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OAKLAND, Calif. – Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr is hoping his team, having won three of the last four NBA titles, is not about to dance his last dance.
When a comparison between the Warriors of this season and the winning team of the 1997-98 Bulls title was proposed, Kerr, who was a member of this Chicago team, quickly eliminated him.
"Last Dance?" Kerr said with a smile after the first tests of his team on Tuesday. "I hope not .. I hope we continue dancing."
"I think the difference is with Phil [Jackson] In 1998, we were all free agents and we all knew we were all going to leave, including Phil, Kerr said. But we are not in the same situation. We have a lot of free agents, but we do not consider this as the final dance. As I said, we want to have fun and enjoy what we have this year and go from there. "
Kerr has repeatedly stated over the last year that his team should not be compared to the Michael Jordan led the 1990 Bulls dynasty, which won six NBA championships. But these comparisons are inevitable given the recent success of the Warriors and the fact that they are trying to get to the finals of the NBA for the fifth consecutive season, which is not yet the case of the Jordan & # 39; s. s Bulls.
"I do not think our motivation is history," Kerr said. "We know how special it would be if we did it – only a handful of teams did it, but that's not our goal – our goal is to really enjoy it as long as it lasts. lasts forever, so we know that we want to go out this year and enjoy every step. "
Kerr's feelings after the practice regarding the future were a little different from the feelings he shared during Monday's media day. As he and his team gear up for a new season, the former player acknowledged that he wanted his Warriors to take advantage of their current race, as no one knows when Kevin Durant's next free agency could finish. Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, weighs on the organization.
"There is no formula for this sort of thing," Kerr said Monday. "You're just trying to feel it as a coach, I'm generally very honest with you, with the players, so I did not want to come in last year and tell myself that everything will be really easy. knew exactly what they were facing, having had a similar experience as a player. "
Kerr called last season "grind" but was proud of his players for finding a way to win a second consecutive title.
"We play with house money," he said. "We have won three of the last four championships, and our place in the history of the league is pretty safe, I do not think our guys should be under tremendous pressure, I think they should feel the importance of trying to the redo, because it may be the last time we have this current version of the Warriors, just after giving all the free agents, the tightening of money and everything else, then we do not do not know what's going to happen, every step of the way? "
Four of the six bookmakers surveyed in Las Vegas have the Golden State Warriors 2018-19 as favorites against the Chicago Bulls 1995-96.
The New Warriors' great man, DeMarcus Cousins, still has no set deadline for his return as he continues to recover from an Achilles injury on January 26th.
LeBron James said the Lakers had "a long way to go" to reach the Warriors level, but if they did, the results will come.
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Green disagreed with Kerr's notion that the Warriors were playing with "house money" because of their recent success.
"I certainly do not approach it like we are playing with money from home," he said. "We have three championships, all of them are in the past, and we have to tackle each year with the same goal and the same mentality, as we have already understood.
"None of us are ready for this series to end, so we must continue to approach it as if we had zero, and it's a cliché and impossible to do, but you want to try To be as close to that is what you can do, and it is always my state of mind that enters the season. "
Green and Thompson made it clear that they wanted to stay long-term with the Warriors. If Durant re-sign next summer, it looks like the group window is widening to compete for a title for years to come.
After having traveled the entire league all his professional life, Kerr wants his group to try to focus on what is happening in front of him and continues to hope that better days are coming.
"We want them here for the long term," Kerr said Tuesday, questioned about Green and Thompson's optimism about their long-term future with the team. "[Warriors GM] Bob [Myers] said it best in the offseason, in the summer, especially these days in the NBA: you just take it from year to year. And that is our goal this year. This will probably be the last time I talk about free agency for next year. It's a good question on the first day of practice because it's going to happen. But it will be imminent for fans and the media. We will focus on this year. Have a good time, have fun, go out and try to do it again and we worry about it all later. "
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