If anyone reading this article is new to the NBA game and basketball in general, the game has changed. Just to think about it over 35 years ago we didn’t have a 3-point line. Imagine a Stephen Curry Golden State Warriors team without the 3-point shot? They wouldn’t win a game. Now, thanks to a couple of innovators of the game, the Golden State Warriors, fast paced, up-tempo, offensive style has helped them win an NBA title. Stephen Curry won the MVP and his ring, Steve Kerr (his rookie coach) won his first ever ring as a rookie coach since Pat Riley, and he credits the win to a familiar friend.
Kerr won 5 NBA Championships (3 with the Chicago Bulls, 2 with the San Antonio Spurs), but he was also a GM of the Phoenix Suns when the original fast-paced west coast power house was playing, the Steve Nash and Mike D’Antoni duo. Kerr spoke on his time with Phoenix and how he thought of Curry as a similar situation as Nash and the Suns. According to Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk:
I imagined it with Steve Nash. Steve was kind of the original Stephen Curry,” Kerr said from the podium as NBA champion, his shirt still drenched in Champagne. “Slightly different, but similar mindset in terms of — and similar skillset of passing and the ball handling. And the Suns were so close. Things didn’t go their way. But I imagined it. And I was there with Steve as general manager, and I thought it was going to happen for him. But he set the stage for Steph.”
“I think Steve kind of laid out a vision for a whole generation of young point guards. And with the game changing, Mike D’Antoni kind of initiating that style in Phoenix, the floor starting to spread, the whole league kind of playing shooting fours and fives and playing a little faster. I think Mike and Steve in many ways set the table for Steph Curry. And I think Steph would tell you that too. He has great respect for Steve.”
One thing the Warriors had, where the Suns lacked, was defensive consistency, and that along with a bit of bad luck, the Suns couldn’t get to the NBA Finals. Now because Steve Nash and Mike D’Antoni failed to implement that style and later on Steve Kerr was successful in implementing it within the Warriors, the plan finally worked. In the NBA right now you need a superstar driven team or a team that is willing to do everything is has to win, and the Warriors were the second team. Despite having their superstars (Curry, Thompson) they’re focus was on the defensive end.
