Last week, nearly 35 NBA stars were invited to train and practice with the US National Team. There, they traded tips and worked to show their worth. The United States is the powerhouse in basketball and will look to exert their dominance once again. The Golden State Warriors were well represented in Las Vegas.
-== 8 Moves That Paved Way for Warriors’ NBA Title ==-
Training for the chance to play in the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Warriors had four young champions representing the team. The four players were almost five but Coach K advised Andre Iguodala to go on his honeymoon instead. The four Warriors were: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Harrison Barnes.
Ken Berger of CBS Sports was able to catch the Warriors in Las Vegas. Berger mentioned that the sports betting odds weren’t exactly backing the Warriors to repeat:
The Warriors aren’t favored to repeat. Does that motivate you to protect what you’ve earned and validate it?
Curry: It’s kind of funny that we obviously are the champs and you’ve got to think that we’re going to be a better team next year with our experiences that we’ve had, and we’re not the favorites. Obviously there’s been a lot of noise, teams retooling and trying to boost their lineups. Half these teams that haven’t set foot on the floor yet and are heavily favored to knock us off our throne. So we obviously know what’s going on and it’s up to us to keep our momentum that we built.
Green: Hey, we won a championship; that’s valid enough. However, as every year is, the West is going to be tough. With KD [Kevin Durant] being healthy and Russ [Westbrook] being healthy the whole season, that’s a contending ballclub every year with those guys healthy. The Spurs are always good. Always. You add another All-Star to the equation, and that makes them a serious contender. I think the Clippers got better. A lot of teams got better, and that’s the nature of this game. But we’re going to go in with the same mentality we did last year, and that’s with one goal, one mindset — and that’s to win it all. Regardless of who did what, that’s going to always be our goal.
Thompson: That’s fine. You can’t buy into the media. They’ve got a job to do, and the Spurs and all the teams that made those big moves deserve that hype. It’s exciting for the NBA. We were satisfied with the showing we got, and all we needed was to see that parade. That parade was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in my life — a million people at your feet, not worshipping you, but embracing you for what you did for the city. It was unreal.
Barnes: I think it’s great that those teams got better. We feel like we got better, too, with the experiences that we went through as a team. But that’s just the nature of the business; the teams that make the big moves in the summertime get all the attention.
It’s true, the West definitely is a tougher conference to play in. The teams have been competitive and with the offseason moves, they look to catch the Warriors. Teams like the San Antonio Spurs and the Los Angeles Clippers got better while the Oklahoma City Thunder just look to get healthy.
Winning a championship is never easy and doing it twice is even more difficult. With the target on their back, they’ll have to continue to prove the doubters wrong.