Image courtesy of Erik Drost's Flickr page - Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Golden State Warriors: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrost88/18712418510/in/photolist-uvy36m-uKQ6xG-tRgUTP-uvtpVm-uKQmv7-uvGFwB-uMFFeG-uNpE1e-tBehBy-uN3P3D-tR2Qho-HUSfr-4Taf5q-uvASzv-7vAzf2-qHUK2k-r52g6V-6K6Fki-bgddQ6-4G4nGd-r4UoZy-7NjrkD-9nssXS-rmt3kn-JgQiv-uoEiQf-djFciv-rmokYq-r4Ujq3-7hGokn-4iSMB3-bgdChx-47g67u-qKt9Fn-qKuV8z-qKt9yP-qKt9Ea-3pYanc-4C12US-uvyAju-uvyCCs-buWvMB-3q3GXA-eedDRY-7NopXJ-6r3FD-6r3uV-3pYaeB-dZTukn-dZTkBK
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Reading this article, I began to gain a better appreciation for why eveyone seems so reluctant to crown Stephen Curry as the new greatest player in the NBA, and why LeBron James still holds that particular mantle in the eyes of so many.
It is the same in the NFL, where the rules grew so much in favor of offenses, that defenses became watered down, and scoring became superficially easy.
This guy makes it seem like the Warriors are somehow cheating the game, or doing something that does not take skill, which is far from the case.
Look at what he says about Golden State's success based on their style of play:
So Curry and the Warriors are, in certain spheres, less the historical greats that their accomplishments suggest than an opportunistic and homogenizing presence in the basketball landscape. The fear is that they’ve disrupted the sport’s equilibrium and capitalized on its design flaws. That they’re forerunners of a slick, soulless future.
Whether or not there is some truth to this rather strange notion that the Warriors are essentially cheapening the NBA by circumventing how it works, rather than mastering it, is besides the point. To me, I think that it takes incredible skill to make shots from as far away as many of the Warriors players take them.
One of the most exciting basketball players that I can remember was Reggie Miller, and he had that special touch, much like Curry does now. When he caught fire, the man was unstoppable. He hit some clutch shots in the playoffs against the Bulls, the Magic, the Nets and, of course, the Knicks. In fact, much of his career is defined by how much he mastered burning the Knicks in particular, and he earned the nickname "Knick killer."
Those games were incredibly exciting. There was this sense that anything could happen, that Miller could catch fire all of a sudden, and then all of those defensive specialists on the Knicks who had dominated the East and intimidated opponents were suddenly rendered ineffective. Worse than that, they suddenly looked flustered and would make costly mistakes, many of which Miller benefited from.
If the Warriors have done what this author says, than they can only be criticized for effectively changing the game. If so, they are not the first team to have done so.
In fact, the cream of the crop in every sport tends to do that. Remember the 1985 Bears defense, that dominated with a 4-3 formation? A few years later, everyone was using the 4-3. Or the 2000 Ravens, who used two huge guys on the line to apply pressure to opposing offensive lines, and free up other defenders to maneuver and clamp down on opposing offenses. Unstoppable - until everyone was doing it, and then it became another thing that opposing offenses had to deal with.
Man, when he caught fire like that! There was nothing more exciting in the NBA than that at the time - with the possible exception of the lights out (literally) player introductions at the beginnings of the games. Those were some exciting times in the NBA, and I was fortunate to have seen one such playoff game with Reggie Miller in person in 2002. It was the best individual basketball game that I ever saw! But Game 5 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, when Miller got hot and burned the Knicks in perhaps his most memorable performance, was one of the best, as well.
What that means is that this kind of basketball cane indeed be exciting, and I, for one, think that it is impressive. Certainly, I think it takes more skill, and is more fun to watch, than some enormous but not altogether athletic guy like Shaquille O'Neal bullying his way to the basket game in and game out. That was effective, but hardly what I would think of as entertaining to watch.
You want to see brilliance on the court. Certainly, Michael Jordan provided that, but a big part of why he looked so impressive was with how deadly he could be when taking a shot from some distance, making it virtually impossible to defend.
Now, you have the Warriors. No, they do not have what anyone might call a great defense, but do they really need one? When you can score at will as they often times can, then you can bury most opponents with the avalanche of points that you put up. That is how the Warriors have been winning - and generally winning big - for the last couple of years. And let's face it, the NBA Finals last year proved not only to be one of the most intriguing, but also one of the most fun to watch Finals series in a long, long time, as well.
Why the NBA Loves—and Fears—Stephen Curry by Robert O'Connell of The Atlantic, Feb 9, 2016
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