The Warriors dynasty is long gone: Here’s when and why originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Steve Kerr sat on stage for 46 minutes Thursday, answering about 30 questions, only one of which earned him an extended recess. It took him a full seven seconds to respond.
Basically, the Warriors coach was asked if there is such a thing as a happy ending to a dynasty.
“It’s rarely a storybook,” he said.
Kerr elaborated, mentioning the end of the Chicago Bulls’ reign in 1998 and the documentary that aired their dirty laundry on the viewing public, which he was a first-hand witness to as a member of the team. He spoke about the value of veterans Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson having finished their careers with Golden State.
In the middle of Kerr’s response, which lasted 85 seconds, was the kernel of hard truth.
“There’s no way this stuff is going to end perfectly,” he said.
There can be storybook endings to a career, to a season, to a neglected or damaged relationship. There can’t be a storybook that ends with a sporting dynasty. That word, “dynasty,” has been thrown around all week after Golden State was knocked out of the NBA Play-In Tournament by the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. As if that loss should be considered the official cause of the death of the dynasty.
Since then there have been a series of global eulogies. Dub Nation’s neighborhoods were initially heavy with the natural responses to loss: sadness, elements of anger, and a lot of crying.
But when the tears dry and the eyes clear, the honesty will reverberate through everyone’s minds: Golden State’s dynasty ended nearly five years ago, on the night of June 13, 2019.
The dynasty died when Thompson suffered a torn ACL in his left knee in Game 6 of the NBA Finals – the Warriors’ last game at Oracle Arena. He’s been good since then, but not quite the same, and the same goes for the Warriors.
Dynasty might have survived Kevin Durant’s torn right Achilles tendon suffered in Game 5 three days earlier, but there was no turning back once Klay joined KD on the sidelines.
The Warriors missed the postseason the next two years before returning to the playoffs in 2022 and playing their way to and through the NBA Finals. That championship was less a matter of extending a dynasty and more of a season of euphoric discovery culminating in a surprising revival.
That trip to the final is separate from the five straight runs from 2015 to 2019 – and that championship doesn’t exist without Jordan Poole’s fleeting dance with fame, Andrew Wiggins bottling the wind and the answered prayer that luck rests on the fragile left foot by Otto Porter Jr. Rarely does a calculated gamble yield so much.
Poole, once considered a potential successor to Curry, was traded a year later. Porter became a free agent and signed with the Toronto Raptors, for whom he played just 23 games in two seasons before retiring last month. Wiggins has been mostly ordinary since then, with occasional flashes of his best form.
The 2022 championship was well deserved, and it also proved that the Warriors, with Curry leading the way, still had enough to reach the top of the NBA mountain.
But Golden State is 6-8 in two postseasons since the last title, including the 2024 play-in tournament. It is 22-16 in the postseason (including play-in games) since losing the final in 2019.
The 77-28 postseason record from 2015 through 2019 is dynastic. Remember it for the greatness on display.
The Warriors have run the gamut of NBA experiences in the five seasons since ’19. Injuries made them the worst team in the league. They, with a touch of serendipity, won an NBA Finals. They were middle of the pack for the most part, as evidenced by their 197-186 regular season record.
Dynasties don’t include four cumulative sub-.500 seasons around one championship, even though that might have been more satisfying than the other three.
Dynasties don’t win everything every season, but they do play a role, usually being the team to be defeated by the eventual winner. Dynasties target the No. 1 overall seed for the playoffs and earn it or come close. They are, assuming good health, dissatisfied with anything less than the conference final and dissatisfied with anything less than the final.
The Warriors haven’t been the NBA’s unyielding force since Thompson’s knee, and a torn right Achilles tendon 17 months later, kept him off the court for about two and a half seasons.
Five consecutive trips to the final form a dynasty. If a team misses the playoffs three times in five seasons, the dynasty was gone long before that fifth season. How can a dynasty last ten seasons if three of the last five ended without the playoffs?
“People can be disappointed, we’re all disappointed,” Kerr said of the end of this season. “But I loved the twist in Klay and Draymond’s seasons. So for those three (including Curry), I really want to see them all end their careers here.
“But also finish their careers with a sense of pride and dignity in what they do and the way they go about their business.”
All three veterans, as well as Kerr, have a lot to be proud of. There is dignity in being a four-time champion on his way to the Hall of Fame. They have contributed enormously to something beautiful and rare.
The dynastic years are long gone, but they reshaped the existence of the Golden State Warriors. A franchise that spent most of its existence as plebeians is now officially NBA royalty.
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