The Warriors' game, last night, against The Oklahoma City Thunder, was extremely disappointing to anyone who self-identifies as an "Authentic" Warriors' fan. I have been a Warriors' basketball fan for a long time. Prompted by a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle, I looked into my past blog postings to see if they provided me with any evidence of just how long I have been following the team. I found that my blog posting for June 1, 2017, had this title: "Democracy And The Warriors." That indicates that I have been paying serious attention to the Warriors for over eight years - and probably longer than that. The theme of that 2017 blog posting, by the way, in case you don't want to click on the link and read it for yourself, was that the "team," rather than the various individual players, outstanding as many of those players were (and still are), is what has made the Warriors so great.
Apply that lesson to our own "political world," and you will understand one reason that I honor what is sometimes called, "Warriors' ball." Focusing on the "team," not on "individuals," is how we should be doing "politics," too, not just basketball. We are "in this together," and we should be glorying in that truth.
That recent article in The Chronicle that I mentioned is focused on an individual, not the team. The focus is on Steph Curry, who is pictured above. The title of the article, online, is as follows: "Watch Warriors’ Steph Curry Closely, And See What You’ve Been Missing." In the hardcopy version of the story, which I read in the morning on New Year's Eve, Scott Ostler's article had this title: "Curry Rolls With The Punches, And He's Having Fun Doing It." The last line suggests that Curry may be "trying to tell us something."
Let me quote from Ostler's article, noting that despite the focus on Curry as an individual, the story does emphasize the importance of the "team," too:
Curry is the last realist. He knows he doesn’t have some kind of golden entitlement to go out on top, to win one or two more titles. He knows this isn’t the 73-win Warriors, or even the 2022 miracle Warriors. This is a tougher slog, and he’s fine with that.
Curry is the glue. It’s been a rocky season, with head coach Steve Kerr going all Nutty Professor in juggling his rotation. Surely it was more fun for Curry in the old days, when every night, the same five strutted out for the opening tip-off. Now, some nights it must feel to Curry like he’s dropping into a blacktop pickup game, learning his teammates on the fly.
What other NBA team with even remote championship aspirations has only two players, Curry and Jimmy Butler, who are guaranteed to be in the starting lineup and the closing unit every game?
But Curry knows that all the juggling and experimenting is an ongoing effort to maximize Stephen Curry, so he doesn’t complain. He simply keeps adjusting to the adjustments.
Draymond Green could be a problem, with his erratic play and explosive temper. Give the fans a vote right now and Green would be gone tomorrow. But you know who’s riding with Green, warts and all? Curry.
Curry rolls with the changes. With Butler, the team has gone to a more pick-and-roll centric offense, but Curry can deal. He appreciates the incredible professionalism Butler brings to the party, the deep basketball wisdom.
Curry doesn’t complain about the Jonathan Kuminga situation, which would drive many superstars crazy. Your team is at an athleticism disadvantage every game, and yet your most athletic player can’t get off the bench? The strategy right now is to pretend Kuminga doesn’t exist?
Hey, Curry knows that’s part of the deal. He knows the GM is working to address the problem.
Curry plays on. Monday, the Nets threw the kids at him in waves, big and athletic. Third quarter, Curry hits a sidestep three over 6-foot-8 Egor Demin, who is 19. Then he dazzles and breaks down the agile, 6-11 Nic Claxton on a fadeaway three. Noah Clowney, 6-10 and age 21, can’t stay with the old man. Playing short minutes the night after a brutal overtime loss, Curry goes for 27, including five difficult 3-pointers.
Maybe it’s ultimately a losing battle. Last season’s 23-8 stretch run after Butler arrived, perhaps that was fool’s gold. The trade deadline may come and go, with no Butler-level miracle deal.
Whatever happens, Curry will roll with it and rise above.
It may be a losing battle, it may signal the fast approaching end of a career, but Curry, instead of crying, is fighting, and dancing, and it’s a hell of a show.
Maybe he’s trying to tell us something (emphasis added).
When I read the article from which I have just quoted, what struck me most forcefully was the idea that the Warriors' battle to continue to be a championship team could be a "losing battle," but that Steph Curry is not discouraged, or depressed, or disillusioned. He's "dancing," even though he may well know that the end is fast approaching.
Isn't life itself just like that? It's a "losing battle," because we all know that there's a fast approaching end, coming up quick. Faced with that existential reality (and so we all are), Steph isn't "crying," he's "dancing;" he is glorying in the life still in him, and....
Maybe Steph is trying to tell us something, not only about how basketball should be played, as years and disappointments take their toll, but how life should be played, how our brief life should be seen as a glory, not as what amounts to a failure, as hopes of greatness fade.
A "life lesson" from Stephan Curry? I do think he has a message for us all. I do think he is trying to "tell us something."
Ears to hear, anyone?
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