Fictional race car driver Ricky Bobby would always say that if you aren’t first, you’re last. It’s a bleak outlook to have within the context of competitive sports, but it probably taps into the psyche of many professional athletes.
There’s the champion, and then there’s a list of non-champions ranked in some order based on how early they failed in their quest to win a championship.
It’s a somewhat simplistic view, because not every team goes into a season with a realistic chance to win a championship.
Expectations are relative, and the success of a team’s season will differ depending on the franchise and their current status.
Remember how incredible it was for the “We Believe” Warriors to even get to the semifinals? It’d be a drastically different response if the Warriors last season had lost in the semifinals.
It’s not fair to call a season in which the regular season wins record was eclipsed a failure, but it certainly felt unfulfilled in a lot of ways.
A championship is the mark of a transcendent team, and it’s really hard to make a case for a team’s historical supremacy if they don’t have the hardware to back that claim up.
The 2007 New England Patriots are probably the best overall football team I’ve ever witnessed, and they might have been universally heralded as the greatest ever if David Tyree hadn’t have made that remarkable catch in the Super Bowl.
The “great team ever” label sounds trite without a championship. How can you be the greatest team ever if you didn’t even prove you were the best team that season?
The 2015-2016 Warriors will have to endure similar critiques that the 2007 Patriots have had to face.
Stephen Curry is saying that 74 wins isn’t a goal for this team next year. The only thing that matters is a championship.
It’s great to hear that Curry is championship or bust. That’s the mindset that a team this talented should have.
However, it’d be unfortunate if inference towards these comments lead to the belief that pursuing the regular season wins record in some way impeded their championship quest.
The objective evidence simply doesn’t support that claim. No Warriors player ranked in the top 20 in minutes per game, so any physical breakdown wasn’t the result of being overplayed.
The dominant fashion in which the Warriors were able to win some of their games actually provided key players with opportunities to rest.
The Warriors didn’t win the championship because they happened to play an extremely formidable Cavaliers squad, and in crucial moments of game 7, their shots stopped falling.
Any player would chose a championship over 74 wins if they had to pick between the two. However, my point is that I don’t think the pursuit of the regular season wins record necessarily impedes the pursuit of championship if handled properly.
Warriors World
Stephen Curry Says That 74 Wins Isn’t a Goal For the Team
Local Media
cleveland.com: NBA 2K17 Likes Cavaliers, but Loves Warriors
Blue Man Hoop: Who Will Get the Final Roster Spot on the Warriors?
National Media
NBC Sports: Stephen Curry Not Focused on 74 Wins
Bleacher Report: Stephen Curry Comments on Warriors’ Goals for 2016-2017