"Everything ends badly; otherwise, it wouldn't end."
– Tom Cruise, "Cocktail."
The hardest part of seeing legends face their own sports mortality is the confusion. When players go from just good to great, to truly great, all-time players, they grow comfortable with shifting their minds and bodies into certain competitive spaces where normal teams can't touch them.
That greatness they've worked so hard to nurture comes through every action. It's in every rebound ripped away from a bigger opponent, every pass threaded through grasping hands and every momentum shot that bursts the home crowd open in rapture and leaves the road team distraught.
It's being sharper, faster, stronger, more determined, better than anything the opponent throws at them. And they go to that magic again and again through the years.
For the better part of nine years, when the Golden State Warriors had Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson on the floor together, they found it.
It was how they rallied from a 3-1 deficit vs. Oklahoma City in 2016. It was how they surged back against the Rockets in 2018. It was how they overcame LeBron James — a titan of his own — over and over again. It was how they threw it back in 2022 to win the title.
For a time, they were invincible, inevitable. They were the heroes for the Bay Area fans — and bandwagon obsessives all across the country — as they always found a way to make all the shots they needed to when they needed to. They were the "villain" for opposing fans who always stuffed them back in the locker.
Think of how many teams tried and failed to conquer Golden State in the Curry era.
James did it in 2016 and 2021, but he failed in 2014, 2017 and 2018. The Thunder, with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, came so close, only to fall apart and see Durant leave to join them. The Rockets truly had chances in 2015 and 2018, but James Harden and Chris Paul weren't enough.
So many legends fell short in trying to knock the Warriors from their lofty perch.
But on Tuesday, the skies were dark, except for a purple beam rising up. The Warriors were just another team to lose in the play-in tournament, the latest 10th seed (now 0-7) to fail to reach the postseason.
The Warriors reached for that magic and found enough in 2022. But then, last season, things started to change.
They were bad on the road. Thompson wasn't the same shooter. Green's antics seemed no longer worth dealing with, even with all the good defense and playmaking he brought.
The role players didn't fit perfectly like Shaun Livingston or David West. They were young players trying to, A) figure out their own games and B) earn their own careers.
This season, that magic was hardly there at all. You'd see Golden State go for it over and over, assuming it was just muscle memory, but when they flexed their hands, they would find lightning bolts, only to discover there was nothing but ash left slipping through their fingers.
Then: Klay Thompson
Thompson's Game 6 in Oklahoma City remains the most surreal game I've ever been to.
The 73-win Warriors, faced with elimination on the road in the toughest arena to play in, were doomed if not for maybe the greatest single-playoff-game shooting performance in league history.
After the game, I remember wandering around in a kind of daze after seeing what Thompson did, and when I'd look at a media member in the locker room or press conference area and raise my eyebrows, they would just shake their heads. It was shock. Everyone was shocked by what the Warriors had done.
It wasn't that they won — this team didn't win 73 games in a season by accident — but it was how they did so.
They were champions, not just in the league sense, as evidenced by their 2015 title, but in the oldest sense, like mythological, ahem, warriors. That's what that game felt like.
OKC had played amazingly in that series, enough to win against mortal teams. But it didn't play a mortal team; it played the Warriors.
Now: Klay Thompson
On Tuesday, Thompson went 0-of-10 from the field, his first game without a field goal since his rookie season.
What Thompson went through between 2019 and 2021 has been lost for various reasons. While the earth dealt with the ravaging of a global pandemic, Thompson tore his ACL and then his Achilles while on the verge of his return from the first injury.
It's not surprising that two years later, he looked like burnt toast. But watching his disbelief as every shot clanged off the rim, you're reminded of how much he gave just to get back on the floor.
Thompson's legacy has suffered the most in these later years, as everyone forgets that he's very likely the second-best shooter of all-time, or at the very least, on a very short list for it.
He was also the one who handled the toughest perimeter assignments defensively, and the one whose off-ball movement so often helped free Curry.
But now, he's a soon-to-be free agent in his mid-30's off two devastating injuries and an 0-of-10 outing in an elimination game. There might be a role for him with the Warriors or elsewhere, but it'll never be the same.
When he started coming off the bench this season, he and Steve Kerr talked about appreciating the end of this career. But seeing his disappointing performance vs. Sacramento, you're reminded that no one gets to choose how it ends, not all of it anyway.
Then: Draymond Green
Green was always ahead of the play. He would make every rotation. He knew just where to swipe to make a clean strip and who to challenge at the rim without fouling.
Green revolutionized the sport; not as much as Curry on offense, but on the defensive end, he was second to none.
The 2015 Warriors were the first team to lead the league in pace and defensive efficiency. They were fast, chaotic and up-tempo and were still able to get stops.
Green was also, in a lot of ways, the engine for the Warriors' offense. If there's a consensus as to what made the Warriors' offense structurally better than other teams — beyond the shooters' greatness and Curry — it was always that they used more off-ball movement and had great passers.
Green played a huge hand in that. He made the biggest plays that didn't make the highlight reels.
It was his move to the starting lineup for an injured David Lee in the 2013 Playoffs that started the "Warriors Era." He was divisive and infuriating, but he was also a winner who — for all his techs and faults — made the right play over and over again.
Now: Draymond Green
On Tuesday, early in the fourth quarter as the Warriors tried desperately to get any momentum, Green caught a wayward pass and stumbled into having his foot out of bounds. It was a crucial turnover at the worst time.
He lost Keegan Murray ducking behind a screen for one of his many 3s, and Green's eyes went to the sky, as if he was asking why the game had turned on him so suddenly.
This was the season where you started to get the sense that the team itself had finally had enough of Green's hijinx.
His suspension for repeated altercations was no longer the price you had to pay. It wasn't endearing; it was exhausting. Green seemed more out of control than ever, and it was when Curry needed him the most.
Green ran down Jordan Poole after their preseason altercation nearly two years ago. He spoke of not having a real relationship with Jonathan Kuminga. And he was defiant about his actions costing the team.
Green has nights where he's still elite. He shot 40% from 3 this season — a major improvement for him — but he no longer seemed ferocious. He was no longer dominant in winning his minutes.
Green finally reached a point where he wasn't a brilliant superstar every night. He was just an aging defender having a good shooting season while carrying a lot of baggage.
Then: Steph Curry
When people would marvel at Curry's shooting and say he was "an alien," I would always balk. This is not what aliens look like, as far as our culture goes.
No, instead, I said that Curry was like a demigod, blessed with magical powers to touch the son itself. His shot was like arrows of light.
It was only recently that I realized he was really the modern Apollo, blessed by the basketball gods with the purest shot.
No one thrilled fans like Curry did this century. LeBron may be the greatest of this generation, but people didn't pour into arenas to see his pre-game warm-up as they did for Curry in 2016. James didn't alter the shot profile of not just one generation, but all that came after it.
For a time, Curry and the Warriors were unstoppable, unbeatable. You could somehow solve their switching defense and somehow navigate all their off-ball movement, passing and complicated screens, and you'd still lose because Curry would always make the biggest shot.
He was something else, both unbelievable and so rooted in the purity of the game at the same time.
Curry was touched by the basketball gods, and every court was his kingdom.
Now: Steph Curry
But like Apollo, in time, Curry became mortal.
This season, you saw it so often: Curry would go on the run and hit all the shots and the Warriors would win the game. And then Curry just … missed.
Curry still led the league in 3-pointers this season. He'll likely lead it next season. There were stretches where he was still very much Steph.
In that way, he's in an unenviable position: seeing the end of his career on the horizon but knowing it's not as close for him as it is for his friends and teammates.
He has to wrestle not only with what he can sense is the diminishing nature of his game, but how to compete without betraying relationships he's held for over a decade, forged in blood, sweat, confetti and champagne.
“I just wanna win. Whatever that means, I just wanna win.” — Curry
— Marcus Thompson II (@ThompsonScribe) April 17, 2024
Curry tried over and over vs. the Kings, but they blanketed him with doubles and bodies at every angle. The younger sprier Keon Ellis shadowed him and never let him slip open on his relocations or off screens.
Curry finished with 22 points on a respectable 8-of-16, but he was just 3-of-7 from 3-point range. Sacramento let him have some layups while taking away the 3s and forcing turnovers.
Curry is still a really good player, but he's just mortal now.
The End of the Dynasty
Golden State beat this Kings team last season in Golden 1 Center because it still had enough of that championship essence it could find at the bottom of its bag.
But that's gone.
Each of the Warriors' Big Three will have to deal with new realities.
- Curry needs more help; he can't hold the team up to a championship level anymore.
- Green has to adapt; he can't fuel a championship engine anymore.
- And Thompson has the hardest road in front of him. Will the Warriors offer him another deal on a greatly reduced salary? Is he willing to take an even smaller role or pursue more money and shots elsewhere?
For as many comments as there were from Thompson, Green and Steve Kerr after the loss about keeping the team together, the front office has a fancy, relatively new building to fill. Fans can love what you gave them and still want more than what you can give them now.
The Warriors are no longer a threat in the West. The league has moved on.
The Warriors wouldn't have even had a shot this week were it not for the play-in tournament. They're just another team at this point.
If you wipe the dust off the bottle, you can still see the sparkle that made them magical. But it's still faded and only lasts for a short period of time.
The Warriors never led in the second half against Sacramento. It wasn't a glorious ending, losing on a buzzer beater or even Curry missing a game-winner. It was just a sad ending to a sad season for Golden State, marked by tragedy and disappointment.
The Warriors' dynasty ended badly on Tuesday.
Of course it did.
Otherwise, it wouldn't have ended at all.
