New Article Shows Some of NBA Reveling in Warriors Misfortune

The Golden State Warriors are down and many in the NBA seem to be enjoying their demise. Given the Warriors’ current state, it is easy to believe that a faction of the league was prepared to gloat about it.

A new article from Bleacher Report all but confirms that. The article, which is entitled “Warriors No More,” is written by Ric Bucher (who, it should be noted, is a former Warriors sideline reporter). Bucher talks to a variety of people within the NBA, most of whom are quoted anonymously. The personalities take obvious pleasure in the Warriors’ current state as league doormats. They want to beat up on Stephen Curry and Draymond Green as much as they possibly can. They highlight their true feelings about the ways in which the Dubs celebrated and enjoyed their success over the past five years. They saw it as unwarranted, obnoxious frontrunning. Now that all the players that defined the Warrior dynasty are either injured or on other teams, the rest of the league seems to be celebrating.

However, these celebrations seem misplaced and ill-informed. Curry, Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston dominated the league for the better part of five years. The current lineup is highlighted by D’Angelo Russell, Eric Paschall, Alec Burks, Glenn Robinson III, Willie Cauley-Stein and Marquese Chriss. To put it mildly, this is not the team that ran all over the league. Celebrating the current struggles of the team as the demise of Curry, Green and the rest of the dynasty makes absolutely no sense. One anonymous Pacific Division player admits as much in Bucher’s article.

“The team now isn't the Warriors. [You're not going to punish] Glenn Robinson III and D'Angelo Russell,” the player said. “This is about Steph and Draymond.”

But with Steph and Draymond injured, wins over the Warriors can’t possibly be seen as wins over those guys. When LeBron James was injured last year, no one could have reasonably argued that wins against the Lakers in that time period counted as beating LeBron. Likewise, it makes no sense to see this current time frame as an extended period of losing for anyone who was a part of the dynasty. Not a single player on any of the five Warrior teams that made the NBA Finals suited up against the Thunder on Saturday night. Of the players who did suit up, only a few would be full-time NBA players on most other rosters. The Warriors dynasty isn’t losing right now. The Warriors are. An anonymous Eastern Conference pro personnel director acknowledged that it isn’t logical to enjoy the current roster’s suffering.

“They are like a wounded deer on the side of the road right now,” he said. “No need to torture them; just put them out of their misery each game.”

All of this is without even talking about the irony and hypocrisy present in the criticisms of frontrunning. Yes, as the Warriors went about their business en route to five conference titles and three NBA titles in five years, they had some fun. They celebrated and let the rest of the league know just how good they were. At the same time, it never went too far. They knew how good they were and they enjoyed their success. It never seemed to go over the top and they never did more celebrating than anyone else in their position would have done. It didn’t feel like a new level of celebrating that had never been explored before. But many apparently hated it and saw it as frontrunning.

But now, as those same people and teams jump ahead of the Warriors in the NBA pecking order, they celebrate the supposed downfall of Golden State all the same. It is, in many ways, the very definition of the frontrunning they allegedly despised. It shows that the rest of the league was never angry about the celebrating. They were angry about just how good the Warriors were while they celebrated.

What everyone else in the league seems to be conveniently forgetting is that the Warriors dynasty may not be over yet. Yes, they may be very bad this season, but that could easily be a temporary hiatus. Curry and Green should be ready and fully healthy at the start of next year. Thompson, who is itching to get back on the court as soon as possible, will return from his torn ACL ready to go. The young and inexperienced players, who are gradually getting better and better as they gain NBA game reps, will probably make for a dangerous bench. A bad record this year could mean a high pick in next year’s draft. The front office, regularly shown to be one of the league’s best, is already gearing up for the offseason and preparing to put a contending team on the court in 2020.

And perhaps most importantly, the players are listening to the chatter. They understand exactly how the rest of the league feels about them. Curry, Thompson and Green all use criticism and hate to fuel their competitiveness. They want nothing more to come out next year and make the rest of the league sick of their success once again.

The Warriors are losing, and the rest of the NBA is getting licks in while it can. But by doing so, it may have given the Warriors exactly what they need down the line to remind everyone of the greatness that has defined their dynasty.