Golden State Warriors’ National TV Appearances Validate Elite Status

We’ve written nonstop over the past year about how the Golden State Warriors used to be the epitome of a pathetic franchise, suddenly became good, and now everything that’s happening seems surreal for those fans who lived through the dark, dark days.

As much as we want to stop gushing over it, we can’t. Not when typing “the Warriors are the defending NBA champions” still makes you go, “Wow, that actually happened.”

It continued on Wednesday with the release of the schedule for the upcoming season, which puts the Warriors on national television (ESPN, TNT, and ABC) a whopping 25 times. That’s not even including the nine games on NBATV. In essence, over 40 percent of the Warriors’ season will be televised nationally.

You don’t need to look it up to know that’s a franchise record (tied with the Cavaliers for most nationally televised games in the league), and this is a pretty big deal.

Indeed, the number of nationally-televised directly correlates to a team’s pertinency and interest level to the casual fan. TV executives don’t pick games out of a hat; they scrutinize and select the teams, matchups and games that they believe would draw the highest ratings — it’s why the Cavaliers, Clippers, Thunder, Bulls, Spurs, and Lakers will also be on national TV a lot.

That the Warriors are joining this elite group of “must watch” teams is the lede here. Remember just a few years ago when you’d see the same teams over and over again on TNT and ESPN and think, “Why is this team on national TV again? I just watched them two days ago!”

Yeah, the Warriors are now “that team.” Their first five games will all be televised nationally — the season opener at home against the Pelicans will be on TNT, followed by an ESPN game at Houston. The next two are on NBATV, and then another ESPN game against the Pelicans.

That’s just one example. The Warriors will be on national TV three times from Nov. 17-20, and then another five game stretch from Jan. 18-27.

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Wiz of Awes

If there are any basketball fans out there who are still unfamiliar with the Warriors’ roster, they will be well-versed by the time the 2015-2016 season ends.

And why the hell not? The Warriors are the most entertaining team in basketball, hands down. They are fun to watch — almost Harlem Globetrotter-like at times — with their up-tempo, pull-up-for-three-in-transition offense, a stark contrast to halfcourt-heavy teams such as the Grizzlies or Rockets who would bore the casual fan to sleep.

We should probably expect that the Warriors would receive a plethora of national attention considering that they’re defending champions, but somehow this seems like another validation that this franchise is legitimate and worthy of playing in primetime.

It’s a far cry from the good old days, when nationally-televised games would be so few and far between for the Warriors that I can still recall moments from those games, such as this one:

At the time, at least for me, the Warriors being on national television was a huge deal. It signified a sense of importance, a feeling that my team was being broadcast across the country and people from Los Angeles to New York were tuning in.

That was back then, when the Warriors were nowhere close to elite status and being shown on ESPN or TNT 1-2 times was probably one of the highlights of the season.

Not anymore. The Warriors are freaking incredibly good, in the top branch of elite teams, and being televised nationally is no longer the highlight of the season — winning a championship is.

So, I’ll try not to be shocked when I flip on ESPN, TNT, ABC, or NBATV this season and the Warriors are on (because there’s a nearly 50-50 chance they will be), but understand it’s still going to take a bit longer before I can fully process exactly what the Warriors — long-time perennial laughing-stock — have become.

Next: Warriors Schedule Released