It’s been a common sight this season to see Klay Thompson on the Warriors bench, staring into the half distance, contemplating how he and his team arrived at this point of mediocrity.
I’m sure many Warriors fans have been watching this season with the same confusion.
The Warriors have held themselves to a standard of greatness for the better part of a decade. Since Warriors coach Steve Kerr arrived in 2014 and guided Golden State to a title in his first season, championships have not merely been the goal, but the expectation for this team.
That’s over now.
The honest back-room conversations about the state of this team — and its future — are becoming public. The Warriors are saying the quiet part out loud.
And while it’s refreshing and positive to hear such truths being told, the words are laced with tragedy, too.
Thompson let us behind the curtain in his post-game comments following a quality home win over the upstart Magic on Tuesday:
“Steve and I actually had a great conversation yesterday, and that helped me relax a lot,” Thompson said. “Sometimes I forget just how successful and how lucky I have been to be a part of championship teams, All-Star Games, and gold medals. And when you want to get back to that level so badly, you can kind of get in your own way.
Rather than forcing it, we had a conversation about enjoying this last chapter of my career. And how lucky I truly am to still be playing this game and doing it at a high level. And being a better mentor for these young guys, and leading by example.”
This is wholesome stuff. Great coaching, if you ask me.
But Thompson’s comments — and surely the conversation with Kerr that proceeded them — was just as much retrospection as introspection.
Yes, there’s a lot of past tense in there.
And while that brilliant past should be celebrated forever, it also signals that the Warriors, as we knew and loved them, are truly in their final days.
Sure, we could have guessed it from the stands. The Warriors feel it on the floor and, more importantly, know the truth when they’re off it.
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Perhaps the official end comes this year. Thompson and, it should be seriously noted, Kerr, are out of contract at the end of this season. Draymond Green is under contract for three more seasons, but given the circumstances that led to his current suspension and the fact that both he and the team are in a standoff to see who can provide the other more “space” at the moment, it’s fair to wonder if Green — who is also employed by Turner Sports as a commentator and has a larger TV deal waiting for him upon his retirement from playing — will reach term with Golden State.
Or maybe there’s a short extension — a few more golden years for the Dubs.
But even with Steph Curry still, near-impossibly, playing at an All-Star and All-NBA level, this Warriors’ core’s best basketball is unquestionably behind it.
The Warriors can still be a fun team, an interesting team, and perhaps, if a good number of things break their way, a contender to win the West once again. We’ve certainly seen worse teams in the Western Conference Finals over the years.
But the standard that has long guided this team has changed.
Even with a nice win Tuesday, the Warriors’ middling and chaotic start to this campaign has left no reasonable doubt — the Warriors are in an era of transition, with all the counterbalancing ups and downs that will come along with it.
And while the sour truth has been, understandably, harsh to swallow for a serious competitor and professional like Thompson, Kerr is showing his quality by helping make it palatable.
That’s about all that can be done now.
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The Warriors have desperately tried to recreate the glory days in recent seasons. The organization, led by CEO Joe Lacob, has been adamant this show — no matter how long it’s run — requires the original cast.
Bill Walsh believed it was better for his 49ers to move off a player a year too early than a year too late. Lacob, and ergo the Warriors organization, rejects that notion wholesale.
It’s admirable loyalty. He knows that the players can, in fact, be bigger than the organization.
If only loyalty was the deciding factor in basketball games.
Kerr has the unenviable job of providing reality about the situation, ushering the dynastic generation out into the sunset while preparing a new generation — led by Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski — to take over for the greats (as if anyone can) when they exit.
The transition won’t be seamless. Winning is everything to players like Curry, Green, and Thompson. The evidence of that is in the four banners in Chase Center’s rafters.
Or should I say that winning was everything?
“He helped me realize when I do have negative energy, how that affects the team in a poor manner. We had a great conversation — it helped me change my whole mindset,” Thompson said Tuesday.
“Forget about shooting splits or points per game or All-Star Games. Just to enjoy being in this Warriors uniform and appreciate what we built, because it’s such a rare opportunity for any professional athlete to be a part of so much success. To try to pass that torch to the younger guys and try to keep this thing going.”
Perhaps this new holistic approach from Thompson can help spur the Warriors to something better this season.
Maybe good vibes are all this team needs to be the best version of itself.
Basketball can be fickle that way.
Or perhaps Thompson’s eminently relatable battle between his past and the present self — this team’s past and present self — will continue in the months and years to come.
I’d bet on this team making things interesting for a while yet. Age and injury can claim your lift, your burst, and your ability to go from side to side on defense, but it can’t take away your championship pedigree, and that is still worth something in this league.
I don’t expect them to add another title, though. That era is behind this team.
But if that incredible pedigree is worth less than I think it is — if this truly, honestly, the last dance for a team that thought it’d already had a few — then there are worse ways to go out than with class, dignity, and one’s head held high.
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