The Warriors just won 73 games. 73 games is more than any team ever won in NBA history. 73 games is more than Michael or Magic or Bird or Russell or Kobe ever won. One time Kobe took 74 shots in a game, but that’s a different story. Now the playoffs are here and everyone wants to know if the Warriors are going to win the championship. Who cares? The Warriors could get swept by the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs and it wouldn’t matter: they would still be one of the greatest teams, if not the greatest team, of all time.
Most of the time the champion is the best team. And once in awhile the NBA champion is one of the best teams ever, like the 72-win Michael Jordan Bulls. But sometimes the champion just kind of..gets there, like the 1978 Washington Bullets, a team that won only 44 games but somehow managed to win the postseason tournament. The point is: every year there’s an NBA champion, but only one team has ever won 73 games. Breaking the record is the greater accomplishment.
A lot of people think that winning a championship is the only thing that matters. I get it. I thought the same way until 2012. That year the Patriots demolished every other team in the NFL by winning their first 18 consecutive games. Crazy. Those Patriots were easily the best football team I’ve ever seen. Then they lost one game (the Super Bowl) and everyone acted like it was a huge disappointment, like the Patriots failed, like they they weren’t real champions. Please. Obviously the Giants weren’t the better team. They just won a single game. Shit happens.
I’m not saying that winning a championship isn’t cool. Each year, it’s the goal of every NBA team and, to be fair, championships are designed to determine the best team in a particular season. But if the Warriors lose in the playoffs, will anyone really think that they weren’t the NBA’s best team this season?
Some people who take themselves and basketball very seriously have criticized Steve Kerr for not resting his players while in pursuit of the record. They’ve criticized Steph Curry and the other Warriors for even wanting to break the record. They think that the Warriors have it twisted, that they should focus only on the championship. These people are insane. What higher goal is there in sports, or in anything in life for that matter, than being the greatest of all time?
Not even the Warriors, as proven by Mo Speights’ locker room video after the 73rd win, seem to realize what a huge deal breaking the record is. If you haven’t seen that video, watch it. Everyone seems happy, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are enjoying some well-earned potato chips, and we even get a triumphal glimpse of Brandon Rush’s penis, but we don’t see the Warriors popping bottles and celebrating like lunatics.
Everyone is missing the point. We don’t need the playoffs. We already know who the best team is. The city of San Francisco should just throw the Warriors a parade this weekend. Because it’s already happened. Let’s celebrate the greatest team in basketball history, championship or not.
