Warriors come from different places but end up as champions
CLEVELAND – Draymond Green scoffed at the doubters who contended that he wasn't good enough to play in the NBA.
Stephen Curry remembered how tough it was battling through the injuries early in his career.
Shaun Livingston had flashbacks to his D-League days and 10-day contracts.
Andre Iguodala still didn't sweat getting his starting job taken away before the season started – only to wind up as NBA Finals MVP.
One by one, in the aftermath of achieving their ultimate goal of winning the NBA championship, the Golden State Warriors hardly forgot where they came from. Everybody had a story, a perspective, an impression that fit in perfectly with the next guy's adventure.
Sometimes, it's the journey that makes it even sweeter.
"I was a second-round pick, and a lot of people said I could never play in this league," said Green, who put up a triple-double in the series-clinching Game 6 with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
"'Too slow, too small, can't shoot well enough, can't defend nobody. What does he do well? He doesn't have a skill,'" Green added, mocking the naysayers who projected his pro potential when he came out of Michigan State. "I've got heart, and that's what stands out."
Green had a profound impact on the series, not only switching from forward to center when coach Steve Kerr opted to go with a small-ball lineup in Game 4, but also bringing the higher level of intensity that he promised after the Warriors fell behind 2-1 in the series.
But it was undoubtedly part of a bigger picture. Green did his part, but Iguodala was voted MVP. What it says about a player who was the primary defender against LeBron James – who averaged 35.8 points per game in the series – and still earned MVP honors.
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Iguodala, who knocked down several clutch threes in the series and scored 25 points Tuesday night, was a steady force for the Warriors at both ends of the floor. Kerr said earlier in the series that Iguodala was playing with the most consistency, and the crafty vet lived up to the part to the finish.
Still, he was such a fitting symbol for the team because of his remarkable journey of this season – as he sacrificed ego for the good of the team. Iguodala surely didn't agree with the decision of the first-year coach to take him out of the starting lineup, allowing Harrison Barnes to start, but he never balked. He never publicly questioned Kerr's move.
Yet when Kerr made the switch to swing the momentum of the playoffs by putting the sixth man back in the starting lineup, Iguodala was, well, all-in again. He's the first NBA Finals MVP in history to not start a single game during the regular season.
"He had never come off the bench once in his entire career, and he sacrificed to make Harrison better, to make our bench better, and that set the tone for our entire season," Kerr said. "An All-Star, an Olympian saying, 'OK, I'll come off the bench?' It set the tone for everything we were able to accomplish, so it feels like full-circle to me that Andre received the award. Couldn't happen to a better person."
Iguodala, an 11-year veteran, is regarded as the Warriors' resident sage, and Green and Livingston amplified on that theme while basking in the championship glow.
As Green put it, "Andre is that guy that we all look up to when everything's going bad."
Every team could use a veteran rock like that, but it was essential for a budding team like the Warriors. With their wide-open, prolific, three-point-stamped style of offense complemented by efficient defense that ranked No. 1 in the NBA, and with a deep reservoir of young, versatile talent, the Warriors should be contenders for years to come. They are a model for a sleeker, faster, more wide-open brand of basketball that the NBA has evolved with.
Yet that all needed to be validated with a championship. Done.
But it was hardly automatic. The Warriors are the first team to win an NBA title without a single player with NBA Finals experience since the 1990-91 Chicago Bulls.
Just think: LeBron himself was in his fifth consecutive NBA Finals, sixth overall.
In other words, they had to grow into a champion – and in a hurry.
There were times in this series, especially early, when it was fair to wonder whether the team that posted the NBA's best regular-season record with 67 victories, had the mettle to contend with LeBron James on a mission.
The Warriors had to grow into a champion – and in a hurry. Done
They fought back from the 2-1 deficit and demonstrated that they contain more physical toughness than generally perceived, with mental fortitude, to boot. They were prepared with tough challenges in the playoffs against Houston and Memphis, whom they also trailed 2-1 in the series.
Yet for the third series in a row, they won the clincher on the road – which in itself underscores a certain resilience.
When someone asked Curry what he learned about his first NBA Finals as the series progressed, he said, "To block out the noise. That's the biggest thing."
Iguodala confirmed something, too.
"We have a lot of different personalities," he said. "Draymond's loud. Klay's quiet. Then we've got everything in between. But the common denominator is guys were like really hungry to show what they could do individually, and then we really believed in our team as a group."
They grew up, too, the Finals MVP, pointed out, by knowing how to change the course of the series.
"The first three games, they were bringing the fight to us," Iguodala said. "We were just reacting. I felt like Games 4, 5 and 6, we were proactive. We brought the fight to them."
And look at them now. Champions, with a fresh chapter on the journey.
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