Kevin Durant and the Warriors: How did we get here?
By Eric He
You will fire your head coach and hire another broadcaster
You know the broadcaster for TNT? The color commentator alongside Marv Albert? Steve Kerr, the guy who made that clutch shot in the Finals once because Michael Jordan passed him the ball? Yeah, he’s the coach of the Warriors now.
And I know what you’re thinking — another broadcaster-turned-coach? Don’t we have one of those dudes as our head coach already, a dude who promised the playoffs his first season and instance wound up tanking for Harrison Barnes?
Don’t worry. Some crazy things will leak out about Mark Jackson, a man who banned Jerry West from practice, disliked watching film, made Festus Ezeli cry by turning the entire team against him, demoted an assistant coach to the D-League and had another fired for secretly recording conversations between coaches and players. The Warriors will make the playoffs each of the next two seasons, but Jackson will be fired, and he will be broadcasting the Warriors’ championship clincher the following year (yes, I know that last sentence sounds absolutely crazy).
But Steve Kerr — he will make this team do things you’d never thought you’d see in your lifetime. He will initiate an offensive system so ingenious, so beautiful and crisp to watch — centered around ball movement, spacing and up-tempo — that you wonder for a second if these are the Harlem Globetrotters or the Golden State Warriors.
He will take the “good” team that Jackson left behind and turn it into a “historically great” one, one that won 67 games and then a championship and followed that up with a record-breaking 73-win season. And through it all, he will remain incredibly humble, always saying the right things at press conferences, creating a true team mentality and positive culture that cultivates winning.
Next: And then the unthinkable will happen