the math, against the just established you know,
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 1: orthodoxy of basketball, which is that the game is played
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 1: from inside out. I remember Ralph Wiley doing a story
• 2:16:32
  Speaker 1: talking to to Earl of Pearl Monroe, in which he
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 1: said Monroe said that the object of the game is
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 1: to get the ball as close to the basket as
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: possible in the score, right, And that was just kind
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 1: of the maximum the mantra for so long, and it
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 1: made sense. And the scores during the nineties got really
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 1: low because the defenses got really good. So you had
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: you had people trying to get to the basket against
• 2:17:00
  Speaker 1: defenses that just would not let them get to the
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: basket easily, and the result was that they made it
• 2:17:05
  Speaker 1: really hard to get close to the basket and score,
• 2:17:08
  Speaker 1: and so the score started dropping. Remember, the league moves
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: into three point line for one year open to increase scoring,
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: and the problem is the undertended consequences is it made
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 1: it easier to both cover the three point line and
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: to recover.
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 2: And somebody has a record. There's somebody's three point record
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 2: is that season like percentage made or something like that,
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 2: like the best season long, and it's like people are
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 2: conveniently forgetting that that was the year they moved it in.
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: So one analytical thing that Mike D'Antoni believed was that
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 1: the data showed that the worst thing you could do
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 1: was to throw the ball inside to the low post.
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 1: A guy that's being guarded in the low post trying
• 2:17:51
  Speaker 1: to score. Is what the data said was the worst
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: percentage playing basketball, which that was all that the game
• 2:17:59
  Speaker 1: was first, like sixty years of the NBA.
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, you'd get glimpses of this. You know,
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 2: it's interesting think Rick Patino at Providence right.
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 3: In the in the eighties, especially Kentucky, right.
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 2: And then you know in college you saw quite a
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 2: few teams essentially over index on three pointers in order
• 2:18:16
  Speaker 2: to essentially use less talent to overcome teams that were bigger,
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 2: more physical.
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 3: It was the slingshot for David against a lot, right, And.
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 2: The thought was, well, that can't work in the NBA
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 2: because everybody's you know, the difference between the number one
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 2: team and the number thirty team is still smaller than
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 2: the difference between you know, a top four team and
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 2: a top fifty team. Right. So, but it is intriguing
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 2: to me that it took the NBA this long to
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 2: essentially go this to do what Steph Curry did, which
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 2: was I mean this to me, and it gets to
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 2: this larger issue of Curry, right, where does Curry fall.
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 2: You know, we're gonna we mount rush more of a franchise.
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 2: It's Curry. Nobody's gonna say he's the top four all
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 2: time player. But if you completely change how the game
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 2: is played, do you get extra consideration?
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 1: I remember when Curry's, you know, in the midst of
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 1: his run, and we're going in for a pregame meeting
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 1: with ri Kylisle, the coach of the Dallas Mavericks at
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: the time, and he just simply said he is rewriting
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: the history of the game.
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: You know, That's that's how impactful that Curry was. But
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 1: you know he had to change as well, you know,
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 1: and as the game is changing around him and others
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: are helping to mold him. So let me do some
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 1: some some quick math on Curry.
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 3: Here, lease do so. His first year he.
• 2:19:55
  Speaker 1: Makes one hundred and sixty six three pointers. Right, His
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 1: second season makes aundred fifty one three pointers, and the
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 1: third season he makes fifty five. Again, he's he's hampered
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 1: and limited to like twenty five twenty six games because
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: of the injuries. So that's three hundred and seventy two
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 1: to three pointers right in his first two in a
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: quarter season. Wow, that unanimous MVP season at twenty fifteen
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: to sixteen, he makes four hundred and two three points.
• 2:20:19
  Speaker 2: I was just going to say, doesn't he have over
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 2: four hundred And it's.
• 2:20:22
  Speaker 1: Like yep, yeah, So you know, more in one season
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 1: than he did in two in a quarter season. So
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: it's not like he came in right away intently, but
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: like he had to be a he had to be
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 1: encouraged to do it right and then allowed to do it.
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: But a critical thing, the war is actually benefited from
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 1: the slow start, the injury plague start.
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 2: Oh. I was just gonna say it. You know, if
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 2: he doesn't have ankle problems, Kevin Durant, never, this whole
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 2: thing doesn't happen, correct, because.
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 1: He was coming off that injury the twenty six game,
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 1: the lockout shortened twenty eleven twelve season. You know a
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 1: few months after that night where Joe lakob Is roundly
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 1: booed it's time for a new contract for Kurt and
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: they signed up for four years, forty four million dollars
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 1: in October of twenty twelve, and that was actually seen
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: as a risk and maybe even an overpay again given
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 1: the the the injury risk and you know, the frailty.
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 1: But you wonder again the fact that Lakeub said that
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: that night, the booing, the reception you receive that night
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 1: really encouraged him to double down on his convictions. He uh,
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 1: if you're gonna trade Monte Ellis and get booed for it, Yeah,
• 2:21:45
  Speaker 1: and you're moving Mante to clear the way for Steph Curry,
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: well you better be in on Steph curkr.
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 1: So they're into the tune of forty four million. But
• 2:21:51
  Speaker 1: it's not a you know, it's extreme dramatic content, but it's.
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 2: Still I mean, just the just the opposite. It turns
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 2: into built they don't have if this, if they don't
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 2: have this small of a contract for Curry, there's no
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 2: cap flexibility. There's probably no Iguadala. There's certainly no Duran Durant, right,
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 2: because you know, let's say Curry had not been injury
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 2: plagued and we saw earlier he'd have gotten a max extension, right,
• 2:22:22
  Speaker 2: and then he's Dame Lillard, right, he's by him, probably
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 2: by himself on the Warriors.
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 1: So this gets into what I said about how the Warriors.
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 1: The latter theme and story of the Warriors is them
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 1: extracting the most out of the worst, right, turning the
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: bad time, turning the booze into chairs, literally, but turning
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 1: the bad situations in the good situations. So they turned
• 2:22:47
  Speaker 1: Curry's injuries and his shaky starts and dubious and uncertain
• 2:22:52
  Speaker 1: future into one of the great contracts of all time
• 2:22:56
  Speaker 1: and underpaid. So, for example, he's by the time his
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: first MVP season in twenty fourteen, he's making ten million dollars.
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: He's not in the top fifty highest paid players in
• 2:23:04
  Speaker 1: the league. He's making less than half of what the
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 1: highest during his MVP season. Right, yeh twenty three millions, Yes, yeah,
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 1: a super bargain, right. Joe Johnson was number two at
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: twenty three million in twenty fifteen. In the twenty sixteen
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: NANIMS mvpc'son.
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 3: Making eleven million dollars. Light raise. Kobe and Lebron are
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 3: the top two.
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's a little more palatable, but yeah, still again,
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 1: not in the top fifty, and you're getting an MVP
• 2:23:30
  Speaker 1: for not one of the fifty highs paid players his contract.
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: You know, in the midst of all this, Klay Thompson's
• 2:23:35
  Speaker 1: it's his turn to re up and he gets four
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: years and sixty nine million dollar extension in twenty fourteen,
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 1: so for.
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 2: A brief period of also, Clay makes more than Steph.
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 3: Right, yeah, but this also speaks to.
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 1: Steph's mentality and the fact that something like those type
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: of things could tear up a team. I was just
• 2:23:54
  Speaker 1: Seattle SuperSonics of the nineties basically got broken up because
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 1: Sean Camp was mad about what other people were.
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 2: I was just going to say, there is no I mean,
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 2: that is the hardest thing to manage. I mean, look,
• 2:24:04
  Speaker 2: even in the early Warriors days, the owner knew whatever
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 2: he gave Barryer to give Thurman right, like you just
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 2: you know, you couldn't. They were worried about that superstar
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 2: chemistry even back then.
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: And so the Curry's credit, you know. I talked to
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 1: him about this. I'm like, hey, you know, Clay, he
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 1: hadn't signed it yet, but he was looking like he
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 1: was going to get this type of contract. And I
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 1: asked Steph what he thought about that, and he says, look,
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 1: it's selfish and human nature to look around and see
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: these other contracts. But his words, you're not hating on anybody.
• 2:24:36
  Speaker 1: You're happy for everybody that's making money for themselves. And
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 1: using the game for benefit. For me, I just feel
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 1: like I'm blessed to be paid well to play a
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 1: game I love, and hopefully be able to stay healthy
• 2:24:44
  Speaker 1: long enough to get two more deals before I'm done.
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 2: Well, let me let me throw something. Let me throw
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 2: something at you. That because Steph Curry grew up with
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 2: a dad in the NBA, that financial security was I
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 2: wonder if it just gave him more patience, if that
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 2: makes sense.
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 1: But it's still the opportunity for generational wealth. I get
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 1: it right, and this is still the way that people
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 1: measure themselves at this point.
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 3: He hadn't won an in.
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 2: I think if he had grown up poor, he might have.
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 2: We don't know how he might have reacted. He might
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 2: have held out and said I want my contract renegotiated now, right, It's.
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 1: Possible, But I think it also it's funny. It benefits
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 1: them in two ways. First, it benefits the warriors and that,
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, if they have the flexibility and of
• 2:25:34
  Speaker 1: the salary cap to bring in Iguadalin and later Durant
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 1: and then it uh. But it also it almost ensures
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 1: that Curry is not going anywhere because the way the
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 1: NBA has structured you know, the Larry Bird exemption, which
• 2:25:47
  Speaker 1: allows you to go over the salary cap. Basically you
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: can resign your own free agents for any amount up
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: to the you know, the maximum contract level. So the
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 1: fact that he was underpaid and now he'd be seeking
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: to kind of recoup his losses so to speak, you know,
• 2:26:01
  Speaker 1: and he'd be seeking as much money as possible. Well,
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: he could only make the maximum amount of money if
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 1: he stayed with the Warriors. So it really the fact
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: that he was interested that he would want to recop
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: you know, in addition to the fact that obviously he
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 1: was happy there.
• 2:26:14
  Speaker 3: But it really it.
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: Really almost eliminated the chance that he would go somewhere else.
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 1: So wound up helping them in aricar flip side too.
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 1: So not only was Steph not jealous of the money
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 1: that Clay was making, maybe just as importantly, Clay was
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 1: not jealous of the attention that Steph Curry got as
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 1: he's becoming the.
• 2:26:33
  Speaker 3: Face of the team and then even the face of
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 3: the league.
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 2: Well it's also possible Steph was making more off the court.
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 1: That helped, But but Clay didn't talking to Clay about that,
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 1: he said, he said he was like actually happy for
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: the popularity, Like I don't think he'd want that amount
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: of popularity, but he almost marveled. He was like, you know,
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 1: he'd been overseas with Steph on a Feedbworld Cup championship team,
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 1: and he just marveled at how popular stuff was around
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 1: the world, and not out of a place of jealousy,
• 2:27:02
  Speaker 1: just out of place in marble. So this culture that
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 1: the Warriors had, this lack of jealousy between these two
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 1: key players, and they weren't resentful over who got more
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: money or who got more attention. Again, we think about
• 2:27:14
  Speaker 1: things that ended prematurely. The Lakers ended prematurely with Kobe
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 1: and Shack because they didn't have that same type of
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 1: lack of jealousy.
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 2: That's a fair Let me just tell you one thing
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 2: about how Steph. So my kids were playing youth basketball
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 2: starting in essentially twenty ten through twenty fifteen. So here's
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 2: what that meant. And I watched it. I remember with
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 2: my son doing five year old basketball. This is twenty
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 2: twelve by twenty thirteen, is all Steph is the rage,
• 2:27:50
  Speaker 2: particularly among little kids. Why do I know this because
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 2: every basketball game became you'd see these seven year olds
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 2: hoisting it up from as far away as they could.
• 2:28:04
  Speaker 2: This was true of my daughter's girls team and my
• 2:28:07
  Speaker 2: son's boys team. Steph the it. There was something about
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 2: youth basketball in that moment that it was Steph was
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 2: the player every kid wanted to be because step seemed like, oh,
• 2:28:22
  Speaker 2: he's little like me, right, you know, you're you have
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 2: that thing, and compared to everybody else in the league,
• 2:28:27
  Speaker 2: Steph's the little guy, right or certainly smaller. The I
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 2: could tell you.
• 2:28:33
  Speaker 3: Every youth basketball game back then was like that.
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 2: It was just a bunch of little kids just hoisting
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 2: it up from as far away and you know they
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 2: would get excited if they just hit the rim.
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 2: But that's when you knew how much of a cultural
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 2: icon he was. The fact that literally it goes back
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 2: to anything when we were kids, we joke, right, you
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 2: imitate what you see, right, and who you see and
• 2:28:54
  Speaker 2: who everybody in that era was imitating Steph.
• 2:29:00
  Speaker 1: I also give Steph Curry some credit for the place
• 2:29:03
  Speaker 1: that we're at now in women's basketball and the elevated
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 1: place of women's basketball, because the knock against the women's
• 2:29:09
  Speaker 1: game used to be that well, the game is played
• 2:29:11
  Speaker 1: below the rim, right, at a time when the NBA
• 2:29:13
  Speaker 1: was high flying and Michael Jordan and everybody is doing
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: all these incredible dunks. Well, you didn't have any women
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 1: that could do that. As Steph brings the game back
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: down to earth and now it becomes about shooting from
• 2:29:23
  Speaker 1: great distances. Well, the women can do that, like Haylen Clark. Well, right,
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 1: it's funny. It's like seeing less difference between the men
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: and women game.
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 2: You look at a Britney Griner, right, who's great on
• 2:29:32
  Speaker 2: the inside, but it is sort of it is funny
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 2: how everybody's gravitating to the shooters.
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and the women's game now too, And so Steph
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 3: kind of he called it.
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 1: And in addition to really going out of his way
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: to promote women's basketball players and you know, do youth
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 1: camp for girls in addition to boys. And then of
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 1: course that moment he had when he has that shootout
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 1: with the SABRIENI and ESCO at the All Star Weekend
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. You know, like he always has
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: an eye on what he can do to promote the
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: women's game in women's sports too. So you know, transformational
• 2:30:05
  Speaker 1: in a lot of ways.
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 2: He's I've seen him at Look, I've I've been lucky
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 2: enough to be at events where he's sort of a
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 2: special guest and in different areas and stuff, and there
• 2:30:15
  Speaker 2: is something he is on the same level as Jordan
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 2: and Lebron. People are like, WHOA, well, that's staff, that's staff.
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 2: It's the same. And I think I think that basketball
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 2: people already know this. But I'll admit as somebody, I
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 2: don't consider myself a basketball person. I consider myself a
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 2: sports fan. But is it Steph's in an is is
• 2:30:38
  Speaker 2: much higher in the hierarchy than I think non basketball
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 2: fans fully realize.
• 2:30:44
  Speaker 1: So from a practical standpoint, right, So, honestly, even before
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 1: he's having such an impact on the sport in the world,
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: there's a practical matter of his thing. And you alluded
• 2:30:56
  Speaker 1: to it that they probably don't get Iguodala and if
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: they don't have Kurry at this bargain deal and the
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: Eguadala later, Bob Meyer is the general manager that put
• 2:31:06
  Speaker 1: this championship run together, would say that the Egudala thing
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 1: was really a pivotal moment. You know, they really wanted him.
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 1: They didn't really have the salary cap even with that
• 2:31:16
  Speaker 1: Curry contract to do it. Initially, so they had to
• 2:31:19
  Speaker 1: trade some contracts and some draft picks to Utah to
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 1: clear up that cap space to sign him as a
• 2:31:23
  Speaker 1: free agent, and Myers said that the deal zapped much
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: of his life for us. But but what Meyer said,
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 1: the lesson was he learned is that if you if
• 2:31:34
  Speaker 1: you want something, you got to figure out a way
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 1: to do it right. And there was not an easy
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 1: path to get Eguadala, but it was something that they
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 1: really wanted, and so he says, you know what will
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: make it happen, and they make the trade and they
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 1: give up maybe a little bit more than they wanted,
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 1: but they wound up bringing in.
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 2: Now the irony is let me, let me throw a
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 2: sliding doors at you. Eguadala stays healthy and the Warriors
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 2: beat the Clippers.
• 2:31:59
  Speaker 3: Right, he gets hurt in twenty fourteen down the stretch.
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 2: This is another pivotal moment in the in the in
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 2: this sort of run to run to become dynastic. Here
• 2:32:11
  Speaker 2: is that it's the it's the series that leads to
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 2: the Mark Jackson firing.
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because so they lose in seven games. Curry goes
• 2:32:19
  Speaker 1: down swinging. I mean they the series.
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 2: Has known for something else. By the way these days.
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it happened to be the series in which, in
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: the middle of the series the Donald Sterling recordings come
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: out in which he made the disparaging remarks about black people,
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 1: most notably Magic Towns were including Magic Towns.
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah and yeah, so that you know he's uh.
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: Before the series ends, Donald Sterling is suspended for life,
• 2:32:46
  Speaker 1: as Adam Stover says in that press conference. So that happens,
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 1: so people kind of forget about. Some people might even
• 2:32:53
  Speaker 1: forget the Clippers or the Warriors or even involved in it.
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 2: I you know, I do, right, you forget, but it's
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 2: in hindsight, my goodness. What a And in fact, if
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 2: it wasn't for the Sterling saga, the firing of Jackson
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 2: might have been the biggest story out of their playoffs, right.
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and another move that was unpopular by leg So
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 1: Lakub could use a win here because the trade of
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 1: Montealis was unpopular. But people have gotten over it because
• 2:33:20
  Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen, the Warriors win their first playoff series
• 2:33:23
  Speaker 1: in a while, and since the we Believe team give
• 2:33:26
  Speaker 1: a pretty good run against the San Antonio Spurs, who
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 1: eventually go to the finals.
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 3: So there's that.
• 2:33:33
  Speaker 1: So there's some good feelings, there's goodwill generated, there's belief
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 1: in this team. And then this year again Mark Jackson
• 2:33:41
  Speaker 1: had really got them playing defense. They win fifty one
• 2:33:44
  Speaker 1: games for the first time in twenty years in the franchise. Right,
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 1: So what he's doing is working, but you know, the
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 1: offense isn't fully unleashing the potential. And then just you know,
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 1: just the simplest thing. You know, there were some things
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 1: where Jackson wasn't getting along with the front office, and
• 2:34:05
  Speaker 1: you know there were some things he was doing that
• 2:34:07
  Speaker 1: that was rubbing the front office the wrong way. Without
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 1: getting too detailed into it, you know, there was a
• 2:34:12
  Speaker 1: personality and somewhat of a culture clash there.
• 2:34:14
  Speaker 3: Right, There wasn't alignement.
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 2: I don't mean to say the league's spoken, but the
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 2: fact that Mark Jackson hasn't coached anywhere else.
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 1: But you wonder if part of that is because of
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 1: the you know, the the way that they just took
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: off like a rocket ship under Steve Kerr.
• 2:34:29
  Speaker 2: Right, that is that just leaves a bad taste.
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, and then and then there's there's but yeah,
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 1: like there there's been some other coaching opportunities that came up.
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 3: Mark Jackson's name was mentioned.
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sorry. This is the NBA. Usually fifty
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 2: wind coaches get a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh chance.
• 2:34:48
  Speaker 2: It's odd to be that Mark Jackson has it.
• 2:34:52
  Speaker 1: But people forget the players all came out like strong,
• 2:34:57
  Speaker 1: you know, strongly in support. A lot of times there's
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 1: just kind of lip server. It's like we like ho,
• 2:35:00
  Speaker 1: It's like, no, I was in that locker room. They
• 2:35:02
  Speaker 1: really they loved him. I mean he was beloved Urry especially, Yeah, yeah,
• 2:35:06
  Speaker 1: and not not in.
• 2:35:07
  Speaker 3: All parts of the locker room. Andrew Bogan wasn't the
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 3: biggest fan.
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 1: But you know, certainly the people whose voice is mad
• 2:35:12
  Speaker 1: at the most, like Stephen Curry, were coming out, you know,
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 1: on the record very publicly supporting Mark Jackson. But he
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 1: lost the most important person, and that was Joe Lacub.
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 1: And there's this incredible image of Lacub sitting on the
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 1: sidelines of you know, a few feet from the warrior's
• 2:35:29
  Speaker 1: bench and like looking at Mark Jackson's got this look
• 2:35:34
  Speaker 1: on his face. The camera's caught it where he's just
• 2:35:35
  Speaker 1: like I can't believe this guy. I can't wait to
• 2:35:37
  Speaker 1: get rid of him. So like his fate was stealed.
• 2:35:39
  Speaker 1: Mark Jackson knew it.
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 3: He wore was all black to that game seven because
• 2:35:42
  Speaker 3: he's dressed for a funeral.
• 2:35:44
  Speaker 1: The game is becoming more offensive minded, right And and
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 1: that's not Jackson's fortale. You know, another sliding doors moment
• 2:35:52
  Speaker 1: suck is that Steve Kerr wasn't the first choice of
• 2:35:56
  Speaker 1: the Warrior's brass they they were thinking Stan van Gundy.
• 2:36:00
  Speaker 1: But it's amazing Detroit comes along and offers Van Gundy
• 2:36:03
  Speaker 1: not only coaching position, but basically general manager duties as well.
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 1: And uh and so he he cho has some interest
• 2:36:13
  Speaker 1: from Phil Phil Jackson to go coach the Knicks to
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 1: that job was opening, but he was thinking about it.
• 2:36:21
  Speaker 3: But he chooses the Warriors.
• 2:36:23
  Speaker 1: In part they were a good match because him and
• 2:36:25
  Speaker 1: Laca bed golfed together and they were kind of golf buddies.
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 1: So sometimes that's not the best criteria, but in.
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 3: This case it was.
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 2: It was like, you know, it's it's as you were
• 2:36:37
  Speaker 2: pointing out, you know, Kerr's philosophy and what he'd learned
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 2: in Chicago, what he'd learned playing for Phil, and then
• 2:36:45
  Speaker 2: what he what he what he saw work in Phoenix,
• 2:36:49
  Speaker 2: in my goodness, in.
• 2:36:50
  Speaker 3: San Antonio too, and going all the way back to
• 2:36:52
  Speaker 3: college with Loudelson, it's so important coaches that.
• 2:36:55
  Speaker 2: He really is. I mean he gets to learn. He
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 2: plays under Phil Jackson, Popovich, loude Olsen.
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 1: I mean.
• 2:37:07
  Speaker 2: It's pretty good. It's a pretty good set of teachers.
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 3: And just picks the right things. Right.
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 1: So I remember talking to some other players gone into
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 1: coaching about the trial and I remember when of the mastering,
• 2:37:19
  Speaker 1: like do you think the triangle cool? Because the triangle
• 2:37:21
  Speaker 1: really wasn't set for the three point era.
• 2:37:24
  Speaker 3: No.
• 2:37:24
  Speaker 2: I was just gonna say the facing.
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 3: Of that offense.
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 1: And Phil Jackson wasn't a big believer in three point
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 1: like up to a point, right, He didn't think a
• 2:37:32
  Speaker 1: team should take more than maybe twenty five twenty.
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 2: They shot the three pointer enough that Kerr got got
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 2: to be on the bulls.
• 2:37:41
  Speaker 3: It's what got him to the bulls.
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: And yeah, you know, and I mean there's memorable John
• 2:37:45
  Speaker 1: Paxson three point shots right, like Michael Jordan's shrug game,
• 2:37:49
  Speaker 1: right is because he was making a bunch of three.
• 2:37:50
  Speaker 1: So it's not like he was like never shoot a three,
• 2:37:52
  Speaker 1: but he didn't. He didn't feature it, right, So I
• 2:37:56
  Speaker 1: always say just because Kerr was a good higher didn't
• 2:38:01
  Speaker 1: mean that the Jackson firing was a good fire.
• 2:38:04
  Speaker 2: Interesting and kind of.
• 2:38:04
  Speaker 1: The way it went down, it felt like it didn't
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 1: have to be that way. Of course, it works out
• 2:38:10
  Speaker 1: better than anyone could ever imagine. Kerr really puts in work.
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 1: He never coached before. That's the other thing that makes
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 1: it risky. You hire someone who just won fifty games
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 1: for you, for a guy who never coached before. But
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 1: as you said, he had all these great influences, right,
• 2:38:24
  Speaker 1: multiple great coaching trees that he's a part of. And
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 1: then he really he really you know, digs in and
• 2:38:32
  Speaker 1: he even flying down to Australia to meet with Andrew
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 1: Bogan and going all around to meet with his guys,
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 1: but before they before he embarks on this journey with them.
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 1: But he also had some it's not always analytics. Some
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 1: of it was just numbers and some of the advanced
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 1: tracking numbers. So now with the data and the cameras
• 2:38:52
  Speaker 1: that they have, they can track the number of passes
• 2:38:55
  Speaker 1: and the number of dribbles and all these things. So
• 2:38:57
  Speaker 1: I think he set a goal is like two hundred
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 1: and fifty or three hundred passes a game for example, right,
• 2:39:01
  Speaker 1: and this is something that you could track very easily.
• 2:39:04
  Speaker 1: You know, he wanted to have twenty five to thirty
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 1: assists per game. You know, he just wanted the ball moving.
• 2:39:09
  Speaker 1: He wanted the players moving around. Like to him, that
• 2:39:12
  Speaker 1: was the whole key ball movement, incorporating the three pointer,
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 1: the exploiting matchups on the pick and roll, all these
• 2:39:17
  Speaker 1: things that went into his offense. And you know, it
• 2:39:22
  Speaker 1: clicks right away, right so surprisingly, so.
• 2:39:26
  Speaker 2: He's got the right I mean, he just has the
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 2: right people and it look, I mean, this gets its something.
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 2: And we're not going to talk a lot about this
• 2:39:34
  Speaker 2: one player, but I'm always been curious, is Draymond Green
• 2:39:40
  Speaker 2: and great because of Steve Kerr and because of the
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 2: type of offense and type of and what you know
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 2: that that Draymond doesn't succeed with in some other under
• 2:39:54
  Speaker 2: some other coaching situations.
• 2:39:57
  Speaker 1: So this is an interesting moment. So I worked the
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 1: first game that Mark Jackson returns. So Mark Jackson, inspired.
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 3: By the Warriors, goes back to his job with with
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 3: with with ABC and or ESPN, and so him and
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 3: Van Gundy and Mike Green, So I'm on that crew.
• 2:40:16
  Speaker 3: I didn't always work with them, but I'm on that
• 2:40:18
  Speaker 3: crew when they go back for Mark Jackson's first came back.
• 2:40:21
  Speaker 1: Actually know what it might have been, I never been.
• 2:40:22
  Speaker 1: It might have been with day Patch, might have been
• 2:40:25
  Speaker 1: the full A crew, But I just explains what I
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 1: was doing there.
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 3: It definitely wasn't the full eighteen.
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 1: But so but as Mark Jackson's first came back, and uh,
• 2:40:37
  Speaker 1: somewhat awkward, we do the pregame interview with the coach,
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 1: so he's talking to his replacement.
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 2: Just painful. I mean, I don't I feel for anybody
• 2:40:44
  Speaker 2: in that situation. You know, the person that replaces you,
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 2: and everybody knows it wasn't a nice transition.
• 2:40:51
  Speaker 3: Steve Kerr made it easier. He comes in. He's very
• 2:40:54
  Speaker 3: friendly and outgoing and just kind of you know, takes
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 3: the first steps. So he made it easier. Uh.
• 2:40:59
  Speaker 1: Mark noteafullly signed as day Passion me asking most of
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 1: the questions. So at the end, Mark says, I just
• 2:41:06
  Speaker 1: have one question, you know, what have you noticed about Draymond?
• 2:41:10
  Speaker 1: And Kurr starts raving about Drayvon and versatility. So it's
• 2:41:14
  Speaker 1: like it's like they were connecting, right. It was like
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 1: like Kurr new and Mark. Mark's like Hey, this Draymond
• 2:41:22
  Speaker 1: guy is something special and different. The other thing about
• 2:41:25
  Speaker 1: Mark Jackson, I mean, the one thing he did offensively,
• 2:41:27
  Speaker 1: he might not have done anything promoted, but if you remember,
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 1: he was out front calling proclaiming Kerr and Clay Tom
• 2:41:35
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry Curry and Klay Thompson. Mark Jackson's called them
• 2:41:39
  Speaker 1: the best shooting backward ever before they'd really proven it.
• 2:41:43
  Speaker 3: And so at the time we're like, hey, whoa.
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 2: Your mouth?
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: And that turned out to be extremely accurate. Right, It's
• 2:41:49
  Speaker 1: like a lot of what Mark Jackson said and believed
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 1: was right. And now Joe lacup and and Bob Myers
• 2:41:55
  Speaker 1: come walking it, and now it feels tense, right, and
• 2:41:59
  Speaker 1: so the producer and the director kind of screwed out.
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 3: They passed.
• 2:42:07
  Speaker 1: I was in a position where I couldn't like I
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 1: was on the other side, so I couldn't just sneak
• 2:42:11
  Speaker 1: out because I haven't had to walk past all of
• 2:42:14
  Speaker 1: them to get out.
• 2:42:15
  Speaker 3: So I'm kind of stuck in there.
• 2:42:17
  Speaker 1: Like so comes in and you could just feel the
• 2:42:21
  Speaker 1: tension in the awkwardness, and so Lacob says, hey, Mark,
• 2:42:25
  Speaker 1: did you get my text?
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 3: And Mark says there wasn't a text. And then it
• 2:42:30
  Speaker 3: was like, oh, well, yeah, yeah, what I mean, well
• 2:42:32
  Speaker 3: or I meant to text you. I guess that's why. Man,
• 2:42:39
  Speaker 3: that's awful, but I get the credit. At least they
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 3: came in.
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 1: And then during the game, Mark Jackson's there and they
• 2:42:46
  Speaker 1: do something on the on the scoreboard during one of
• 2:42:48
  Speaker 1: the time, I was like, welcome back coach Jackson.
• 2:42:50
  Speaker 3: He got a good and he stands up in waves.
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 3: So they got that out of the way.
• 2:42:54
  Speaker 1: And then the problem for Mark Jackson, of course, is
• 2:42:56
  Speaker 1: not only does Steve kurb do great in his seat,
• 2:42:59
  Speaker 1: but they're going to the finals every year and who
• 2:43:02
  Speaker 1: has the finals ESPN and Mark Jackson, so he's back
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 1: there all the time.
• 2:43:07
  Speaker 3: You can't abord.
• 2:43:07
  Speaker 2: I'm not I'm not a religious person, but if if
• 2:43:09
  Speaker 2: somebody were, they'd say, oh, Mark Jackson was living in
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 2: his own hell.
• 2:43:13
  Speaker 3: You know, he was a very religious person. Is religious.
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's uh. You're wondering what that means. You're being tested,
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 2: that's for sure.
• 2:43:23
  Speaker 3: But you know, everyone was fine. Everyone was adult. You know,
• 2:43:27
  Speaker 3: Mark Jackson never made it a big deal. He could
• 2:43:29
  Speaker 3: have made it a lot.
• 2:43:31
  Speaker 2: It was and so I was just gonna say Mark
• 2:43:35
  Speaker 2: Jackson showed I mean, you know, it's it was easy
• 2:43:38
  Speaker 2: for everybody else to handle that moment. It's you know,
• 2:43:42
  Speaker 2: the real, the real maturity moment. There's Mars.
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 1: You know, everyone acted like growing ups, Mark Mark in particular,
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 1: so you know, and after a while adventure and then
• 2:43:52
  Speaker 1: also he couldn't deny that, like things worked out great
• 2:43:54
  Speaker 1: for the Warriors, right like, and things walked out great
• 2:43:56
  Speaker 1: for Curry, et cetera. So everything came to fruition and
• 2:44:00
  Speaker 1: so obviously Kerr's system and encouraging them to shoot more
• 2:44:04
  Speaker 1: threes work. But then the key development was Equidala. And
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 1: one of the first big ask that Kerr had was
• 2:44:11
  Speaker 1: he asked Gudala, hey, it would help our team if
• 2:44:14
  Speaker 1: you came off the bench, and you know, it was
• 2:44:18
  Speaker 1: it was a tough ass. Gudala had been a starter,
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 1: had been an All Star. You know, he didn't see
• 2:44:22
  Speaker 1: himself as anybody's bench player. But he does it for
• 2:44:25
  Speaker 1: the sake of the team. And then the key adjustment
• 2:44:28
  Speaker 1: during the playoffs. So remember the Warriors fall behind Memphis
• 2:44:32
  Speaker 1: two one, yeah, in that series, and then they fall
• 2:44:35
  Speaker 1: behind the Cavs to one. Even though Kevin Love wasn't
• 2:44:39
  Speaker 1: available for that series, he heard his shoulder, and then
• 2:44:41
  Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving goes out with the knee injury, and it's
• 2:44:43
  Speaker 1: just Lebron and Lebron is kicking their butt. So Lebron
• 2:44:47
  Speaker 1: personally has them up to one. So in Game four,
• 2:44:49
  Speaker 1: at the suggestion of one of his so one of
• 2:44:52
  Speaker 1: the things that had developed with this Warriors team is
• 2:44:54
  Speaker 1: that they would go small to close out games or
• 2:44:58
  Speaker 1: in particular stretches. So they put e Guadala in along
• 2:45:02
  Speaker 1: with the other four starters. So it's Curry, Klay Thompson,
• 2:45:05
  Speaker 1: Raymond Green, Harrison Barnes.
• 2:45:07
  Speaker 3: Who was the at Harrison Barnes.
• 2:45:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the forward, and they put Gudala in as the
• 2:45:14
  Speaker 1: other forward and moved Draymond Green to center, and it
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 1: became known as a death lineup. I think Vincent Goodwill
• 2:45:23
  Speaker 1: of the Yahoo Sports at the time it gets credited
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 1: with coming up with that name, the death lineup. So
• 2:45:30
  Speaker 1: the big adjustment in the finals is that Kerr, instead
• 2:45:34
  Speaker 1: of going with the death lineup to close games, goes
• 2:45:37
  Speaker 1: with the death lineup to start the game. He swaps
• 2:45:41
  Speaker 1: Iguidala for Andrew Bogut in the starting lineup, does that
• 2:45:44
  Speaker 1: for Game four, they win Game four, stays with it
• 2:45:49
  Speaker 1: for Game five, and Dave Blatt, the coach of the Cavaliers,
• 2:45:53
  Speaker 1: who at first had kind of refused to get caught
• 2:45:56
  Speaker 1: up in this and stays with his starting center Timothy
• 2:45:59
  Speaker 1: moscoff does that throughout Game four. They lose Game four,
• 2:46:04
  Speaker 1: starts Game five with with Moscoff in and then the
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 1: Warriors get off to a good start, and very quickly
• 2:46:11
  Speaker 1: he subs in j. R. Smith for Timothy moscoth the
• 2:46:15
  Speaker 1: guard j R. Smith and moscow So now they go
• 2:46:17
  Speaker 1: small and basically Lebron, but they have Tristan.
• 2:46:19
  Speaker 3: Thompson, I guess is out there. I think Thompson's on
• 2:46:21
  Speaker 3: the court too, but.
• 2:46:23
  Speaker 1: They definitely don't have a center, right, so you've got
• 2:46:26
  Speaker 1: basically Lebron has kind of becomes your big man out
• 2:46:29
  Speaker 1: there n the center and that team.
• 2:46:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, and j R.
• 2:46:34
  Speaker 1: Smith is basically playing a Ford but it's very small
• 2:46:37
  Speaker 1: and just all of a sudden, And this is what
• 2:46:39
  Speaker 1: I noticed, and this is what I wrote about and
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 1: my column off that game was that this was the
• 2:46:43
  Speaker 1: future of the nbated rite. There was this small fluid,
• 2:46:46
  Speaker 1: you know, anyone likely to throw up a three point
• 2:46:48
  Speaker 1: shot at any given time, and the future had arrived
• 2:46:53
  Speaker 1: and Kerr had brought it in and it to me
• 2:46:58
  Speaker 1: it was just noticeable and and somewhat shocking in that moment.
• 2:47:03
  Speaker 1: And yeah, so they win, the championship winds up being
• 2:47:10
  Speaker 1: the finals m v P. So in some ways that's
• 2:47:12
  Speaker 1: certainly a salute to Curve that, you know, he turns
• 2:47:15
  Speaker 1: them into the starter. I don't think anyone who had
• 2:47:17
  Speaker 1: started a started a series on the bench for the
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 1: first couple of games.
• 2:47:27
  Speaker 3: So, uh, they win it, wins, you know.
• 2:47:31
  Speaker 1: And then at the start of the next season, the preseason,
• 2:47:34
  Speaker 1: the Warriors were down in l a for a couple
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 1: of games and I kind of overhear Gudala saying, like, man,
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 1: last year, we didn't even know what we were doing,
• 2:47:42
  Speaker 1: you know, like we were just learning, just figuring it out.
• 2:47:45
  Speaker 1: And now this year, yeah, I mean that was a
• 2:47:47
  Speaker 1: trial period. And they win a championship and Curry wins
• 2:47:49
  Speaker 1: the m v P, and a brief moment kind of
• 2:47:54
  Speaker 1: along the way, they're in New York for the everyone's
• 2:47:56
  Speaker 1: in New York, at least in New York for All
• 2:47:58
  Speaker 1: Star Weekend and noticed Curry hasn't won the MVP yet,
• 2:48:02
  Speaker 1: but he's a made man already. Why because they all
• 2:48:07
  Speaker 1: when they all farm out to do different day of
• 2:48:10
  Speaker 1: service they call it in different community service events. Curry
• 2:48:13
  Speaker 1: gets the plumb seat next to Lebron and Commissioner Adam
• 2:48:16
  Speaker 1: Silver at the event. That's the closest to the hotel
• 2:48:19
  Speaker 1: where the players are staying, right, So.
• 2:48:20
  Speaker 3: That was just notable. Like the stage he was on.
• 2:48:22
  Speaker 3: This is the NBA three point shot out that year too,
• 2:48:24
  Speaker 3: But the NBA is.
• 2:48:25
  Speaker 2: Very aware that young fans were gravitating towards Steph. Yeah,
• 2:48:29
  Speaker 2: and that's what that is where at this Adam Silver's
• 2:48:33
  Speaker 2: NBA is well aware of what fans are doing in
• 2:48:37
  Speaker 2: every single second at that point, and he realized Steph.
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 2: You know, even if the NBA elite hadn't yet decided
• 2:48:43
  Speaker 2: that step belonged in the same seat as Lebron, the
• 2:48:47
  Speaker 2: younger fans had decided that.
• 2:48:50
  Speaker 1: So maybe he's not on the throne yet, you know,
• 2:48:52
  Speaker 1: he's not the champ, but he's on the dais right
• 2:48:55
  Speaker 1: like like at the wedding or at the event. Right,
• 2:48:58
  Speaker 1: there's the people at the dais and as people at
• 2:49:00
  Speaker 1: the regular he's up on the days now.
• 2:49:03
  Speaker 3: So they do win the championship. Eudald is the MVP.
• 2:49:07
  Speaker 1: Uh again that next year, they gave the warnings, so
• 2:49:10
  Speaker 1: I kind of wrote it that, hey, they you know, this.
• 2:49:14
  Speaker 3: Is what they're saying. They're saying last year was nothing
• 2:49:17
  Speaker 3: like this is the real words that they're going to see.
• 2:49:19
  Speaker 1: And what happens. They win, you know, they win the
• 2:49:22
  Speaker 1: first twenty four games of the season. Very player driven
• 2:49:26
  Speaker 1: by the way, and that's also when I learned something
• 2:49:28
  Speaker 1: about Curry and his mo and what motivates him. So
• 2:49:34
  Speaker 1: you know, they're talking about, you know, the opportunity they're
• 2:49:36
  Speaker 1: going for that they want to have the best start.
• 2:49:38
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 2:49:38
  Speaker 1: Ever, I think I think fifteen wins would have given
• 2:49:41
  Speaker 1: them the record for the best start to a season,
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 1: and you know there's already some pushback like should they
• 2:49:47
  Speaker 1: be going for it?
• 2:49:47
  Speaker 3: Should they be going all out this early in the season, and.
• 2:49:52
  Speaker 2: Young legs you know, yeah.
• 2:49:55
  Speaker 1: You know it helped, and Curry says something that stuck
• 2:50:00
  Speaker 1: with me. He said, anytime you have a chance to
• 2:50:01
  Speaker 1: do something that's never been done before in the history
• 2:50:03
  Speaker 1: of the game, you know you want to do it.
• 2:50:06
  Speaker 1: And that's really what drives him. You know, he's trying
• 2:50:09
  Speaker 1: to do things that no one else has done, both
• 2:50:11
  Speaker 1: on a team level and on an individual level, and uh,
• 2:50:16
  Speaker 1: I've always kept that in mind. That that that's when
• 2:50:18
  Speaker 1: you when you're wondering what's motivating Curry, Like that's it.
• 2:50:21
  Speaker 1: He wants to He does want to rewrite the history
• 2:50:23
  Speaker 1: if he wants to do something, things that are unprecedented.
• 2:50:27
  Speaker 3: Right, So.
• 2:50:30
  Speaker 1: You know, seventy three wins Donald MVP, you know, and
• 2:50:34
  Speaker 1: then you get to the incredible comeback from uh from
• 2:50:39
  Speaker 1: Lebron and and that stinging loss I'll never forget. I
• 2:50:42
  Speaker 1: get to the parking lot in game seven and there's a.
• 2:50:47
  Speaker 3: Turns out there. There's a woman who works for the
• 2:50:49
  Speaker 3: Warriors next to me, and she reaches under the trunk
• 2:50:51
  Speaker 3: of her car and pulls out this this box of
• 2:50:53
  Speaker 3: Warriors Championship patch. Right. You know that she was going
• 2:50:56
  Speaker 3: to give some of the sponsors, right you know, so
• 2:51:00
  Speaker 3: I wonder what became of them.
• 2:51:01
  Speaker 2: But you know, I didn't grab one.
• 2:51:04
  Speaker 1: Everybody does this, you know, collectors at them. But she says,
• 2:51:07
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, these hats are for the sponsors,
• 2:51:09
  Speaker 1: you know, if we win. She didn't say, when we're
• 2:51:10
  Speaker 1: gonna win, I'm gonna pay you know, Like you know,
• 2:51:13
  Speaker 1: this is just like you have to prepare for the parade, right,
• 2:51:16
  Speaker 1: like it's not arrogant to like have parade plans because
• 2:51:19
  Speaker 1: you can't.
• 2:51:19
  Speaker 3: Just draw these up overnight. So they lose that.
• 2:51:22
  Speaker 1: But again coming back to profiting and extracting things from
• 2:51:27
  Speaker 1: the lowest moments, which to me is the theme of
• 2:51:29
  Speaker 1: the Laker Bar. What happens after that?
• 2:51:32
  Speaker 3: They get Kevin Durant in the off season, and maybe
• 2:51:34
  Speaker 3: if he wins the championship, he's probably if they win
• 2:51:37
  Speaker 3: the championship, are they less inclined to go for him? Well,
• 2:51:40
  Speaker 3: I think that's did not see the need for him.
• 2:51:42
  Speaker 3: And does he say like I can't go right after that?
• 2:51:46
  Speaker 1: Like, does he say, no, there's no way I can't
• 2:51:48
  Speaker 1: go if they're the champion, it would just look it'd
• 2:51:50
  Speaker 1: be too bad of a look like this way, he
• 2:51:52
  Speaker 1: can at least come to the rescue. And I mean
• 2:51:55
  Speaker 1: that that's to me a Phetherland caplip. I got to
• 2:51:56
  Speaker 1: rescue the seventy three win team, right, But you know,
• 2:52:00
  Speaker 1: to them, you know it's it's they needed him. What
• 2:52:06
  Speaker 1: Kurr said, they realized, you know, what got exploited was
• 2:52:09
  Speaker 1: that they you know, they when when things got bogged
• 2:52:13
  Speaker 1: down and things got tense and locked in and the
• 2:52:16
  Speaker 1: motion the offhinse couldn't move is freely. They needed someone
• 2:52:19
  Speaker 1: who could go get a bucket.
• 2:52:20
  Speaker 3: Well, and you know that's what they like.
• 2:52:22
  Speaker 2: So not everything. I mean, this is where there's a
• 2:52:26
  Speaker 2: moment where it feels like this six' nine and under
• 2:52:28
  Speaker 2: thing is going to. Work but then it's not bad
• 2:52:31
  Speaker 2: having a seven foot or is, it especially one that
• 2:52:34
  Speaker 2: can shoot and get a.
• 2:52:34
  Speaker 1: Bucket everyone, right And, kevin when we come, back we'll
• 2:52:38
  Speaker 1: get into the story of How durant became A warrior
• 2:52:42
  Speaker 1: and how The warriors became virtually unbeatable in the, Playoffs.
• 2:52:46
  Speaker 1: Chuck our next moment in time Is july, first twenty.
• 2:52:49
  Speaker 1: Sixteen the location is one eighty nine Further lane in The.
• 2:52:54
  Speaker 1: Hamptons it's a house That durant has been one hundred
• 2:52:56
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars to rent out for ten. Days those figures
• 2:52:59
  Speaker 1: are in The New York. Times this was at his,
• 2:53:02
  Speaker 1: Agent Rich cleiman's. Request rich was A New york native
• 2:53:05
  Speaker 1: and he wanted to spend some time near his family
• 2:53:08
  Speaker 1: before he And durant had a trip planned To china.
• 2:53:11
  Speaker 1: Afterwards so if they were going to be on the
• 2:53:12
  Speaker 1: other side of the, world and this is his.
• 2:53:15
  Speaker 2: Agent, ye, right this Is july. One this is the
• 2:53:18
  Speaker 2: start of the courtship, process, right.
• 2:53:22
  Speaker 1: And so The warriors had called. First Bob myers put
• 2:53:27
  Speaker 1: in the first, call so The warriors get the first.
• 2:53:28
  Speaker 1: Slot there were also meetings with The, spurs The, heat The,
• 2:53:31
  Speaker 1: clippers and The celtics all setten up getting a chance
• 2:53:34
  Speaker 1: to make their, pitch and then he promised The thunder
• 2:53:38
  Speaker 1: that they get one last chance to make their case
• 2:53:40
  Speaker 1: to keep them the only franchise he'd ever played for
• 2:53:43
  Speaker 1: right after he was, rapped, well the only, team BUT
• 2:53:46
  Speaker 1: i was just going to say places he was drafted
• 2:53:49
  Speaker 1: as A seattle SUPER i HAVE.
• 2:53:51
  Speaker 2: I have a p s a ten Rookie Cardiff durant
• 2:53:54
  Speaker 2: in A SuperSonics. Uniform so the.
• 2:53:58
  Speaker 1: Only, franchise, right not the only uniform he'd ever. Worn
• 2:54:02
  Speaker 1: but you know he really has put The thunder on the,
• 2:54:05
  Speaker 1: map right and wins AN mvp as A. Thunder you
• 2:54:08
  Speaker 1: talk about.
• 2:54:08
  Speaker 2: Sliding doors final, ONES i Gotta i'm gonna GET i
• 2:54:12
  Speaker 2: gotta Give simmons credit for. This, Uh he's got a
• 2:54:16
  Speaker 2: theory On durant that If seattle doesn't, Move durant loves
• 2:54:22
  Speaker 2: living In seattle and never. Leaves that The SEATTLE i.
• 2:54:30
  Speaker 2: DIDN'T i don't, know but it's an interesting. THESIS i
• 2:54:33
  Speaker 2: just thought i'd give him credit for. THAT i have
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 2: no idea if that's.
• 2:54:35
  Speaker 3: True, mean that's that's one of the REASONS i never
• 2:54:37
  Speaker 3: really was mad At durant for, Leaving, like, yeah you're
• 2:54:40
  Speaker 3: a young man your. Twenties rather be In Oklahoma, city
• 2:54:41
  Speaker 3: rather be in The Bay. Area so the thunder do
• 2:54:45
  Speaker 3: get Last.
• 2:54:45
  Speaker 1: Dibbs but apparently they kind of found out late in
• 2:54:50
  Speaker 1: the going when they were making their travel, Plans So
• 2:54:54
  Speaker 1: hampton's for The july, Weekend, like there's not a whole
• 2:54:57
  Speaker 1: lot of places, available, right so they wind up squeezing
• 2:55:01
  Speaker 1: their nine person contingents into six rooms at the holiday In.
• 2:55:05
  Speaker 3: Express that's according TO i just love this.
• 2:55:07
  Speaker 2: Story you, know we all know how rich people, are
• 2:55:11
  Speaker 2: and you, know they don't wait IN tsa. Lines they
• 2:55:13
  Speaker 2: don't go to things we call airport in, private, right you,
• 2:55:16
  Speaker 2: know and they have to. EXPRESS i, mean WHAT i
• 2:55:21
  Speaker 2: want to know is did they make their own? Waffle
• 2:55:24
  Speaker 2: did he make his own? Waffle did he go out
• 2:55:26
  Speaker 2: there and do the squeeze and make that might as
• 2:55:28
  Speaker 2: well take advantage, That, yeah you got the pre, waffle
• 2:55:31
  Speaker 2: fun free breakfast. Waffles, yeah.
• 2:55:35
  Speaker 1: So The, Warriors, Curry Andre, Gudala Bob, Meyer Steve, Kerr Joe,
• 2:55:39
  Speaker 1: Laca Kirk, lacob they, all you, know fly the private
• 2:55:43
  Speaker 1: jack cross. Country clay was already out. There he was
• 2:55:47
  Speaker 1: doing some other. Stuff so he's getting some tennis in
• 2:55:50
  Speaker 1: on the. Court they stay at at a friend Of
• 2:55:54
  Speaker 1: lacub's had a house. Nearby so like already the lake
• 2:55:57
  Speaker 1: of circles, coming.
• 2:55:58
  Speaker 2: You, know because we all have it's under, it you,
• 2:56:01
  Speaker 2: know you know.
• 2:56:04
  Speaker 3: We need better. Friends, yeah we need better. Friends you,
• 2:56:07
  Speaker 3: KNOW i would, say if you can't be, rich have
• 2:56:09
  Speaker 3: rich For i've thought, that, like you, know being In
• 2:56:13
  Speaker 3: i've gotten.
• 2:56:14
  Speaker 2: Friends.
• 2:56:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah but LIKE i thought about that ONCE i
• 2:56:17
  Speaker 1: was swimming at the pool And Mike wilban's second house
• 2:56:20
  Speaker 1: in Scott, Still. ARIZONA i, said you know, what it's pretty.
• 2:56:23
  Speaker 1: Nice you can't be rich a ridge Friends Draymond green
• 2:56:27
  Speaker 1: meets him out. There so they all take the same.
• 2:56:31
  Speaker 1: Car i'm guessing it's like a cat like escalator or
• 2:56:33
  Speaker 1: something to accommodate all of. Them and just the optics
• 2:56:37
  Speaker 1: of that taking that car to the meeting might have
• 2:56:39
  Speaker 1: been enough To. Duran he later told the.
• 2:56:42
  Speaker 3: Athletic he. SAID i was, like, man this already looks like.
• 2:56:45
  Speaker 3: FAMILY i want to be a part of. It that
• 2:56:47
  Speaker 3: was Pretty they haven't walked in the door. Yet it's pretty, clever, RIGHT.
• 2:56:50
  Speaker 2: I promise you that Isn't it was just Pat riley showing.
• 2:56:53
  Speaker 2: Up Pat riley And foster and maybe Maybe Mickey, harrison
• 2:56:57
  Speaker 2: but it wasn't going to be.
• 2:56:58
  Speaker 1: Well riley and his bag of rings was apparently enough
• 2:57:00
  Speaker 1: to Get lebron, Right and that's the. Story when he
• 2:57:02
  Speaker 1: meets With, lebron he takes out his rings.
• 2:57:04
  Speaker 2: And, Well ron hadn't had a ring, yet so that
• 2:57:06
  Speaker 2: must have mattered exactly.
• 2:57:08
  Speaker 3: Exactly the cavaliers showed like some cartoons that they had
• 2:57:12
  Speaker 3: made up For lebron because they knew he liked. CARTOONS
• 2:57:16
  Speaker 3: i don't think that was the.
• 2:57:17
  Speaker 1: Right but, this this this, togetherness right that this this
• 2:57:23
  Speaker 1: coming together ensemble and this this team. Outing it was
• 2:57:26
  Speaker 1: a manifestation of really what appealed to him about the
• 2:57:28
  Speaker 1: words with this this culture of. Togetherness kerb brought some
• 2:57:32
  Speaker 1: clips of the offense and how he thought it would work.
• 2:57:34
  Speaker 3: With durant in.
• 2:57:35
  Speaker 1: It but what came through there was an oral history
• 2:57:38
  Speaker 1: of the meeting That Tim kawakami did for the athletic
• 2:57:42
  Speaker 1: was That durant generally felt flattered that this group that
• 2:57:45
  Speaker 1: it had so much success without, him really felt like
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 1: and indicated that they needed. Him right and And, chuck
• 2:57:53
  Speaker 1: you talk about the the athlete ego and sometimes even
• 2:57:56
  Speaker 1: the fragility of, it but just someone who was accomplished
• 2:57:59
  Speaker 1: as The ran, already who won AN, mvp led a
• 2:58:02
  Speaker 1: team to the, finals wanted to feel. Needed by the,
• 2:58:05
  Speaker 1: WAY i will tell, you living In, washington.
• 2:58:10
  Speaker 2: The Entire durant courtship was one of these you want
• 2:58:15
  Speaker 2: to talk about feeling extra rejected.
• 2:58:19
  Speaker 3: Fomo and on the.
• 2:58:19
  Speaker 2: Outside, right you, know here's a kid FROM Pg county
• 2:58:23
  Speaker 2: here in THE, dmv and you know The, WIZARDS i don't.
• 2:58:29
  Speaker 2: KNOW i believe they didn't get their phone call return
• 2:58:31
  Speaker 2: by the. Agent they wanted to be, there they wanted
• 2:58:35
  Speaker 2: to make a. Bid there was this whole. Thing and you,
• 2:58:38
  Speaker 2: know the word In washington always was he just didn't
• 2:58:41
  Speaker 2: want to play at. Home it was Just i'm not doing.
• 2:58:44
  Speaker 2: That he didn't. Lie apparently he didn't love coming here
• 2:58:47
  Speaker 2: to play when he played. Away all the demands that
• 2:58:50
  Speaker 2: came from stuff.
• 2:58:52
  Speaker 1: With right exactly know what happens when you go back. Home,
• 2:58:54
  Speaker 1: yeah is everyone comes out of the woodworks wanting to take.
• 2:58:57
  Speaker 2: It so can you imagine and he's already we all,
• 2:59:00
  Speaker 2: right and we kind of now we all Know durant's
• 2:59:02
  Speaker 2: kind of, like you, know he's got he's set in his,
• 2:59:06
  Speaker 2: ways right we say this with with you, know AND
• 2:59:09
  Speaker 2: I i feel like The durant we've all gotten to,
• 2:59:12
  Speaker 2: KNOW i can see that he wanted no part of.
• 2:59:14
  Speaker 2: That but at the time of this, COURTSHIP i, MEAN
• 2:59:20
  Speaker 2: i just, remember you'd have fans were upset at the,
• 2:59:22
  Speaker 2: owners why aren't you in? This you, know and wanted
• 2:59:26
  Speaker 2: to blame The wizards for not being able to be you, know,
• 2:59:29
  Speaker 2: well if you were a better, franchise maybe he'd he'd consider,
• 2:59:33
  Speaker 2: that you know WHAT i. Mean it was when it
• 2:59:35
  Speaker 2: turned out The wizards never had a chance because he wasn't.
• 2:59:38
  Speaker 3: Coming and maybe through no fault of their, own maybe that's.
• 2:59:41
  Speaker 2: Right as much as we want to give the, yeah
• 2:59:43
  Speaker 2: as much as fans want to give the it, was
• 2:59:45
  Speaker 2: it just was never going to. Happen it is one
• 2:59:48
  Speaker 2: of those you, know it's it's a it's a it's
• 2:59:54
  Speaker 2: a what if that only only the handful Of wizards
• 2:59:56
  Speaker 2: fans think about.
• 2:59:57
  Speaker 3: Anyway So durant the one thing he wanted to.
• 3:00:02
  Speaker 1: Hear you, know it was Great Steve kurr and his
• 3:00:03
  Speaker 1: videos And draymond and everything that they had to, say
• 3:00:07
  Speaker 1: but he wanted to hear From. Curry you know that
• 3:00:10
  Speaker 1: The curry did and. Why And curry just told him straight,
• 3:00:14
  Speaker 1: up if you can help us win and let's, go you,
• 3:00:16
  Speaker 1: Know i'm.
• 3:00:16
  Speaker 3: Good with, it you, Know. Curry curry took the.
• 3:00:20
  Speaker 1: Risk you, Know curry had to wear that he he
• 3:00:23
  Speaker 1: didn't win that FINALS mvp the first, time and If durant's,
• 3:00:25
  Speaker 1: there he might not get that FINALS.
• 3:00:27
  Speaker 3: Mvp you, know which would be a slight blow to
• 3:00:30
  Speaker 3: his you, know his.
• 3:00:31
  Speaker 1: Resume but that that was an important. Thing AND i
• 3:00:36
  Speaker 1: remember when they did win it that next year And
• 3:00:39
  Speaker 1: durant's the m V p And curry looked perfectly.
• 3:00:42
  Speaker 3: Happy he wasn't.
• 3:00:43
  Speaker 1: Looking you remember that famous shot At Russell westbrook looking
• 3:00:46
  Speaker 1: at THE mvp.
• 3:00:47
  Speaker 3: Trophy and like there was none of.
• 3:00:50
  Speaker 1: That, later the five players they went outside for walking
• 3:00:52
  Speaker 1: around the, grounds and the group that would come to
• 3:00:55
  Speaker 1: be known as The Hampton's. Five you, know they replaced
• 3:00:57
  Speaker 1: the death lineup when they played. Together they call him
• 3:00:59
  Speaker 1: the Hamp is, five and they just they just bonded
• 3:01:03
  Speaker 1: and it was solidified Everything durant was.
• 3:01:04
  Speaker 3: Thinking he still went through with all his other.
• 3:01:07
  Speaker 1: Meetings but you, KNOW i think some of the people
• 3:01:08
  Speaker 1: said that they could tell he didn't give The warriors
• 3:01:11
  Speaker 1: any official. Word no, one in fact knew Until durant
• 3:01:16
  Speaker 1: has his first person essay going up on The Player's.
• 3:01:20
  Speaker 1: Tribute it goes up at eleven thirty eight Am Eastern
• 3:01:22
  Speaker 1: time on The Player's tribute and announcing that he is
• 3:01:25
  Speaker 1: choosing The warriors with the picture taken at that in
• 3:01:27
  Speaker 1: the backyard of that at That hampton's.
• 3:01:29
  Speaker 3: House AND.
• 3:01:31
  Speaker 1: I was kind of happy. That, AGAIN i was fine
• 3:01:35
  Speaker 1: with him. GOING i had no problem with the, decision
• 3:01:37
  Speaker 1: AND i was really fine with him announcing it at you,
• 3:01:40
  Speaker 1: know about nine Am pacific, time so on the fourth Of.
• 3:01:43
  Speaker 1: July SO i had my story written by, Noon, yeah
• 3:01:45
  Speaker 1: and THEN i could go on my way and enjoy
• 3:01:47
  Speaker 1: the barbecues and the fireworks.
• 3:01:48
  Speaker 3: On the fourth Of.
• 3:01:49
  Speaker 1: July SO i was not mad at him at. All,
• 3:01:51
  Speaker 1: chuck how did you feel leaving the fact that he you, know,
• 3:01:54
  Speaker 1: well we were.
• 3:01:55
  Speaker 2: Butt, Look i'm not going to get it.
• 3:01:56
  Speaker 3: Right just overall it's a basketball.
• 3:01:58
  Speaker 2: FAN i just remember and disappointed off the wrong, word
• 3:02:04
  Speaker 2: but it felt, like oh, great, okay so The warriors
• 3:02:09
  Speaker 2: are just, gonna you, know are just going to dominate
• 3:02:12
  Speaker 2: the rest of the. Decade you.
• 3:02:13
  Speaker 3: Know it JUST.
• 3:02:15
  Speaker 2: I felt like it immediately minimized the next. Season does
• 3:02:20
  Speaker 2: that make, Sense, like, well, yeah we gotta fast forward.
• 3:02:24
  Speaker 2: Now it's, LIKE i, mean no chance The warriors uh
• 3:02:28
  Speaker 2: not make, it you know WHAT i? Mean it was, like,
• 3:02:29
  Speaker 2: Okay AND i remember something my son said when The
• 3:02:37
  Speaker 2: calves and The warriors met that third straight, time, like,
• 3:02:41
  Speaker 2: HEY i wish other teams could break. Through, right there's.
• 3:02:45
  Speaker 2: This you, know we're weird as sports, fans, right we
• 3:02:49
  Speaker 2: look what we're. Doing we lionize. Dynasties we love to
• 3:02:53
  Speaker 2: talk about. Dynasties but when you're in the, moment you
• 3:02:57
  Speaker 2: hate the. Dynasty you get. It if it's not your, team,
• 3:03:01
  Speaker 2: right you're, like, GOD i want to knock them. Off
• 3:03:03
  Speaker 2: like you, know when when when it Was alabama And
• 3:03:06
  Speaker 2: clemson every year in college, football college football is. Boring
• 3:03:08
  Speaker 2: it's Always alabama And, clemson you, know or something like,
• 3:03:11
  Speaker 2: That and it got that way a little bit in the. Eighties,
• 3:03:13
  Speaker 2: well there's Just lakers And. Celtics it didn't matter about anybody.
• 3:03:16
  Speaker 2: Else and yet we love to look back and we
• 3:03:20
  Speaker 2: love those, teams and look what we're doing now with these.
• 3:03:23
  Speaker 2: Teams we love. It But i'll admit at the, MOMENT
• 3:03:26
  Speaker 2: i thought it just diminished the rest of the. League
• 3:03:29
  Speaker 2: that's the WAY i. Think i'll say.
• 3:03:33
  Speaker 1: That during the you know, AGAIN i grew up my
• 3:03:36
  Speaker 1: First World. SERIES i remember Watching it Was dodgers and
• 3:03:39
  Speaker 1: The yankees like three times in four or five, years right.
• 3:03:43
  Speaker 3: And eighty, one so you.
• 3:03:46
  Speaker 1: Know and then in THE nba it Was lakers and
• 3:03:49
  Speaker 1: Six ers three times in four, years and Then lakers
• 3:03:51
  Speaker 1: And celtics three times in four.
• 3:03:53
  Speaker 3: Years so that's WHAT i was used. To so it
• 3:03:57
  Speaker 3: didn't bother me that it's always the same teams. Fighting.
• 3:04:00
  Speaker 3: Now that's that that was normal to.
• 3:04:01
  Speaker 1: ME i didn't just, say oh it's, over Because i'd
• 3:04:06
  Speaker 1: seen enough would be sure dynasties and would be super.
• 3:04:10
  Speaker 1: Teams it's, hard it's hard to win.
• 3:04:11
  Speaker 2: It The heat didn't win it his first year with
• 3:04:14
  Speaker 2: The great with The grete three they and and they
• 3:04:17
  Speaker 2: probably don't win the next two if they lose. That
• 3:04:19
  Speaker 2: if they don't lose that first, one, right they kind
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 2: of needed, that this.
• 3:04:22
  Speaker 1: Sort of gained, experience it's, right you, know and then
• 3:04:25
  Speaker 1: we forget that The Houston rockets are up three to
• 3:04:28
  Speaker 1: two on The durant.
• 3:04:29
  Speaker 2: Team you, know the year, two the Greatest James harden
• 3:04:33
  Speaker 2: sliding door that there is for his, legacy.
• 3:04:35
  Speaker 1: Right if only then missed twenty seven straight three pointers
• 3:04:39
  Speaker 1: In game. Seven so So i've just seen enough sports
• 3:04:44
  Speaker 1: to know that nothing is. Inevitable but, yeah that first,
• 3:04:48
  Speaker 1: year and the problem was that the that the finals weren't, competitive,
• 3:04:51
  Speaker 1: Right so we had that competitive conference finals in which
• 3:04:53
  Speaker 1: they almost, lost.
• 3:04:54
  Speaker 2: Right but then they just Through, cleveland, right but game one.
• 3:05:00
  Speaker 1: Went to, overtime right, THAT i mean that was, Dramatic
• 3:05:02
  Speaker 1: and then it just started to become. Inevitable So durant
• 3:05:05
  Speaker 1: wins both finals. MVPs and it's funny that people are asking, him,
• 3:05:08
  Speaker 1: oh he's going to regret. IT i just remember he
• 3:05:10
  Speaker 1: gets out of his car in the parking lot after
• 3:05:12
  Speaker 1: they win the first championship in the parking lot back
• 3:05:14
  Speaker 1: At oracle Are.
• 3:05:15
  Speaker 3: Ina and he just like lets out of.
• 3:05:16
  Speaker 1: It whooa like this primal. Screen, right he seemed. Happy
• 3:05:19
  Speaker 1: BUT i think eventually ith you know the fact that
• 3:05:26
  Speaker 1: he was never. Blowup there was an awkward moment at
• 3:05:28
  Speaker 1: the parade the first year when When Bob myers basically
• 3:05:34
  Speaker 1: separates you, know the real warriors who who'd been there
• 3:05:36
  Speaker 1: the whole time From. Durant is completely, unnecessary.
• 3:05:40
  Speaker 2: But it only ISOLATED i mean, that AND i think
• 3:05:43
  Speaker 2: we all know Now Kevin durant never misses a.
• 3:05:46
  Speaker 1: Slight and so the last year With, durant, yeah you,
• 3:05:50
  Speaker 1: know there's kind of this tension the whole time Because
• 3:05:52
  Speaker 1: kevin's not committing, that Like i'm going to be, Here
• 3:05:55
  Speaker 1: like they really want to have him when they go
• 3:05:57
  Speaker 1: into the new, building, right but like he's not sending
• 3:05:59
  Speaker 1: it any signals that he's going to be, there and
• 3:06:02
  Speaker 1: it sort of you, know plays, out and then he gets, hurt,
• 3:06:05
  Speaker 1: right and then he comes back in the finals disastrously
• 3:06:10
  Speaker 1: tears his. Achilles. Right he also disastrously had to blow
• 3:06:14
  Speaker 1: up With Draymond green in full view of everyone on
• 3:06:16
  Speaker 1: the court where they're going at it during the time,
• 3:06:18
  Speaker 1: Out draymond calls him a word that starts with a
• 3:06:20
  Speaker 1: bee for everyone to. See and so it's just not
• 3:06:25
  Speaker 1: fun anymore for any of, them, right and so and So,
• 3:06:30
  Speaker 1: durant you, know when.
• 3:06:32
  Speaker 3: He, leaves but this is what's. Important he.
• 3:06:36
  Speaker 1: There wasn't a lot of, bitterness and there wasn't a
• 3:06:39
  Speaker 1: lot of sniping back and, forth and you, KNOW i
• 3:06:42
  Speaker 1: kind of want, to you, know move on to the
• 3:06:45
  Speaker 1: next segment. Here when when when he, leaves you, know
• 3:06:48
  Speaker 1: The wars immediately say, hey Thanks, kevin thanks for the two.
• 3:06:51
  Speaker 3: Banners and you know, what no one's gonna wear number
• 3:06:54
  Speaker 3: thirty five.
• 3:06:54
  Speaker 1: Again and that's in stark contrast To Oklahoma. City When
• 3:06:58
  Speaker 1: durant leaves in a year, later they gave number thirty
• 3:07:01
  Speaker 1: five to someone NAMED. Pj, doscher who plays a grand
• 3:07:03
  Speaker 1: total of two games for The. Thunder, Although, chuck you
• 3:07:07
  Speaker 1: let me know what you would. Choose If I'm, Durant
• 3:07:09
  Speaker 1: i'd actually rather have what happened to him where some you,
• 3:07:12
  Speaker 1: know no name was wearing my. Jersey at least a
• 3:07:14
  Speaker 1: jersey is still. Alive i'd rather have that than when
• 3:07:16
  Speaker 1: it happened To Carmelo anthony In, Denver because remember Mellow
• 3:07:19
  Speaker 1: ware number fifteen when he was drafted by The nuggets
• 3:07:22
  Speaker 1: score the third most points in franchise history while he
• 3:07:25
  Speaker 1: was there in seven and a half. Seasons but then
• 3:07:27
  Speaker 1: he forces that trade to The, knicks and that didn't
• 3:07:29
  Speaker 1: sit well with The, nuggets so they give the number
• 3:07:34
  Speaker 1: first To Anthony randolph and a name that'll mean something
• 3:07:38
  Speaker 1: To warriors.
• 3:07:39
  Speaker 3: Fans that's who drafted him right and never quite worked
• 3:07:41
  Speaker 3: out there for.
• 3:07:42
  Speaker 1: Him and then number fifteen goes to a second round
• 3:07:46
  Speaker 1: pick in twenty, Fourteen nikolie Okicch so now that number
• 3:07:50
  Speaker 1: is definitely getting, retired but it ain't gonna Have anthony above.
• 3:07:54
  Speaker 1: It and so, again would you rather have someone wear
• 3:07:57
  Speaker 1: your number who's not worthy of? It and would you
• 3:08:00
  Speaker 1: have someone else retire your number and is not your?
• 3:08:04
  Speaker 2: NAME i GUESS i want to say both and. Please
• 3:08:08
  Speaker 2: AND i say that because The warriors actually have a
• 3:08:11
  Speaker 2: double a, number they could double. Retire Paul. Aarrizon he
• 3:08:14
  Speaker 2: played for The Philadelphia warriors from fifty to sixty. Two
• 3:08:18
  Speaker 2: he's the first great. Player he Was rookie of The
• 3:08:20
  Speaker 2: year in fifty to fifty, one top scorer in the.
• 3:08:22
  Speaker 2: League in his second, Year hall Of famer part of
• 3:08:24
  Speaker 2: THE nba fiftieth and seventy Fifth anniversary, teams he was
• 3:08:28
  Speaker 2: the number two leading all time scorer until a guy
• 3:08:30
  Speaker 2: Named steph showed. Up he was only about fifteen hundred
• 3:08:33
  Speaker 2: points Behind, wilt and he would have been first if
• 3:08:36
  Speaker 2: he had not spent two years in the military during
• 3:08:38
  Speaker 2: the having to fight in The Korean. War he retires
• 3:08:42
  Speaker 2: in sixty, two so he never actually plays in The
• 3:08:45
  Speaker 2: california side of The warriors, history and they actually. Didn't
• 3:08:51
  Speaker 2: The warriors used to have a hard time even honoring
• 3:08:53
  Speaker 2: Their philadelphia. Heritage now they. Do they didn't Retire wilt's
• 3:08:56
  Speaker 2: number thirteen until after he died in ninety, nine So
• 3:09:00
  Speaker 2: wilt was actually the only player to have his number
• 3:09:02
  Speaker 2: retired by three, teams The, warriors The, sixers and The
• 3:09:06
  Speaker 2: lakers for what it's, worth But Paul arizon shares a
• 3:09:11
  Speaker 2: number it.
• 3:09:11
  Speaker 3: Was still, alive so they do this For.
• 3:09:13
  Speaker 2: Will, yeah he doesn't die in the six but that
• 3:09:17
  Speaker 2: was during The Chris cohanno, ownership who never got anything
• 3:09:20
  Speaker 2: right with The. Warriors he was just didn't know how
• 3:09:22
  Speaker 2: To he never did things. Right So arizon's number eleven
• 3:09:25
  Speaker 2: has remained. Active it's been worn by eighteen players after,
• 3:09:29
  Speaker 2: him and it is going to stay at eighteen because
• 3:09:32
  Speaker 2: number eleven Was Klay thompson's number with The. Warriors SO
• 3:09:36
  Speaker 2: i know WHAT i would. WANT i would want. BOTH
• 3:09:39
  Speaker 2: i would WANT i think IT'S i think you honor
• 3:09:43
  Speaker 2: a number in the rafters with the player's name on,
• 3:09:47
  Speaker 2: it and you never retire a, number but you certain
• 3:09:51
  Speaker 2: numbers should only go to first round draft picks great,
• 3:09:54
  Speaker 2: players LIKE i think that that's WHERE i would go
• 3:09:57
  Speaker 2: with this. Retail you, know not everybody gets a shot
• 3:09:59
  Speaker 2: At i'll Give Mario crystabal because you, KNOW i have
• 3:10:01
  Speaker 2: to make everything about The university Of. Miami Mario crystabal
• 3:10:05
  Speaker 2: reserves number zero and. One you have to earn. It
• 3:10:09
  Speaker 2: if you want, that you have to earn. It And
• 3:10:12
  Speaker 2: i'd like to see more quote unquote retired numbers treated this.
• 3:10:16
  Speaker 2: Way you're so good In, Boston we're gonna let you
• 3:10:20
  Speaker 2: wear thirty, Three or you're so good In. Chicago you,
• 3:10:26
  Speaker 2: know you get if you win AN mvp and a,
• 3:10:29
  Speaker 2: title then you get throw any three or something. Like you,
• 3:10:31
  Speaker 2: know maybe that one never gets, repeated but you get my,
• 3:10:34
  Speaker 2: Drift LIKE i think there's something that you still keep
• 3:10:38
  Speaker 2: it as an honorific BUT i don't. KNOW i just you,
• 3:10:42
  Speaker 2: know the retired number. Thing you, know the longer these leagues,
• 3:10:46
  Speaker 2: survive you know you're gonna run out of, numbers AND
• 3:10:49
  Speaker 2: i don't want more double, zeros AND i don't want
• 3:10:51
  Speaker 2: to see us go to triple digits.
• 3:10:53
  Speaker 3: Like ninety six or. Something, yeah, yeah it gets.
• 3:10:55
  Speaker 2: Funky so let's whip through the rest of these retired.
• 3:10:58
  Speaker 1: Numbers, yeah so just one stands out to, me and
• 3:11:03
  Speaker 1: that's number fourteen For Tom.
• 3:11:04
  Speaker 2: Mesher you Love meshry, story don't.
• 3:11:06
  Speaker 3: You, WELL i mean it's very.
• 3:11:09
  Speaker 1: Unique, Right he's not in the top twenty currently in
• 3:11:12
  Speaker 1: franchise points or as, sis he's not in the top
• 3:11:15
  Speaker 1: ten and. Rebounds Steph curry has more rebounds than he
• 3:11:18
  Speaker 1: did you know who losts, Shorter but The messry story
• 3:11:22
  Speaker 1: is not one of his toult the numbers right there
• 3:11:23
  Speaker 1: are his stats in Account for a man whose lineage
• 3:11:25
  Speaker 1: includes The russian Author Leo, TOLSEN i can't.
• 3:11:28
  Speaker 2: Believe that his grandmother's maide name is a Toll. Stoy
• 3:11:31
  Speaker 2: you gotta love that he's.
• 3:11:33
  Speaker 1: A man who survived in in tournament camp In japan
• 3:11:36
  Speaker 1: During World War. Two he's AN nba player who's also
• 3:11:40
  Speaker 1: a published. Poet so what's funny is that you Know
• 3:11:44
  Speaker 1: jolie really loved, him when when he, didn't they didn't
• 3:11:47
  Speaker 1: just retire his. Number they made the number fourteen a
• 3:11:50
  Speaker 1: part of The warrior's logo during one of the logo.
• 3:11:52
  Speaker 1: Changes like The warrior's logo they had a fourteen in
• 3:11:55
  Speaker 1: it From messry, like now that's WHAT i. Want i'd
• 3:11:57
  Speaker 1: want that more than anything. Else have my number part
• 3:12:00
  Speaker 1: of the. Logo, well there's not a lot of posts Like.
• 3:12:04
  Speaker 2: Messery, No and there's something about you know it is
• 3:12:08
  Speaker 2: there's something about his story, though that they've honored it That,
• 3:12:11
  Speaker 2: actually that feels Very San francisco to, me, right of,
• 3:12:15
  Speaker 2: Course San francisco's got to honor a poll.
• 3:12:17
  Speaker 3: Exactly it feels, like, okay only this.
• 3:12:19
  Speaker 2: Franchise only you're not gonna play Yeah Oklahoma, city no.
• 3:12:22
  Speaker 2: Offense they're not honoring a Poet, dallas isn't you? Know, no, no, no.
• 3:12:25
  Speaker 2: No that feels like a Very San francisco thing to.
• 3:12:28
  Speaker 2: Do so in some ways you're playing the Type Golden
• 3:12:31
  Speaker 2: state AND i like.
• 3:12:32
  Speaker 1: It so one last thing on On, curry because we
• 3:12:37
  Speaker 1: need to look at the Post durant version Of, curry, Right,
• 3:12:40
  Speaker 1: so So curry was willing to Let durant have the
• 3:12:44
  Speaker 1: THE MVPs and take on the risk of having THE.
• 3:12:47
  Speaker 3: MPa by the, way For. Durant it, actually to me
• 3:12:50
  Speaker 3: was a risk that he went. To everyone, said, oh
• 3:12:52
  Speaker 3: he took the easy.
• 3:12:53
  Speaker 1: Choice, now the easy choice would have been to stay
• 3:12:55
  Speaker 1: In Oklahoma, city and everyone, says, oh that's so, great
• 3:12:57
  Speaker 1: you're so, loyal that's. FAIR a hard choice was you're
• 3:13:00
  Speaker 1: gonna take all the you, know people are going to criticize,
• 3:13:02
  Speaker 1: you and guess, what you have to win a. Championship
• 3:13:06
  Speaker 1: otherwise you're going to be mocked mercilessly for the rest
• 3:13:09
  Speaker 1: of your.
• 3:13:09
  Speaker 3: Career so that was the hard. Thing that was.
• 3:13:12
  Speaker 1: Pressure and he fulfilled what he said out there to,
• 3:13:15
  Speaker 1: do and he was particularly in the twenty SEVENTEEN Nba.
• 3:13:19
  Speaker 1: Finals he was the best player on the court on
• 3:13:21
  Speaker 1: a court that Had Steph Curry Lebron james on. It
• 3:13:23
  Speaker 1: SO i give him, that but there was this apparent unfulfilled.
• 3:13:27
  Speaker 1: Thing and here's another great thing for The. Warriors so
• 3:13:30
  Speaker 1: again my theme for The lake Of Barry warriors is
• 3:13:32
  Speaker 1: that they find you, know they find resolve and they
• 3:13:36
  Speaker 1: find absolution in the. Downtime so a big setback to
• 3:13:41
  Speaker 1: Have Kevin durant leave the team and now they're no
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 1: longer have the benefit of like a spike in the
• 3:13:46
  Speaker 1: salary cap that can go out right and have them
• 3:13:49
  Speaker 1: sign a FOREIGNER, mvp, Right so they're kind of. Stuck
• 3:13:51
  Speaker 1: they got to go with what they, have, right and
• 3:13:55
  Speaker 1: they make the best of. It they trade.
• 3:13:58
  Speaker 3: For Andrew, wiggins who is number one overall, pick who
• 3:14:01
  Speaker 3: kind of at that, POINT i.
• 3:14:02
  Speaker 2: Mean they're the only team to Make wiggans work for a.
• 3:14:04
  Speaker 2: Season god. Bless.
• 3:14:05
  Speaker 1: YEAH i, mean he's so important in that title run
• 3:14:08
  Speaker 1: in twenty. Two But curry brings them, home right and
• 3:14:13
  Speaker 1: they're down to. One has an all time great game
• 3:14:16
  Speaker 1: In game. Four and my thing going into that series
• 3:14:19
  Speaker 1: was That curry didn't need a lot of people, like,
• 3:14:21
  Speaker 1: Oh curry's got to get A Final i'm, like he
• 3:14:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't need a FINALS mvp because he was already on
• 3:14:25
  Speaker 1: this list of players who had multiple MVPs and multiple.
• 3:14:28
  Speaker 1: Championships in the, LIST i might not get everybody, here
• 3:14:31
  Speaker 1: but it Includes Tim, Duncan Michael, Jordan Magic, Johnson, Lebron
• 3:14:35
  Speaker 1: James Kareem Abdul. Jabbar there's one or two, more, right
• 3:14:38
  Speaker 1: but that's that's the company he's keeping with, that. Right
• 3:14:42
  Speaker 1: shack's not on that. List kobe's not on that list
• 3:14:44
  Speaker 1: because they don't have multiple. MVPs so my thing is
• 3:14:48
  Speaker 1: if he never does anything in this, league he's on that.
• 3:14:50
  Speaker 1: List and yet something in him felt the need to
• 3:14:54
  Speaker 1: like That game four was driven by a need to do.
• 3:14:58
  Speaker 2: MORE i tell you something about his makeup is if
• 3:15:02
  Speaker 2: we didn't, know, Right and.
• 3:15:04
  Speaker 1: You know what told me even more was the fact
• 3:15:07
  Speaker 1: that he broke down in tears when they. Won, right
• 3:15:11
  Speaker 1: this is his fourth. Championship we never some cry like
• 3:15:15
  Speaker 1: this after any of the previous, three but this was
• 3:15:18
  Speaker 1: the final stake that says, like, Oh Steph curry can't
• 3:15:21
  Speaker 1: do it in the.
• 3:15:22
  Speaker 3: Finals always never been FINALS.
• 3:15:23
  Speaker 1: Mvp he went out there and won the FINALS, mvp
• 3:15:27
  Speaker 1: and that emotional breakdown showed. That, well you know, what
• 3:15:32
  Speaker 1: that's the difference between him and somebody like. ME i
• 3:15:34
  Speaker 1: would have been, Like i'm, Good i'm on this list
• 3:15:36
  Speaker 1: with these. Guys curry, said, NO i need. More there's
• 3:15:39
  Speaker 1: a level of greed that you have with the greatest,
• 3:15:43
  Speaker 1: players read in a good, sense you, know to, go you, Know,
• 3:15:46
  Speaker 1: gordon get one.
• 3:15:47
  Speaker 3: Way that's. Right, yeah he needed something, more and that's
• 3:15:52
  Speaker 3: me is the ultimate testament to his.
• 3:15:54
  Speaker 2: Greatness All, right it's mount rushmore. TIME i think this
• 3:15:58
  Speaker 2: is among the Easier Aunt rushmore's we've had so, far because,
• 3:16:04
  Speaker 2: well first of, all there's one we just. WRAPPED i,
• 3:16:06
  Speaker 2: mean the first thing you're chiseling in Is Steph, curry
• 3:16:12
  Speaker 2: like it's it. Is he feels like the easiest not.
• 3:16:16
  Speaker 3: Only, achievements you, know to this date at least has
• 3:16:18
  Speaker 3: played his entire career.
• 3:16:19
  Speaker 2: There but, hey let's focus on Our. Warriors Mount. Rushmore
• 3:16:23
  Speaker 2: so you Got, kerr So i'm going to give. You
• 3:16:25
  Speaker 2: i'm gonna give you. Mine, Well i'll Go. Kerr you
• 3:16:28
  Speaker 2: have any disagreement On?
• 3:16:29
  Speaker 3: Kerr, Yes SO i THINK i think the three where
• 3:16:33
  Speaker 3: we're aligned.
• 3:16:34
  Speaker 2: Is we're Aligning, Curry wilt.
• 3:16:39
  Speaker 3: And Rick.
• 3:16:40
  Speaker 2: Berry, right Rick berry has a title for The, warriors
• 3:16:44
  Speaker 2: SO i think.
• 3:16:44
  Speaker 3: He definitely does first Gold Golden state.
• 3:16:48
  Speaker 2: Title the question, FOUR i, Say, steve the hardest part
• 3:16:53
  Speaker 2: of this debate was not those, three it's the. FOURTH i,
• 3:16:56
  Speaker 2: Went Steve, kerr and you have you you you win another.
• 3:17:00
  Speaker 1: DIRECTOR i, Mean i'm not gonna Say kurr has got
• 3:17:03
  Speaker 1: no place. There you can make a. Case Rolvin atales.
• 3:17:05
  Speaker 1: Too again he played on The. Warriors jersey was retired
• 3:17:08
  Speaker 1: for The warriors and coaches combined With Wil chamblain to
• 3:17:12
  Speaker 1: score one hundred and seventeen points in a game. Once
• 3:17:19
  Speaker 1: and THEN i think the longest tenured coach in The warriors,
• 3:17:23
  Speaker 1: history you, know was there from the seventies obviously the championship,
• 3:17:26
  Speaker 1: coach and is there through their through the early. Eighties
• 3:17:28
  Speaker 1: like the first COACH i remember for that team Is Alvin. Apple,
• 3:17:30
  Speaker 1: yeah But i'm gonna go a little bit of a wildcard,
• 3:17:33
  Speaker 1: here and this is someone who is not just great
• 3:17:37
  Speaker 1: for The, warriors but in my, opinion was the greatest
• 3:17:40
  Speaker 1: to ever do what they, did and that is THEIR acepr.
• 3:17:45
  Speaker 3: Guy Raymond.
• 3:17:45
  Speaker 1: Ritter i'm putting them on my route much for what
• 3:17:48
  Speaker 1: Makes raymond so, Great i've been asked this by by by.
• 3:17:50
  Speaker 1: Students SOMETIMES i, say, oh, man so he just has
• 3:17:54
  Speaker 1: this ability to be, everywhere just kind of the classic pr.
• 3:17:56
  Speaker 1: Sense so you, know even as the media been seated
• 3:18:00
  Speaker 1: further and further away from the, court And raymond usually
• 3:18:02
  Speaker 1: sits down by the court and the radio and the
• 3:18:04
  Speaker 1: broadcast crews during the, games but like he'll make sure
• 3:18:07
  Speaker 1: to stop by and just kind of check in with
• 3:18:10
  Speaker 1: everybody in person up up in the media. Seating he
• 3:18:13
  Speaker 1: was among the last of the they used to when
• 3:18:16
  Speaker 1: you get to the road, team when you get to,
• 3:18:19
  Speaker 1: town get your. Hotel like they used to like. Distribute
• 3:18:22
  Speaker 1: they'd bring your packet over with the game notes and your.
• 3:18:25
  Speaker 1: Credential now that the notes are available online, people but
• 3:18:28
  Speaker 1: they were like the last to stop doing, that, right
• 3:18:30
  Speaker 1: that that little touch of delivering your stuff to your.
• 3:18:32
  Speaker 3: Hotel.
• 3:18:34
  Speaker 1: Uh he'll stay after the, game late into the night
• 3:18:37
  Speaker 1: and you, know until the last person or some of
• 3:18:39
  Speaker 1: the last people are done writing their.
• 3:18:40
  Speaker 3: Stories and what Made raymond great he got THERE i
• 3:18:43
  Speaker 3: think in the late. Eighties so he gets there.
• 3:18:44
  Speaker 1: During The coen era and when The warriors are, terrible
• 3:18:47
  Speaker 1: and he was always just so desperate, to you, know
• 3:18:49
  Speaker 1: get any type of coverage of The warriors locally or.
• 3:18:52
  Speaker 1: Nationally but what was great was that when The warriors
• 3:18:55
  Speaker 1: became this top, team he never lost that mentality and
• 3:18:58
  Speaker 1: so he was still like going out of his way
• 3:19:01
  Speaker 1: to help through a story or pitch a story to.
• 3:19:03
  Speaker 2: You there's nothing like a good pr a good good
• 3:19:05
  Speaker 2: press person that knows how to that will help you
• 3:19:08
  Speaker 2: out on deadline those what you're actually looking. For it
• 3:19:11
  Speaker 2: as actually, Useful SO i get.
• 3:19:13
  Speaker 1: It SO i actually think in part he's helped shape
• 3:19:17
  Speaker 1: the way that These warriors are thought of because he's
• 3:19:20
  Speaker 1: so good at. Working he goes so far out of
• 3:19:22
  Speaker 1: the way to make, sure like The Steph curry you
• 3:19:24
  Speaker 1: can talk To Steph, curry you, know The, durance whoever
• 3:19:28
  Speaker 1: the stars, are he makes them available to the, media
• 3:19:31
  Speaker 1: and that's going to reflect well on the coverage of their.
• 3:19:33
  Speaker 1: Team and it's like he never lost that mentality of,
• 3:19:36
  Speaker 1: Like i'm a guy that has to, like you, know
• 3:19:38
  Speaker 1: work hard to get this. Team so the fact that
• 3:19:40
  Speaker 1: the best team could also be really the most accessible
• 3:19:43
  Speaker 1: and available team as. WELL i think it in part
• 3:19:48
  Speaker 1: the people that write about and describe The warriors they
• 3:19:50
  Speaker 1: write in glowing terms in part Because Raymond ridder is
• 3:19:53
  Speaker 1: so good as his.
• 3:19:53
  Speaker 3: Job so what does he mean to The? Warriors i'm
• 3:19:55
  Speaker 3: going to put him on them out? Rushmore all, Right
• 3:19:58
  Speaker 3: so this about, Him but he's on My mount Rudfor.
• 3:20:02
  Speaker 3: Ray there you have.
• 3:20:03
  Speaker 2: It that Means ray's got to deliver for our next,
• 3:20:06
  Speaker 2: episode which is going to feature one of the all
• 3:20:09
  Speaker 2: time uh uh Great. Warriors we can't wait for, it
• 3:20:13
  Speaker 2: and we hope you you are there. Too this was
• 3:20:17
  Speaker 2: this was a labor of life once again.
• 3:20:19
  Speaker 3: On this interesting, team, right.
• 3:20:22
  Speaker 1: Fascinating interesting, team and we hope you enjoy learning as
• 3:20:25
  Speaker 1: much about them as we did in the course of
• 3:20:27
  Speaker 1: working on this.
• 3:20:28
  Speaker 3: Episode we'll see in the next.
• 3:20:30
  Speaker 2: Episode