Basketball: 73-9

[NUguy514]

So, the Golden State Warriors just broke the single-season record for most wins with an unbelievable 73-9, besting the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record of 72-10. That Bulls team was led by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman and was the best basketball team in the history of the sport. I never, ever thought the Bulls' record would be broken, but this Warriors team is just on another level and actually is about as good as that Bulls team. Plus, they're an awesome group of guys, led by Steph Curry, the greatest player and the greatest guy in the NBA; he and they pulled me back into NBA basketball after not caring about the sport since Michael Jordan retired. What a treat to witness such greatness, and I hope they cap it off with a second championship in a row!

[misplaced validity]

I just hope chasing the record doesn't cost them physically/mentally in the playoffs.

[NUguy514]

Same here.

[teppo2]

I hope the post-mortem allows us to put any notions that this Warrior team was an all-time great to rest. And that's two finals in a row now that Curry has faded into obscurity for the majority of the series. I like him, a lot even, but the constant proclamations of him being one the best ever have always been wayyyyyy too pre-mature. A few great seasons does not an all-time legend make.

[misplaced validity]

A 73-9 record and nearly winning the finals isn't something to dismiss, but I'd also say no one is now calling them an all-time great team so I am not sure of your point. Is it just that people are quick to say things like that? Well, yeah, but that's true in all sports. We have a click bait culture.

[teppo2]

There's literally a post a couple up from mine saying the team was as good as the 96 Bulls - and there's been no shortage of people who were proclaiming them as an all time great team. I'm obviously not dismissing them completely, but I think the fact that they weren't even able to hold on to a 3 - 1 lead, even with home court advantage, is indicative of just how much of a perfect storm of events allowed them to have such a remarkable regular season. Perhaps my post was a bit late in that everyone proclaiming such wild things about their prowess has now clammed up, but I wanted to identify it anyways. I guess if anything just to point out how numbers can be pretty misleading.

[misplaced validity]

But if the Warriors had won one of those final 3 games. Again I just think the point is that media and fans jump on the "best ever" stuff way too soon, but it also makes sense; a lot of people weren't necessarily old enough to follow the Bulls 20 years ago, and more so we all tend to remember more recent stuff anyway. It happens in all sports where people are proclaimed GOAT fairly early on, or in music or something when someone is "best ever" after like 5 albums.

[teppo2]

To some extent yes, but I definitely heard it a lot more with the Warriors. And if they had won one of those final three games, the only thing that would have changed is that all these people wouldn't have shut up the past couple weeks. Jordan's Bulls, the O'Neal/Kobe Lakers, the Celts and Lakers of the 80's, the Duncan/Parker/Ginobili Spurs of the mid-00s, and many other teams all would've had a field day with these guys.

[NUguy514]

Well, the NBA basically helped Cleveland win so that their pet LeBron could win another ring (he whined after game 4 and got Green thrown out for game 5; total bullshit), so...yeah. Curry played horribly in game 7, for sure, but I thought and think the Warriors were every bit as good as the Bulls and a lot more fun to watch (Jordan, the best basketball player ever, full-stop, never looked like he was having fun while playing); when I wrote that, it was stated only as an opinion, not a factual proclamation. It's too bad they didn't win, but I find the decade-long fellating of LeBron James wayyyyy grosser and more annoying than a few months' hyperbole about the Warriors. At least the Warriors are a good group of guys, for the most part; LeBron is an asshole whose popularity will forever escape me.

[teppo2]

We can talk about conspiracy theories or debate who the good guys are, and that's all fine and well, but when it comes to actual skill and talent and how well they are embodied on a given team, I don't see how the Warriors were anything close to being considered a team for the ages. They were wildly inconsistent in the playoffs and were lucky to even jump to that 3-1 lead in the finals given how utterly mediocre Curry was for 75 percent of the series (and definitely not just game 7). I've never been a Lebron fan but there's no denying that his performance compared to Curry's was night and day and so indicative of just how much more fully realized and composed his game is.

Also, did you just say you didn't like watching Jordan play? To each his own, but man. How does flashing a smile trump freakish ability and basketball genius?