The story repeats – Golden State Warriors is in a collapse
Along the history, NBA fans have seen a lot of great teams such as Bill Russell’s Celtics, Kareem Abdul Jabaar and Magic Johnson’ Lakers, Jordan’s Bulls or Shaq and Kobe’s Lakers. With the exception of the Boston Celtics, all the other organizations have something in common – they didn’t win more than three consecutive championships. These details have always fascinated me because I often wondered why do such great teams fall apart?
This week I got my answer. On Monday, the champion of the NBA played in Los Angeles against the Clippers and the game was very close. With 5 seconds left on the clock and the score being tied, Draymond Green rebounded the ball and instead of passing it to Kevin Durant he started running and then he committed a turnover. Durant got really mad after this play and started to scream at Green, who answered back immediately and reportedly said: “Leave. We don’t need you.”. Golden State Warriors would eventually lose this game by 5 points, but it didn’t even matter anymore, because all the focus was on the drama between Green and Durant.
It was a shock for everybody to see the fight between two of the best players from that team, even though they had previous arguments. Kevin Durant was really disappointed with the words that were said to him, and being in a moment in which he has to choose what to do in the next season, these words have surely had an impact. The front office decided to suspend Draymond Green for one game, without paying him. This measure was surprising at least because, for the past 4 years or more, Green has been the soul of this team.
In the next game, Golden State Warriors managed to win against Atlanta Hawks and Kevin Durant scored 29 points combined with 6 rebounds. This was a good win for their morale before the important match against their main rivals, Houston Rockets. In the meantime, Green’s suspension ended and he was seen with Kevin Durant, both going to practice. Draymond Green also spoke to the media about this problem, saying that he knows that he made a mistake and he hopes that it won’t affect the team’s chances of winning the title for the 3rd time in a row.
Everything seemed to go to normal, but then in the following day, the Golden State Warriors were destroyed by the Houston Rockets. More than that, Draymond Green played 23 minutes and he didn’t score any point, finishing with the following stat line: 0 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, and 5 turnovers.
This situation is weird and even though I think that the Warriors will be fine this season, I am not so sure about the next year. This fight between Green and Durant showed us the other side of having 5 all-stars on the roster and what happens when pride intervenes. This was also the case with Shaq and Kobe or with the 2008-2010 Boston Celtics. I’m definitely eager to see what happens next with Golden State Warriors and how will this incident affect their race for the 4th championship in 5 years.
David Istrate, info@brainbasketball.net
