Just like older sports fans have blinders on about the greatness of "their day" and refuse to acknowledge newer-generation players as being the greatest, younger fans have their own sets of blinders. In an age of social media, fancy gadgets, forms of entertainment on-demand, this has become an impatient, antsy, and OCD generation. In movies and TV people want dragons, mechs, CGI, and superheroes with powers. In technology people want virtual reality, portability, multiplayer battles epic in scale. And in sports people want fast and furious offenses. That's why the Warriors appeal to our younger generation. They are like a shiny object being dangled in the water. All the fish flock to it. The Warriors run up and down the court and shoot a lot of 3's. They pass, and cut, and area always on the move. They are OCD sports fan's dream. So it's easy to see why fans 40 and under might find them incredibly appealing and be partial to the Warriors, possibly rating them as the greatest team to ever play in the NBA. The problem is, the facts, match-ups, and stats simply don't back it up. The Warriors are a tremendous team, but when people start referring to them as "the greatest team in the history of professional sports!" that is when it's time for level-headed people to reel them back in and whip out the overrated tag.
On the surface, before losing game 4 "Fo Fo Fo Fo" sounded impressive, because it's never been done. However, considering that the NBA has only adopted the 7-7-7-7 format recently, and was 5-7-7-7 for quite a while before that, many of the NBA's great teams were not even eligible for "Fo Fo Fo Fo" anyway. Plus, their road to their championship was not all that impressive. The Trailblazers were average at best, and playing with an injured Jusuf Nurkic. The Jazz were were a little bit better, but playing with a gimpy Rudy Gobert. Then, of course, the Spurs were up 25 points in game 1 in Golden State, and lost their best player and MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard to an injury, while already missing arguably their best player in Tony Parker. I suspect the series would have gone 6 games with Kawhi Leonard playing, and with Gregg Popovich's coaching prowess able to match the Warriors with creative adjustments. The Warriors most assuredly would have won the first two rounds anyway, likely both still sweeps, but the conference finals would have been much closer, and the road certainly would have been tougher. Part of the backing of the "best ever" narrative is predicated on the easy road the Warriors had getting there, while people forget the road wasn't easy just because of the talent of Golden State, but because of the lack of talent and/or injuries of their opponents. The Cavaliers are a quality opponent, but don't forget, they finished 2nd in the East for a reason. Their defense has been poor all season long, and stylistically, they are a bad match-up for Golden State whose strength is their offense. The argument that the Cleveland is a juggernaut team that the Warriors are handling is just not true. Not to mention that if not for a late-game meltdown in game 3, this series would have been tied 2-2. This series is a lot closer than let on.
One area where I can say the Warriors rank among the best ever is on the offensive end. They are one of the most dynamic and explosive offenses you will ever see. They are not a complete team though, at least comparing them to all-time great teams in terms of rebounding and defense. Their defense was exposed quite a bit in game 4, allowing an inconceivable 86 first half points, and almost 140 for the game. Their defense allowed an average of 105 ppg on the season. Fine for today's NBA, but not even close to some of the best defensive teams throughout history. They have one great individual defender in Draymond Green. Klay Thompson is as solid as they come as a defender, but the over-eagerness to fellate the Warriors has people using hyperbole and exaggerations when analyzing his defense. The same goes for Kevin Durant. He has improved dramatically as a defender, but he is still far from what I'd call "great." If I'm going to start throwing around "best ever" labels, then that team has to be great or close to great in every single facet of the game. The Warriors are not. Not that the level of Jordan's Bulls, Magic's Lakers and Shaq's Lakers, Duncan's Spurs, among other historic teams.
Our younger generation prefers the sexier and sleeker tablet or Microsoft surface to a bigger and bulkier desktop that is infinitely more powerful in the same way that they prefer the eye candy of the Golden State Warriors over some superior, but less attractive teams of days past. Are they a sensational team? Of course. Best ever. Not so fast.
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