They shot well and scored in bunches, sure. Small ball scrubs who would always entertain, but would never win a championship. Point forwards, as many shooters as a lineup could fit, and a small lineup that can run circles around the opposition.īut Nelson wasn't a championship coach: his teams were anachronistic sideshows. ![]() In a way, today's league is simply the NBA as Nelson saw it four decades ago. ![]() There is a narrative to be written than the history of the modern NBA is the history of Don Nelson. Necessity is the mother of all innovation, and Nelson's lack of top-end centers lead the coach to find new ways to even the playing field, even if it meant upsetting every basketball truism in the book. As early as the 1970s, Nellie Ball was tweaking lineups down in size, contrary to the rest of the NBA, as the mad genius coach realized that smalls had a fundamental advantage over bigs - they were almost always faster, more agile, and better shooters. They owe that to Don Nelson, who constantly innovated ways to increase scoring unlike any coach in history. The Warriors are the most dyed-in-the-wool three-point franchise, ever. Let's put it another way: why do some of the same people who respect Isaiah Thomas and Michael Jordan consistently fail to credit these Warriors? What other people are saying: African-Americans and analytics Warriors become legendary But why don't Stephen Curry and the Warriors get the same credit from the Barkley's of the world? But their greatness would be seriously in doubt if they weren't the big, huge, super star champions who battled for glory. Far from it: Larry Bird and Magic Johnson were two of the very best to ever do it. Not to say that great big men, or old super stars didn't pass. But that line of thinking fails to mesh with, y'know, teamwork and passing. Greatness was carrying lesser teammates to a championship. And talent, in a game featuring a ten-foot-high cylinder, was all about tall folks who could reach that rim, and other guys who could get those tall guys the ball. Without a genius strategy, the sport becomes a meritocracy for talent. There were fewer philosophical shifts in the game than we've had in sports, recently, and the game was always taught the same way. And with apologies to the great teams and individuals of yesteryear, it was largely stagnant. For basketball eons, the game has been played a certain way. This train wreck of logical thought isn't an accident. They're not the most talented, and yet they just won the most games in NBA history - as a defending champion. ![]() They're a jump shooting team, yet they are one of the better teams at scoring in the paint. They're soft, yet they possess an elite defense (anchored by three deserving all-NBA defenders), and a few of their big men keep drawing criticism for dirty play or unnecessary roughness. They're not athletic, yet they consistently run one of the fastest paces in NBA history. The Golden State Warriors are a 15-man contradiction. And for reasons outside of their control, the Warriors find themselves at the heart of this revolution. The sentiments of Charles Barkley, and other former players like him, may be evidence of a pervasive mindset in basketball that is only now being challenged. In fact, he may have looked more disappointed than when his own Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns or Houston Rockets lost in the playoffs, years ago.īut how can that be? Isn't his act just a gimmick? A fun, harmless joke that gets viewers talking #NBAonTNT? Perhaps, but perhaps not. He looked as if his own team had just lost a game seven. ![]() After Monday night's epic game seven victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, NBA analyst Charles Barkley was downright despondent.
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