Golden State Warriors following the path of the previous NBA championships

Perfect.

The NBA is over. The next year is a predictable conclusion. How on earth did league commissioner Adam Silver allow this to happen?

That does not interest him?

This has been the reaction of the past two days in the NBA universe and, frankly, I do not understand. Wait … in fact, I do it. Because no fan base has a shorter memory, or a strong penchant for romance, than the NBA.

Parity has never been part of the NBA.

Let me hit that one again: Never.

What is happening now is no different from what things have always been – more or less. The only difference is the way the teams are gathered. General Managers and owners were in the habit of deciding everything. Now they do not, and the players have a lot more to say.

More on the NBA:

Windsor: How Can the Pistons Be in the East After LeBron James?

Free Agency Tracker: Rumors, bargains and more

But, but … Kevin Durant! He ruined the league!

No, he did not do it. His move to Golden State has made it better because the Warriors are redefining the excellence of basketball, leaving the league no choice but to try to catch them.

This is not very different from what happened in 1982 when defending champions Lakers – a team that already had Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, two of the top 10 players in the game. all times – have held the first choice. Worthy, a future Hall of Famer.

These Lakers, relative to their time, were not very different from these warriors. Their roster had three Hall of Fame and NBA defensive player of the year in Michael Cooper. They also had the shooter Byron Scott, who averaged 22 points per game in 1987-88, the year that the Lakers repeated as champions.

CLOSE

In the free NBA agency, the rich get rich.
Indianapolis Star

I do not remember anybody complaining when the Lakers added Scott, through an exchange with the Clippers in 1983, to a team with three members of the Hall of Fame. Or when they added Worthy to a team with the best leader and center after the team won a draw with the Clippers for No. 1 in No. 82.

In fact, Los Angeles was praised for his maneuvers in acquiring this No. 1 choice by an exchange with Cleveland three years earlier.

The Celtics were applauded in 1985 for adding Bill Walton to a team that already had five former or future All-Stars in his starting lineup: Larry Bird. Kevin Mchale. Robert Parish. Dennis Johnson. Danny Ainge.

Walton joined this group as the sixth man after chief executive Red Auerbach sent Cedric Maxwell to the Clippers for Walton's rights.

But, wait, there is more. Walton wanted to join only the Celtics or the Lakers. He talked to Larry Bird. Bird told him to come join him. Meanwhile, Jerry West, the general manager of the Lakers at the time, hesitated because of Walton's persistent foot injury.

Sound familiar?

That should. Because the history of the NBA is nothing but a tale of the best teams in a given era to find ways to reload.

Boston Celtics general manager Red Auerbach embraces stars of the Celtic NBA championship win over Los Angeles Lakers, Bill Russell, left, and John Havlicek , in Los Angeles in May 3, 1968. (Photo: Hal Filan / Associated Press)

The best stay the best

Here's how it's been for decades in the NBA: A couple of cities Collect a handful of stars through crafting and clever crafts. dominate the league for long periods. Some years there are some teams that have a chance to win everything. In others, there is a team, and a whole season can look like a formality.

What the warriors do, and have done, is not new. The Celtics won eight consecutive titles in the 1960s and won 10 out of 12 overall. The Lakers won five championships in the 1980s.

The Bulls won six times in the 90s and could have won eight consecutive if Michael Jordan was not temporarily retired. (That's at least what the Jordan Cult supports, they might even be right.)

I remember that Jordan ran well. Every year after Chicago won its first title – against an aging Lakers team – fans and analysts were trying to convince themselves that someone else had a chance. But nobody else did it. And we knew it. Yet we watched.

Religiously and tirelessly. Partly because we wanted to see if a team could overthrow Jordan, but mostly because we wanted to look at Jordan.

It's the difference between the stars of the NBA and other leagues. The NBA always features transcendent athletes that attract us, no matter how dominant they are.

Remember when Jordan retired for the second time? And the league worried about who was going to fight?

After an unforgettable Spurs-Knicks final in 1999 – a season shortened by work problems – the Lakers came back to greatness. Or, should I say, Shaquille O 'Neal and Kobe Bryant brought them there.

The two best players in the league. In a team. In their prime numbers. Imagine that.

They won three consecutive titles and lost no time in the final. Portland pushed them into the Western Conference Finals of 2000 and Sacramento did the same in 2002.

Other than that?

Yawn, is not it?

Except that the Lakers were hypnotizing to watch. Mainly for the unprecedented combination of size, skill, power and explosiveness of O 'Neal and for the evolution of Bryant to Jordan 2.0.

Think of it this way: When the league has a superteam – what we call a dynasty – we watch, discuss and revel, or wait and pray and hope someone destroys them.

When the league are missing from this team, we stop.

After the Celtics dominated the '60s, the' 70s turned into the most egalitarian decade in the modern history of the league. Eight different franchises have won titles, including one that has already been relocated, the Seattle SuperSonics.

What happened?

You stopped watching. (Many playoff games in the decade have been shown on CBS tape delay) The NBA has panicked. And then, in 1979, Bird and Magic arrived to save him.

With personalities. With teams stacked with All-Stars and future Hall of Fame.

But it was not just these two teams that had a crazy talent. The 76ers ran in the playoffs in 1983, losing a match thanks to Julius Erving, Moise Malone, Mo Cheeks and Andrew Toney.

The Pistons, your Pistons, added three times to the All-Star game Mark Aguirre, midway through the 1988-1989 season, to a team of three future Hall of Fame members and a handful of outstanding players ( and Bill Laimbeer).

They lost twice in this season's playoffs.

The Warriors Are Only The Last

Only four teams won a title in the 1980s. The same was true in the 1990s Five teams won in the 2000s. Six teams have won championships this decade. If the Warriors are upset next year – and it could happen – it will be seven.

In 2017, the Warriors lost once in the playoffs (to the Cavaliers in the finals). But only because Kawhi Leonard, the San Antonio world striker, is injured at the ankle in the second half of the first game of the Western Final. Otherwise, the warriors would not have swept the Spurs.

Autoplay

View thumbnails

View captions