S P E C I A L N B A C H A M P I O N S H I P C O M M E M O R A T I V E

THE
WARRIORS
DYNASTY
LIVES ON
Stephen Curry turned
in a series for the ages
to win his fourth ring and
first NBA Finals MVP.
PHOTOGR APH BY GREG NEL SON
VISIT…
 GOL DEN S TAT E WA R R IOR S
2 0 2 2 N B A C H A M P I O N S | S P E C I A L C O M M E M O R AT I V E I S S U E

2 50
THE FANTASTIC FOURTH THE HEROES
The Warriors rebounded from a series of 52 Stephen Curry
lows to claim the NBA title B Y HO WA RD BE CK The greatest shooter ever somehow
6 remains underrated B Y HO WA RD BE CK
THE SEASON IN PICTURES 60 Klay Thompson
Core vets and key additions made for a The swingman came back from injury with
winning campaign something to prove B Y HO WA RD BE CK
64 Andrew Wiggins
24 The 2014 No. 1 pick found new purpose in
THE PLAYOFFS
Golden State B Y MICH A EL PIN A
26 Western Conference Opening Round
A two-time defending MVP wasn’t enough 68
to stop the Warriors B Y MICH A EL SH A PIRO THE HISTORY
30 Western Conference Semifinals 68 All-Time Team
Golden State’s old guard sent Memphis’s Golden State’s greats include legendary
young guns packing B Y M A RK BE CH T EL scorers and do-it-all glue guys
34 Western Conference Finals 78 SI and the City
A healthy-again Klay Thompson helped The Warriors’ history is told through
doom the Mavericks B Y ROH A N N A DK A RNI the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
38 NBA Finals GANG OF FOUR
The Celtics were no match for a sizzling Green, Thompson and Curry
Steph Curry B Y CHRIS M A NNI X celebrated their fourth title together.

BACK COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY GREG NEL SON

GREG NELSON

SPORT S ILLUSTR ATED PRESENT S IS PUBLISHED BY THE ARENA MEDIA BR ANDS, LLC. ALL RIGHT S RESERVED. REPRODUC TION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS
PROHIBITED. SPORT S ILLUSTR ATED IS A REGISTERED TR ADEMARK OF ABG-SI LLC. © 2022 ABG-SI LLC. PRINTED IN THE U.S. A .

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 1

 Adapted f rom SI.com
June 17, 2022

THE
FANTASTIC
FOURTH
THE LOW MOMENT S ON THIS LONG
T I T L E T R E K M A D E I T S C U L M I N AT I O N
ALL THE MORE SPECIAL
BY
HOWARD BECK

T
HE Y ’D D A NCED this celebratory
dance before, the steps familiar, the
rhythm ever-changing: first, with an
innocent joyfulness, later with a chest-
thumping exuberance. And this time,
with tears and defiance and a renewed
appreciation for the journey.
The Warriors of Golden State reclaimed their preemi-
nence, dispatching the Celtics in a six-game NBA Finals,
earning their fourth championship in eight years and
cementing them among the greatest dynasties of all time.
It bore all the familiar features—all the Stephen Curry
threes (and shimmies), all the Klay Thompson shoot-
ing f lourishes, all the Draymond Green bravado and
defensive brilliance that carried this team to glory in
2015 and ’17 and ’18.
And yet it was ultimately like none of them, and per-
haps a little sweeter. Not more significant, but maybe
more gratifying. Because the Warriors of 2022 didn’t
have the youthful legs they did in ’15, or the sheer,
E R I C K W. R A S C O

overwhelming firepower they did in ’17 and ’18. They

had shed some high-powered talent along the way, said
farewell to friends along the way, shredded ligaments

2 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

 ALL THE FEELS
Reactions ranged from joy to
tears of relief and exhaustion as
the Warriors rebounded from down
seasons to claim another title.

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 3

 FANTASTIC FOURTH

and fractured bones along the way, and were forced to winning percentage in nearly two decades. And by
consider whether they could ever do this again. some accounts, they still hadn’t bottomed out. That
So when the final seconds were expiring on a 103–90 moment came a month before the start of the season, on
victory in Game 6, Curry did not whoop or hop or pump Nov. 19, 2020, when Thompson—having fully recovered
his fists. He got misty-eyed. Put his hands on his head. from his ACL tear—ruptured his right Achilles, putting
Dropped to the floor. And let the tears flow. him back on the shelf for another 14 months.
“These last two months of the playoffs, these last “I was just getting back in game shape and feeling
three years, this last 48 hours, every bit of it has been great,” Thompson says.
an emotional roller coaster, on and off the floor,” Curry
said later. “And you get goose bumps just thinking about
all those snapshots and episodes that we went through
to get back here, individually, collectively.”
The emotional nadir on the road to get to this title?
There were so many to choose from.
Kevin Durant’s blown Achilles in the 2019 Finals.
Thompson’s blown ACL three days later. Durant’s
defection to Brooklyn a few weeks after that. The trade
of Andre Iguodala, the ’15 Finals MVP, for salary-cap
purposes. And that was just one summer.
Then came Curry’s broken hand, in a freak accident
that October, in the fourth game of the 2019–20 season.
“That was probably the emotional low point,” coach
Steve Kerr said. “We could feel it’s gonna be a tough year
already without Klay and with just losing so many guys.

“ THESE L A ST T WO MONTHS OF THE PL AYOFFS , THESE L A ST THR EE

Y E A R S , T H I S L A S T 4 8 H O U R S , ” S A I D C U R R Y, “ E V E R Y B I T O F I T H A S

BE E N A N E MOT IONA L ROL L E R C OA ST E R , ON A N D O F F T H E F L O O R .”

And then when we lost Steph, it was like, You gotta be
kidding me. Like, What is happening?’ ”
It quickly got worse. By late December the Warriors
were 5–24, already out of the playoff race. Green was
their sole remaining All-Star. And he was miserable,
later admitting he briefly lost his love for the game.
“You play basketball at the highest level, and then to
go play at the absolute lowest level,” says Green, reflect-
ing back, “that’s no fun.”
The entire franchise winced with him. A second
straight season without Thompson would be a struggle.
Which brings us to one last low and the moment when
even some team officials felt their faith wane.
It was December 2020, and the Warriors opened their
COVID-19-delayed season by getting routed, in succes-
sion, in Brooklyn (125–99) and Milwaukee (138–99).
“We got crushed,” Warriors GM Bob Myers says. “I
was sitting there thinking, I don’t know what we’re gonna
BRIAN BABINE AU/NBAE/GE T T Y IMAGES

Three hundred ninety-two miles to the south, Curry
spent two months in Hermosa Beach, working daily
with a hand therapist after surgery and watching his
team lose in his absence.
“You talk about low point,” Curry says, “but that was
where it seemed like there was the most amount of work
to do to get back to this stage.”
That season’s 15–50 record was the Warriors’ worst
do. And that was probably the low point. In this job,
you know you’re gonna lose. But when you’re getting
destroyed, it’s almost like there was a futility at the
outset of that as an executive, thinking, I may have really
screwed this up.”
But the Warriors’ run wasn’t over, just momentarily
stalled. Myers hadn’t screwed up; he just hadn’t yet
figured out the way forward.

4 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS


There’s a transaction that still haunts Myers, but it’s
the one that made this entire revival possible: the trade
that sent Iguodala (and his contract) to Memphis.
That deal in July 2019 allowed the Warriors to exe-
cute the sign-and-trade transaction that sent Durant to
Brooklyn in exchange for D’Angelo Russell. And they
eventually parlayed Russell into Andrew Wiggins, who
became an absolutely essential piece.
“It’s the worst thing,” Myers says of parting with
Iguodala. “The worst thing. It felt immoral. It felt like,
this isn’t how you treat somebody that’s done what he’s
done for us.”
And yet those maneuvers were critical for the Warriors
to infuse the roster with new talent.
GREG NELSON
Myers and Kerr knew this much, too: Change was
essential, unavoidable. Dynasties grow weary and
stale. They need fresh energy. Kerr had lived it, as a
SUMMIT MEETINGS
Kerr and Myers (opposite) faced moments of
doubt that their team would again climb the
winners’ podium for a trophy presentation.
member of the Bulls’ second three-peat in the 1990s.
The Warriors were the first team in the modern era to
make five straight Finals, and the toll was evident—even
without the injuries.
“The hard part was just how physically and emotion-
ally spent we were after five years,” Kerr said. “The
absolute and utter exhaustion is something that nobody
can really understand unless they were part of the run.”
And so Myers started shuffling the deck, making cal-
culated bets and methodically replenishing the rotation.
There were misfires (Kelly Oubre Jr., Kent Bazemore), but
many more hits: Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Gary Payton II,
Otto Porter Jr., all key contributors this season.
“There was never a moment where we felt it was over,”
Kerr said. “There was always the thought in the back
of our minds, or even in the front, that when we get
everybody back, we can make another push.”
The stars would eventually get healthy again. Along
the way, the Warriors made the bold decision not to
trade their high draft picks for veterans. They would
instead pursue a dual path: title contention now, player
development to ensure their future.
Those prospects—2020 No. 2 pick James Wiseman
and ’21 lottery selections Jonathan Kuminga and
Moses Moody—had a negligible impact on this run.
Had Golden State lost, Myers and owner Joe Lacob
would have been lit up by Warriors fans. But the
gambit worked.
“No one’s done it, I know. And we got criticized,”
Lacob says. “But this is what we’re doing. We believe
in this plan. That’s our plan. And look, I hate to say I
told you so . . .”
They can say it now. They pulled it off. The Warriors
are champions again. Their present is assured, and
their future is bright. As Lacob sees it, sports science
can help Curry, Thompson and Green play into their
late 30s. The prospects will grow into greater roles and
help ease their burden as the years advance.
“I never thought we were done,” Lacob says. “Personally,
I think we’re set up for the rest of the decade.”
From the owner’s suite to the locker room, the belief
endures. The swagger endures. It carried them through
the crash and burn of the 2019 Finals, through all the
physical and emotional trauma, through all the difficult
goodbyes and calculated gambles, through all the tears
of anguish until finally, standing on the historic parquet
in Boston, they could shed tears of joy.
GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 5
 THANK S T O THE ADDITION OF SMAR T FREE-AGENT SIGNINGS AND
F R E SH Y O UNG FA C E S , ONC E A G A IN C ON T E NDE D F OR A T I T L E

SURPRISE RISE
Gary Payton II had to play
his way onto the roster
in preseason, but the
29-year-old journeyman
emerged as a fan favorite
for his highlight-reel dunks
and tight defense. He also
shot 35.8% from three
over 71 games.
JE D J A C OB S OHN / NB A E /GE T T Y IM A GE S
eason
 SE ASON IN PICTURES

WELCOME BACK
After missing all of the last two seasons with
injuries, Klay Thompson’s January return buoyed the
spirits of Dubs fans—and gave the team a lift.

NOAH GR AHAM/NBAE/GE T T Y IM AGES ( T HOMPSON) ; ROCK Y WIDNER/NB AE /GE T T Y IM AGES (KUMINGA)

8 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

 STUDENT
AT H L E T E
The seventh pick of
the draft, 19-year-old
Jonathan Kuminga
wowed fans with
his rare athleticism
while averaging
9.3 points, and,
during the conference
semifinals, he became
the youngest player to
start an NBA playoff
game since 1971.
 S TA R T I N G W I T H A S P L A S H
Stephen Curry, showered by
Gary Payton II (far left) and
Damion Lee after a season-opening
win against the Lakers, had plenty
to celebrate in 2021–22, including
becoming the NBA’s career
three-point leader in December.
K E V OR K D J A NSE Z I A N /GE T T Y IM A GE S
 ANOTHER
BROTHER
Jordan Poole
added plenty of
splash in his third
season, breaking
out to average
18.5 points.
 SE ASON IN PICTURES

LOCAL HERO
East Oakland native Juan Toscano-Anderson
was a reliable spark off the bench in his third
Warriors season, shooting 48.9%.
GREG NEL SON (POOLE ); JED JACOBSOHN/NBAE/GE T T Y IMAGES ( TOSC ANO-ANDERSON)

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 13

 LOUD AND PROUD
Draymond Green was named
to his fourth All-Star team
and seventh All-Defensive
team—and kept it lively with
commentary on the court
and on his podcast.
NO A H GR A H A M / NB A E /GE T T Y IM A GE S
 SE ASON IN PICTURES

FA M I L I A R FA C E
Andre Iguodala, 38, returned to Golden State
after two seasons in Miami and brought a
steady hand to the second unit.

ADAM PAN TOZ ZI/NB AE /GE T T Y IM AGES (IGUODAL A) ; S T EPHEN L AM/ T HE S AN FR ANCISCO CHRONICL E /GE T T Y IM AGES (POR T ER)

KE Y REINFORCEMENT
Veteran free agent
Otto Porter Jr. brought
length and depth to the
lineup, as the 6' 8" lottery
pick stepped in to start
15 games, averaged
8.2 points for the season
and shot 37.0% from three.

16 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

YOUTH MOVEMENT
The second of the Warriors’ two
first-round picks this season,
Moses Moody flashed potential,
earning 11 starts and shooting
36.4% from three.
 SE ASON IN PICTURES

B A R T YOUNG/NB A E /GE T T Y IM AGES (MOODY ) ; MICHAEL GONZ AL ES/NB A E /GE T T Y IM AGES (B JEL IC A)

DEEP THINKING
Another veteran free-agent pickup,
Nemanja Bjelica helped stretch the floor,
shooting 36.2% from beyond the arc.

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 19

ACHIE VING
A FIRST
In his second full season
in Golden State, 2014
No. 1 pick Andrew Wiggins
made his first All-Star
team while averaging
17.2 points and 4.5 boards
and having a career-best
defensive rating.
JE R OME MIR ON / U S A T OD AY SP OR T S
 SE ASON IN PICTURES

OUTBURST ALERT
In his fourth Warriors season Damion Lee
showed offensive breakout potential,
topping 20 points in three games.

D AV I D S H E R M A N / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ( L E E ) ; K Y L E T E R A D A / U S A T O D AY S P O R T S ( L O O N E Y )

22 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

 MR. DEPENDABLE
Kevon Looney was
one of only five NBA
players to appear in
every game in 2021–22,
and he averaged
a career-best
7.3 rebounds while
shooting 57.1%.
T H E WA R R I O R S B E AT T H E N U G G E T S , G R I Z Z L I E S A N D M AV E R I C K S — E A C H
L E D B Y P L AY E R S W H O F I N I S H E D A H E A D O F S T E P H C U R R Y I N
T H E M V P V O T I N G —T O R E A C H T H E I R S I X T H F I N A L S I N E I G H T S E A S O N S

The Pl
 O.K., CORR AL!
Locking up Luka Dončić was
key in Golden State’s five-game
series victory over Dallas in
the Western Conference finals.
PHOTOGRAPH BY
GR EG N ELSON

ayoffs
 ROCK Y
M O U N TA I N H I G H
Green aided the
attack on offense
while also limiting
Denver’s Jokić on D.

W E S T E R N C ONF E R E NC E OP E NING R O UND

W A R R I O R S D E F E A T N U G G E T S 4 –1

G O L D E N S TAT E B E G A N I T S T I T L E
M A RCH BY BL OW ING PA S T A T E A M LED BY
T H E L E A G U E ’ S T W O -T I M E M V P
BY
MICHAEL SHAPIRO

F
OLLOWING GAME 3 of the Warriors’
first-round series against the Nuggets,
Draymond Green offered a simple truth
as he addressed the media in Denver.
“Everybody not made for the playoffs,” he
said after Golden State took a 3–0 series
lead with a 118–113 victory. “You look around and some
guys who you think are guys, are not guys in the playoffs.
“That’s just what it is.”
Green’s comment wasn’t meant as a jab at two-time
MVP Nikola Jokić—whom Green lauded after a 37-point,
R AY C H AV E Z / M E D I A N E W S G R O U P/ T H E M E R C U R Y N E W S / G E T T Y I M A G E S

18-rebound performance—and he wasn’t singling out

any Nugget in particular. Perhaps Green’s words were
a self-affirming statement: He was a playoff guy. He
certainly played like one. After missing the last two
postseasons, Green and the Warriors looked like they
were back where they belonged.
The stats will tell you that Jokić turned in his usual
brilliant production against Golden State. The Serb is
now the only player this century to average 31 points,
13 rebounds and five assists in a postseason (minimum
five games), and he did this despite Denver missing

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 27

 WESTERN CONFERENCE OPENING ROUND

its second- and third-best players, Jamal Murray and

Michael Porter Jr., due to injury. (“We’re in a Pinto; they’re
in a Maserati,” quipped Nuggets coach Michael Malone.)
Yet Jokić’s impressive numbers hid the frustration
Green caused. Jokić was ejected after a second technical
during a blowout Game 2 loss, and for the series the key
distributor in Denver’s offense had 24 turnovers against
just 29 assists. In Games 1 and 2 he was a minus-45 in
his 63 minutes.
“Draymond’s the best defender in the world,” veteran
Klay Thompson said after Game 1. “Without him, we’re
not the Warriors.”
Of course, Green didn’t single-handedly shut down
Jokić, and he wasn’t the only defender to take him on.
But when Green was on another Nugget, he was still
tracking Jokić off screens or guarding him directly in
pick-and-rolls, and he was still monitoring the action
from afar, shrinking the floor and attempting to short-
circuit Jokić’s influence as a helper.
The series wasn’t won on defense alone. Golden State
got 30 points from Jordan Poole in the opener, his playoff
debut. Poole started Game 1 in place of Steph Curry, who
came off the bench because he was nursing an ankle
injury. Poole was in the starting lineup again in Game 2,
dropping 29 points, with Curry chipping in 34 points

C L O C K W I S E F R O M B O T T O M L E F T: E Z R A S H A W/ G E T T Y I M A G E S ( 2 ) ; R AY C H AV E Z / M E D I A N E W S G R O U P/ T H E M E R C U R Y N E W S / G E T T Y I M A G E S
in 23 minutes as a reserve.
In Game 3, Denver had a chance to get back in the
series. The Nuggets led by a bucket going into the fourth
and had a two-point lead before Andrew Wiggins hit
a three with 3:05 left to put Golden State up 112–111.
Denver scored just two points the rest of the way, and
Green iced the 118–113 win by picking Jokić’s pocket
with 35 seconds left. “For Draymond to battle [Jokić]
all night and to make that play in the end was just a
huge part of the win,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
With the series all but over, Denver won Game 4 before
the Dubs completed the gentleman’s sweep in Game 5
with a 102–98 win.
Afterward, Green had some more direct words for
Jokić: “I told him thank you for making me better. It’s
an honor and a pleasure to play someone so skilled.
Usually when you have guys that talented and skilled,
they’re soft. And he’s far, far from soft.”
Green would know. He’d just come out on top for the
19th time in his last 21 postseason series. It’s like he
said: Some people are made for the playoffs.

FA S T W O R K
Poole (opposite) broke out for 30 points in
his playoff debut and averaged 21.0 for the
series, while Curry (top) and Otto Porter Jr.
contributed to Denver’s quick exit.

28 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

 W E S T E R N C ONF E R E NC E S E MIF IN A L S
WARRIORS DEFE AT GRIZ ZLIES 4–2

G O L D E N S TAT E O V E R C A M E A T O U G H T E S T
F R O M A TA L E N T E D Y O U N G M E M P HI S T E A M L E D
B Y B U D D I N G S U P E R S TA R J A M O R A N T
BY
MARK BECHTEL

E
ARLY IN THE playoffs, Memphis point
guard Ja Morant explained the philo-
sophy he has when the ball is in his
hands. “I pretty much read the defense,”
he said. “They take me away. I know
my teammate’s open. They take my
teammates away, then I go score. Cat and mouse. It’s
not as hard as people think.”
It takes a special kind of 22-year-old to insist that pick-
ing apart an NBA defense is easy, but in Games 1 and 2
against the Warriors, the Grizzlies’ third-year star often
made it look that way. Golden State seemed content to
make the speedy Morant beat them as a jump shooter,
sagging into the lane to limit his drives. The strat-
egy was reminiscent of how the Warriors handled
Russell Westbrook when he was leading the Thunder.
It didn’t pay off this time, though, as Morant hit nine
G A R R E T T E L LW O O D / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S

triples in the first two games, and Memphis looked

capable of taking the Warriors to the limit.
Golden State barely escaped with its Game 1 win.
Draymond Green was ejected shortly before halftime
for a flagrant foul, and the final minute of the game was

30 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

 STILL GOT IT
Curry, driving here
during a Game 4 win,
delivered 26.0 points
per game in taking
out Memphis.
 WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

fraught. Klay Thompson gave the Warriors a 117–116

lead with 36.6 seconds left. After Steph Curry blocked a
Morant shot, Thompson was fouled with 6.7 seconds left.
But the man who hit 90.2% of his free throws during the
season missed both, allowing Memphis to set up a play
for Morant, whose scoop at the buzzer was off-target.
In Game 2, though, Morant’s brilliance was the story.
He scored 47 points, including the final 15 for Memphis,
and his last two baskets illustrated his maturity. He
passed up three-point attempts when dared to shoot by
Golden State’s defense—but he didn’t bury his head in
a sprint toward the rim, either. Instead, Morant calmly
worked his way inside the foul line, contorting past a
defender each time for a pair of finishes in the lane.
The 106–101 win was chippy—Gary Payton II suffered
a broken elbow after taking a shot from Grizzlies guard
Dillon Brooks, who was ejected, and Green and Morant
each got hit in the eye. It looked as if the teams were on
their way to a seven-game classic, a clash between the
old and new guard. Then Game 3 happened.
Coach Steve Kerr, who had been slow to make defen-
sive adjustments in the first two contests, threw a variety
of looks at Morant, going zone far more frequently than
he had and occasionally blitzing him with Green and
Kevon Looney. Morant still scored 34 points, but the
Warriors won 142–112, and, more significantly, he left
late in the fourth quarter with a knee injury that would
sideline him for the rest of the series.
Golden State won a tight Game 4 101–98 to go up 3–1
before inexplicably slumping in a 134–95 Game 5 loss.
Back in San Francisco, though, the Warriors brought
the series to an end with a decisive 110–96 win. Curry
had 29 points, and Thompson delivered his best game
of the playoffs to that point, dropping eight threes on
the way to 30 points.
After the game, Brooks told the media that while
Memphis may have come up short in 2022, he didn’t
consider the battle done with. “They know that we’re
going to come every single year,” Brooks said. “We’re
young; they’re getting old so they know we’re coming
every single year.” Morant had a less pugnacious way
of expressing a similar sentiment. Online he replied to
a picture of him and Curry by tweeting, “fav matchup.
[flexing emoji] looking forward to more battles 30.”
J O E M U R P H Y/ N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ( 3 )

The Warriors, meanwhile, had their eyes on the next

round and their quest for another championship.

MASTERING MEMPHIS
Looney (opposite) had 22 rebounds in Game 6,
while Jonathan Kuminga (above) had some
strong outings against the Grizz; at the end,
Curry and Morant showed mutual respect.

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 33

 Adapted f rom SI.com
Ma y 27, 2022

W E S T E R N C ONF E R E NC E F IN A L S
W A R R I O R S D E F E A T M AV E R I C K S 4 –1

G O L D E N S TAT E S A I L E D P A S T D A L L A S A N D
E N J O Y E D A S TA R ’ S R E T U R N T O
F ORM IN THE SERIES CL OSEOU T GA ME
BY
ROHAN NADKARNI
Photographs by Greg Nelson

W
ITH A LITTLE more than three
minutes to go in Game 5 of the
Western Conference finals,
Klay Thompson took a pull-
up jumper in the lane that
was rejected by Dallas guard
Spencer Dinwiddie. No worries. Thompson finagled the
rebound and rose up for another two from the elbow. Still,
no dice. He air-balled it. But Kevon Looney scooped up
the rebound—one of his 18 in that game—as Thompson
moved to the right corner. The ball found its way back
to Klay, and this time he sank a three, his eighth of the
game. That extinguished the Mavs’ faintest glimmer of
hope at a comeback. The Warriors, up 15 at that point,
won 120–110 to return to the NBA Finals.
That sequence from Thompson, and really his whole
season, was a microcosm of the Warriors in 2022. The
group was a little battered and not as straight-shooting
as it once was. They were fallible. But when the stakes
were the highest, the team still found a way.
POSTER BOY
Wiggins’s devastating Golden State’s dismantling of the Mavericks meant
dunk over Dončić that it would compete in the NBA Finals for the sixth
highlighted the
Warriors’ 109–100
win in Game 3.

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 35

 WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

time in eight years, a feat last accomplished by Jordan’s

Bulls (and only Magic’s Lakers and Russell’s Celtics before
that). This is not the scariest version of the Warriors. This
isn’t a 73-win juggernaut. This team isn’t at the level of
“Kevin Durant ruined the NBA.” This is an older and
creakier group at its core. Yet it charged through the first
three rounds of the playoffs with only four losses. The
old crew still had it, even if, as Thompson himself has
noted, the team doesn’t have as much leeway as it had
in the past, and so must be more meticulous.
Thompson struggled for much of the conference
finals, even as his team was outclassing the Mavericks.
Golden State had opened the series with a 112–87 blow-
out win as Steph Curry led the way with 21 points while
Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole scored 19 each. In
Game 2, Curry erupted for 32 points while Kevon Looney
contributed a career-best 21 points in a 126–117 win. In
Game 3, Wiggins took center stage, scoring 27, including
a ferocious dunk over Dončić that was the highlight of
the game, if not the series. Dončić rebounded to carry
the Mavs to their first win of the series, in Game 4.
To that point against Dallas, Thompson had yet to
have a breakout effort, and had made only seven threes
in the first four games combined. In Game 5, though, he
added another chapter to his tome of closeout heroics
with his record-setting fifth playoff game with eight
threes as part of his game-high 32 points.
Visions of nights like this were what kept Thompson
motivated as he worked for two-plus seasons to recover
from an ACL tear in the 2019 Finals and then an Achilles
tear before the 2020–21 season.
“I dreamt about this every day,” Thompson said after
the game, adding, “My thoughts go to the surgery table,
my appreciation for moving my body again. I thought
about those days I couldn’t run or jump. I thought about
how lucky we are to do what we do. It’s inspiring for
myself to keep going.”
A year ago at this time, Thompson had only just begun
running and jogging. His rehab wasn’t always fun. He
grew sick of doing 1,000 calf raises a day. The training
staff kept imploring him to endure, telling him that the
work would pay off one day. Said Thompson, “The low
moments make the high ones so much sweeter. That’s
what I’ve learned.”
He had now earned the chance to compete for another
NBA title and a moment that would be sweeter still.
J O H N W. M C D O N O U C H ( P O O L E )

DRIVING OFF DALL AS

Thompson (opposite) had eight of
his 15 three-pointers in Game 5;
Poole’s contributions for Steve Kerr (left)
included 23 points in Game 2.

36 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

DRIVE TIME
Curry helped finished off
Boston with 34 points on
12-for-21 shooting in a
103–90 win in Game 6.
PHOTOGRAPH BY
GR EG N ELSON
 T H E C E LT I C S T O O K T W O O F T H E F I R S T T H R E E G A M E S , B U T T H E
W A R R I O R S , L E D B Y A N M V P P E R F O R M A N C E F R O M S T E P H E N C U R R Y,
R ALLIED TO RECL AIM THEIR THRONE AS NBA CHAMPIONS
 NBA FINALS
S
GAME 1
TEPHEN CURRY scored 34 points,
and the Celtics won.
Jayson Tatum shot 3-for-17, and
the Celtics won.
Boston was outscored 38–24 in
the third quarter, and the Celtics
won.
“Being resilient has been the
word for us this year,” second-year
guard Payton Pritchard said after his Celtics rallied to
take Game 1 of the NBA Finals, 120–108. “And I think
it showed tonight.”
Boston entered this game with the NBA’s stingiest
defense, but in the first quarter the Warriors exploited
it—particularly Curry, who knocked down six three-
pointers, a Finals record for a quarter. Overall the team
was 7-for-13 from deep. Yet Boston, backed by a diverse
offense with five players scoring at least five points,
finished the period trailing by only four.
The Celtics squeezed out a lead at halftime, but then
came Golden State in the third, overwhelming Boston
with a barrage of threes to take a 12-point lead into the
fourth quarter.
40 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS
The Celtics looked cooked as they went down against
a Warriors team laden with championship veterans.
Golden State’s roster boasted 123 games of Finals experi-
ence. Boston’s? Zero. The Celtics, though, came back in
Game 1 as they had so often on their way to the Finals.
Jaylen Brown got it going in the first minute of the fourth
quarter, knocking down an 18-footer. A minute later, he
connected on a 26-footer. Then Derrick White heated up.
His three-pointer with six minutes remaining slashed
the Warriors’ lead to one. A minute later White knocked
down another that tied the game. He finished the game
with 21 points.
Al Horford helped finish the job. He scored 11 total
points in the quarter, making all four of his shots.
The Celtics outscored Golden State 40–16 in the
final frame. But the veteran Warriors professed not
to be rattled. “They are who we thought they were,”
Draymond Green said afterward. “Now we will watch
film and clips and figure [it] out.”
GAME 2
THEY’RE THE TWO words Celtics fans have come to
dread: third quarter.
In Game 1 of the Finals, Golden State hit the Celtics
with a 38–24 third quarter, though Boston came back
to snare the win.
The Celtics played with fire again in Game 2, allowing
the Warriors to run off a 35–14 third quarter, stretching
a two-point halftime lead to 23. This time Golden State
kept cruising from there, 107–88, to even the series.
For the Warriors, Game 2 felt therapeutic. For three
days Golden State heard what Green termed simply “the
noise,” about how the Warriors coughed up a double-
digit fourth-quarter lead in Game 1. About how after
a Curry first-quarter explosion the Dubs’ offense was
J O E M U R P H Y/ N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ( L O O N E Y ) ; J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ( T H O M P S O N )
stifled by a swarming Boston defense. About how Green,
the engine of this Golden State team, missed 10 of his
12 shots.
“We come out and win tomorrow and everything’s back
to normal,” Green said before Game 2. “The Warriors
are fine.”
They were. Golden State battered Boston in a second
half that quickly devolved into a laugher. Curry scored
14 points in the third quarter, connecting on three of his
six threes. The Boston defense that blanketed him over
the final three quarters of Game 1 had no answer for
B O U N C E- B A C K B O Y S
Looney (left) and Thompson (opposite) helped
the Warriors shake off their late collapse in the
series opener to take Game 2, 107–88.
 MAKING HIS SPL ASH
Poole provided an offensive jolt,
averaging 13.2 points off the
bench, including two long end-
of-quarter three-pointers.

him in Game 2. Curry finished with

29 points, and collected six rebounds
and four assists.
“Steph was breathtaking in that
quarter,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr
said. “Not just the shot-making, but
the defensive effort. He just doesn’t
get enough credit for his level of con-
ditioning, physicality and defense.”
Also helping to key the offense
were Jordan Poole (17 points) and
Andrew Wiggins (11), who contrib-
uted to Golden State’s 40.5% shoot-
ing from beyond the arc.
Before Game 2, Green took on the
challenge of playing better. “I under-
stand that ultimately, if I play well,
we win,” Green said. “And if I don’t,
we still can. But if I do, we win. So
that falls on me.” Offensively, Green
was active and efficient in Game 2,
scoring nine points on three shots
and dishing out seven assists and
adding five rebounds. Defensively, he
was a nightmare. “He lit a fire under
us,” said Gary Payton II. Tatum fin-
ished with 28 points but was a whop-
ping minus-36. Brown shot 5-for-17
from the floor. Horford, so deadly in
Game 1, had just two points.
“We were kind of soft in the first
game,” said Payton. “And that was
our emphasis coming out this game.
Just being aggressive and playing
the Warriors basketball we know
how to play.” “On to Game 3,” Horford said. “I can’t wait to get to
Overall the Golden State defense was brilliant. the Garden. I know it’s going to be rocking.”
Robert Williams III and Marcus Smart, like Horford,
each finished with only two points. White, a hero for GAME 3
Boston in Game 1, scored 12 points but needed 13 shots
to do it. The Celtics shot 37.5% from the floor, commit- THE CELTICS’ 116–100 win over the Warriors in Game 3
ting 18 turnovers that led to 33 points. was all about Tatum and Brown. Well, mostly.
J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H

Said Kerr, “It was pretty obvious, just our level of force Boston’s two top scorers combined for 53 points,
and physicality was ramped up quite a bit.” 15 rebounds and 14 assists. Brown got hot early, scoring
The Celtics looked forward to the series moving back 17 in the first quarter. In Game 2, Golden State switched
home to Boston. Green onto Brown, who had his second-worst shooting

42 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

 NBA FINALS
game (27.4%) of the playoffs. But in Game 3, the Celtics
successfully forced switches, leaving Brown free to attack
Klay Thompson, Kevon Looney and Poole. Backed by
a raucous home crowd of more than 19,000 fans, the
Celtics jumped out to a 33–22 first-quarter lead.
Early in the second quarter, Golden State’s offense
started to click. Thompson struck for 10 points in the
quarter. After shooting the ball poorly in the first two
games—he made 42.9% of his shots in Game 1 and 21.1%
of his shots in Game 2—Thompson moved fluidly, rub-
bing off screens for catch-and-shoot jumpers and spot-
ting up on the wing for drive-and-kicks, looking like the
player who had been so essential to this group’s three
previous titles. But as Thompson warmed up, so did
Tatum. He scored eight points in the quarter, chipping
in five assists. At halftime the Celtics held a comfortable
68–56 lead.
In the third quarter the Warriors came back, exploding
as they had in each of the first two games. Curry scored
15 of his 31 points, and Thompson racked up another 10.
With four minutes to play in the quarter, Golden State,
which trailed by as many as 18, seized a one-point lead.
But in the fourth, Boston closed the show. First-year
coach Ime Udoka said he felt the Celtics “wilted” in the
second half of Game 2. In Game 3, they surged. Smart
scored eight of his 24 points while limiting Curry to
just two in the final 12 minutes. After getting shredded
in the third quarter, the Celtics’ defense tightened in
the fourth, holding the Warriors to 33.3% shooting
and 1-for-9 from three. Green finished with two points,
“ I U N DE R S TA N D U LT I M AT E LY T H AT I F I PL AY W E L L , W E W I N ,”
G R E E N S A I D B E F O R E G A M E 2 . “A N D I F I D O N ’ T, W E C A N S T I L L W I N ,
B U T I F I D O , W E W I N . S O T H AT FA L L S O N M E .”
fouling out midway through the quarter.
After committing 18 turnovers in Game 2, the Celtics
had just 12 in Game 3. One big concern for the Warriors
was that Boston out-rebounded them, 47–31. The other
was Curry’s health. Late in the game he was rolled on
by Horford during a scramble for a loose ball, bringing
up shades of an injury he had suffered against Boston
in March. “We’ll know more tomorrow,” said Kerr. But
he knew this then: The Warriors would have a hard
time coming back from a 2–1 series deficit without their
two-time MVP.
GAME 4
CELTICS-WARRIORS.
Nah. This was Ali-Liston. Bowe-Holyfield. Fury-Wilder.
This wasn’t basketball. This was heavyweight boxing,
minus the bloodshed.
Golden State 107, Boston 97.
This was Curry blasting back at the critics. During
the Finals, Tracy McGrady became the latest to
question the Warriors star’s greatness. Speaking
to NBC Sports Washington, McGrady, the recently
inducted Hall of Famer, noted that Curry beat an injury-
riddled Cavaliers team to win his first ring in 2015
and needed the infusion of Kevin Durant to collect
two more. “Steph wasn’t the best player on that team,”
McGrady said.
In Game 4 Curry showed he’s the best player on this
one. Down 2–1 against the NBA’s top-rated defense and
a hostile crowd, and with lingering pain from the foot
injury suffered toward the end of Game 3, he delivered
arguably the finest performance of his 132-game playoff
career. He scored 43 points and collected 10 rebounds,
becoming just the fifth guard to notch 40/10 in the
Finals. He also handed out four assists. He made 14
of his 26 shots, seven of his 14 threes and eight of his
nine free throws. He scored more points than Golden
State’s other starters combined. He scored 10 points in
the fourth quarter when the Warriors, down five with
7:32 to play, pulled away for a 10-point win.
“Stunning,” said Kerr.
Said Green, “He wasn’t going to let us lose.”
Indeed. But he couldn’t do it alone. Wiggins gathered
a career-best 16 rebounds, leading Golden State, which
was out-rebounded badly in Game 3, to a 55–42 edge
on the glass. Thompson scored 18 points. Poole chipped
in 14. Looney, benched for Otto Porter Jr. to start the
game, grabbed 11 rebounds and had a game-best plus-21.
Green turned in one of the worst games of his career
in Game 3, coming under fire for his play (two points,
1-of-4 shooting) and his podcast, which he recorded
after games and which some suggested was a sign of the
GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 43
 NBA FINALS

10-year veteran’s lack of focus. His shooting numbers

were ugly again in Game 4 (1-of-7), but he added nine
rebounds and eight assists while showing what it means
to stay ready. Midway through the fourth quarter, Kerr
pulled Green, choosing to go offense-defense during
stoppages. “I had to keep my head in the game,” Green
said. “And whenever I went back in, try to make some
plays.” With 3:05 to play, Green reentered the game.
With just over a minute to go and Golden State up three,
Green rebounded a Thompson miss and found Looney
for a layup, extending the lead to five.
But this game was about Curry. There has been,
among McGrady and other NBA observers, a debate
about Curry’s place among the all-time best. In the
aftermath of Game 4, Curry was saluted by his con-
temporaries. “Everyone keeps talking about what Steph
ain’t,” tweeted Dwyane Wade. “Let’s talk about what
he is.” Tweeted LeBron James, “ ‘THEY’ will try to do
anything in their powers to not acknowledge simply
how ‘DIFFERENT he is! It’s Rare and rare is not liked
& appreciated.”
“I think this is the strongest physically that he’s ever
been in his career,” Kerr said. “And it’s allowing him
to do what he’s doing.”
He would need to keep doing it. Boston showed it
wasn’t going to go down quietly. Game 4 had 11 lead
changes and 10 ties. It would take another outburst
like what Curry had in Game 4 to beat Boston again.
And if nothing else, Steph had shown, yet again, that
he was capable of it.

GAME 5
BEFORE THIS SEASON Wiggins’s playoff résumé
consisted of a mere five-game stint with Minnesota
in 2018. He averaged 15.8 points and 5.2 rebounds
in that series against the Rockets, and the T-Wolves
were eliminated in the first round. After a 26-point,
13-rebound effort against Boston in a 104–94 win in
Game 5, Wiggins had pushed the Warriors to within
one win of a championship.
Golden State came out hot in Game 5, racing to an
early 27–16 first-quarter advantage. Wiggins scored
seven points in the period and led a defense that held
the Celtics to 34.8% shooting.
The second quarter was more of the same. Wiggins
again keyed the offense, chipping in nine points. This

A L L- A R O U N D E F F O R T
GREG NELSON

Green’s Game 4 box score reflected the

diversity of his contributions: two points,
nine rebounds, eight assists, four steals.

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 45

GE T TING ON BOARD
Wiggins had a career-best 16 rebounds
in Game 4, and his 53 total rebounds were
the most of any player in the Finals.
PHOTOGRAPH BY
JOHN W. MCDONOUGH
 NBA FINALS
time, though, Boston was able to keep pace a little better,
with Tatum and Smart combining for 14 points in the
quarter. At halftime, Golden State went into the locker
room with a 12-point lead.
The Warriors had owned the third quarters in this
series. Through the first four games, Golden State out-
scored Boston 136–87 in the third. In Game 5 the Celtics
turned the tables. Boston’s vaunted defense locked in,
particularly on Curry. After scoring 43 points in Game 4,
Curry struggled in Game 5. He scored 16 points on
7-of-22 shooting, including 1-of-6 in the third quarter.
“They were trying to attack him over and over,” said Kerr.
After leading by as many as 16, Golden State entered
the fourth clinging to a one-point lead.
That’s when the Warriors took control. Thompson
scored six of his 21 points. Payton, who had given
the team a huge lift on both ends since his return from
an elbow injury suffered during the Western Conference
semifinals against Memphis, scored four of his 15.
Curry chipped in four more. Wiggins scored 10, the
last two a driving dunk with just over two minutes
left to give Golden State a commanding 15-point lead.
The Celtics would head home with a chance to save
their season. But Boston’s self-inflicted wounds were
troubling. The Celtics continued to play carelessly. They
committed 18 turnovers in Game 5—compared to seven
for Golden State—which led to 22 Warriors points. They
missed 10 of their 31 free throws. They surrendered
50 points in the paint.
“The thing we’re not having throughout a full game
is consistent efforts, sustained efforts,” said Udoka.
The Celtics would need it for Game 6. Curry didn’t
have the kind of high-level superstar next to him he’d had
in previous seasons, but he had an array of teammates
stepping up to meet the moment. Green had arguably
his best game of the series, Payton and Poole gave the
Warriors some punch off the bench, and Thompson,
who had made 41% of his threes over the previous three
games, was looking sharper by the day.
And there was Wiggins. Once Wiggins looked poised
to be immortalized among the top NBA busts. Now, he
was one win away from a championship.
 PUT A RING ON IT
Curry was talking jewelry after hitting
a deep three in the third, and after the
game he hoisted a brand-new bauble,
his first Finals MVP trophy.
“ T H IS ON E H I TS DI F F E R EN T FOR SU R E ,” CU R RY S A I D
A F T E R G A M E 6 . “J U S T K N OW I N G W H AT T H E L A S T T H R E E Y E A R S
H AV E M E A N T, W H A T I T ’ S B E E N L I K E .”
GAME 6
IT’S HARD to separate these Warriors from the itera-
tions that immediately preceded them. The 15-win team
of 2019–20 was riddled with injuries, most notably to
Curry and Thompson. Last year’s team again missed
Thompson, and the playoffs.
It’s why leading into this year’s Finals, Curry expressed
an appreciation for returning to the sport’s biggest stage.
“You look up and all the work you put in over the last two
J E S S E D . G A R R A B R A N T/ N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ( 2 )
years has paid off,” he said. “All that stuff is just built
into the context of what’s happened since Game 6 of the
2019 Finals. And we’re back here. So it’s pretty special.”
After a 103–90 win in Game 6 in 2022, a teary-eyed
Curry was mobbed by teammates near Golden State’s
bench as the final buzzer sounded. Behind 34 points on
12-of-21 shooting from their star guard, the Warriors
became champions again. Curry was fittingly named
the series MVP, the first time he’s received that honor.
“This one hits different for sure,” Curry said after
Game 6, “just knowing what the last three years have
meant, what it’s been like from injuries to changing of
the guard in the rosters, Wiggs coming through, our
young guys carrying the belief that we could get back
to this stage and win, even if it didn’t make sense to
anybody when we said it. All that stuff matters. And
now we got four championships.”
No, Golden State didn’t win Game 6 solely because of
past Finals experiences, but it’s also true that an early 14–2
deficit on the road failed to faze the Western Conference
champions even a bit. Instead, the Warriors worked their
game and slowly found their rhythm. They trailed 22–18
with 2:28 to play in the first quarter and then erupted
for a 21–0 run, the longest in Finals history in 50 years.
Golden State led by 15 at halftime.
The Warriors shut down Boston by continuing to force
turnovers. The Celtics had averaged 17.7 giveaways in
their previous three Finals losses and had a series-worst
23 in Game 6. Tatum, who had only 13 points in the los-
ing effort, was responsible for five of them.
The Celtics by no means folded in the second half.
But with 6:12 to play in the third quarter, Curry, after hit-
ting his fifth three of the contest—stretching his team’s
lead to 22 points—gestured to his right ring finger. He
had another piece of jewelry on the way.
A Horford old-fashioned t hree-point play cut
Golden State’s lead to nine with 44.1 to go in the third.
But the battle-tested Warriors never buckled. A Brown
three-pointer got it back down to eight for the Celtics
with 5:35 to play in the final period, but Boston would
not draw any closer.
Golden State has now clinched three of its four most
recent titles on the road. Curry said before the win that
he understood what the nerves of Game 6 would be like.
Thompson, who had 12 points, confidently stated that
it would require the most effort they had given all year.
“It doesn’t matter what any of us do individually,” he
said. “The main goal is just to win one game.”
They did just that. And with it, the Warriors, having
claimed what Kerr called perhaps their unlikeliest title
yet, were champions once again. —Ben Pickman
GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 49
T WO HOOTS
The good times rolled
with Klay Thompson and
Stephen Curry back on
the court together.
G A R R E T T E L LW O OD/ NB A E /GE T T Y IM A GE S

T H I S S E A S O N O F G L O R Y F E AT U R E D A T W O -T I M E M V P M A K I N G
H I S C A S E F O R A L L-T I M E G R E AT N E S S , A W E L C O M E R E T U R N F R O M

The H
INJURY AND A NO. 1 PICK FINDING HIS GROOVE
eroes
FA C E O F T H E
FR ANCHISE
In his 13th season with
the Warriors, Curry led
the team with 25.5 points
per game while also
averaging 6.3 assists
and 5.2 rebounds.
 Adapted f rom SI.com
June 1, 2022

STEPHEN

CURRY
T HE WA R R I O R S G U A R D H O L D S T HE NB A’ S T HR E E- P O IN T
R E C O R D A N D I S R E C O G N I Z E D A S T H E G R E AT E S T S H O O T E R I N
L E A G U E H I S T O R Y, A N D Y E T P E O P L E S T I L L S E L L H I M S H O R T
BY
HOWARD BECK

I
N THE WAKING nightmares of former Houston assistant Jeff Bzdelik,
Stephen Curry isn’t raining threes from the arc, or the logo, or the
Bay Bridge. He isn’t even shooting. At least, not initially. He doesn’t
even have the ball.
No, the haunting images from 2018 are all of Curry running, darting
and weaving between Warriors teammates and Rockets defenders,
scrambling the schemes Bzdelik and his colleagues worked so hard
to devise in the days, weeks and months leading to Game 7 of that
year’s Western Conference finals.
Finally, at the end of all that running and darting and weaving, the ball does
indeed find its way to Curry, right there in front of the Rockets’ bench, where the
greatest shooter in NBA history calmly rises and drills a dagger three.
In Bzdelik’s retelling, the shot sealed the Warriors’ victory—a final, fatal blow to
the title hopes of a Rockets team that was led by James Harden and Chris Paul and
came into the playoffs as the top seed. The box score indicates the play came one
quarter earlier. But such is the devastating, anxiety-triggering impact of Curry’s
D A R R E N YA M A S H I TA / U S A T O D AY S P O R T S

game that even a third-quarter sequence can feel like a dagger.

“We always said that Steph is extremely dangerous once he gives up the ball,”
says Bzdelik, the Rockets’ former defensive coordinator, now happily retired. “He

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 53

 STEPHEN CURRY

might even be more dangerous after he gives up the ball.”

Need proof? Just ask the Mavericks, Grizzlies and
Nuggets, whose defenses Curry pureed as he powered
the Warriors through the Western Conference playoffs
and back to the NBA Finals.
It feels so familiar by now—Curry dicing up defenses,
sinking threes from every angle and every distance,
merrily shimmying along the way. He’s been doing it
for so long that it feels routine, expected, even easy. The
greatest shooter of all time. That’s what we all call him.
It’s a wonderful title, fully earned and undisputed. It
also sells him short.
Calling Steph Curry the game’s greatest shooter
is like calling Michael Jordan its greatest dunker or
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar its greatest skyhook maker.
Accurate, sure, but comically insufficient.
“He’s so much more than that,” says Golden State GM
Bob Myers. “I don’t think we properly appreciate him.”

TO OB SE S S OV ER CU R RY ’ S TH R EE -P OIN T A RTISTRY IS TO MIS S

A LL THE OTHER SKILLS THAT MA KE HIM ONE OF THE GR EATEST

P L A Y E R S O F H I S G E N E R A T I O N — A N D A R G UA B LY O F A L L T I M E .

To obsess over Curry’s three-point artistry is to miss
all the other skills that make him one of the greatest
players of his generation—and arguably of all time. It’s
his sublime ballhandling, his ability to weave in and out
of traffic; his soft finishes at the rim, with either hand;
his midrange marksmanship, his balletic assortment
of floaters, scoops and step-throughs; his passing and
playmaking and court vision; his rebounding (especially
for his size); his stout screen-setting (ditto); his knack
for drawing double teams, then solving them with a
quick pass or shot.
Curry excels at all of it, according to teammates,
coaches and rivals. It’s just that we miss the nuances
amid the mesmerizing haze of 35-footers.
Indeed, even after six Finals, four championships,
two MVP awards and perennial All-NBA accolades,
it seems we still don’t know how to properly describe,
rank or classify Wardell Stephen Curry II.
He’s an all-time great who doesn’t look or play like
any who preceded him. He doesn’t crush rivals with
power and strength or leap over them or dunk on their
heads. (He rarely dunks at all.) He’s surely the greatest
point guard of his time, though he doesn’t have Paul’s
assist totals or Russell Westbrook’s triple doubles or
Kyrie Irving’s magic handles.
In an era that has been ruled by hybrids and uni-
corns—LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard,
Giannis Antetokounmpo—it’s Curry who’s the outlier,
standing just 6' 2" . . . and dominating all the while.
“Steph’s an anomaly,” says Draymond Green. “He’s
different than anything we’ve ever seen in this league.
He’s not Allen Iverson. He’s not Isiah Thomas. He’s
not Richard Hamilton. He’s not Ray Allen. He’s not
Reggie Miller. He’s like some mix of all of those guys,
and we’ve never seen anything like this before.”
He’s also not Magic or Bird, Jordan or Kobe, Kareem
or Shaq, Isiah or Oscar, or any of the standard icons
we use to measure modern stars. Curry simultaneously
captivates and confounds us—and forces us to reckon
with him. And yes, he surely enjoys that confusion.
“I don’t fit the mold of what I guess a traditional great
player is,” Curry says. “So I’m aware of all of it.”
Curry is now just the eighth player in history with
six Finals appearances and multiple MVPs, a club that
includes Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Abdul-Jabbar,
Magic Johnson, Jordan, Tim Duncan and James. Curry

54 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

 is the only member of the group MR. BIG SHOT
under 6' 6". This Dec. 14 bucket against
So while pundits might debate the Knicks lifted Curry
which tier of the proverbial pan- past Allen for the NBA
theon Curry belongs in—top 10? career three-point mark.

H
20?—it’s indisputable he belongs
somewhere in this discussion. ERE’S A SIMPLE
This season just bolstered his r ule to follow to
case. And this Finals run might appreciate all the
be his most impressive to date. other ways Curry
These Warriors are no lon- impacts a game: Ignore the ball.
ger a superteam, no longer an Just watch Curry.
Evil Empire with an obscene Start with the movement,
collection of talent. Durant is because few guards move as
long gone. K lay Thompson, much without the ball as Curry
though still a feared shooter, does. It’s why, when Green needs
is now 32, with more surgeries a comparison, he reaches back
than All-Star appearances over 20 years and names Hamilton,
the last three seasons. Draymond Green? Still a force the former Pistons star, whose entire game was based
at 32, but hardly the typical costar. Andrew Wiggins? on catching and shooting off screens.
Salary-dumped by the Timberwolves. Jordan Poole and “He creates space totally different from anyone else,
J E S S E D . G A R R A B R A N T/ N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ( 2 )

Kevon Looney? Late first-round picks. Otto Porter Jr. and
Gary Payton II? Journeymen on minimum contracts.
The Warriors are here again because of Curry, who at
34 has dipped some in efficiency, but his effectiveness
remains lethal.
When the Warriors crashed in 2019, amid Durant’s
torn Achilles and Thompson’s torn ACL, we wondered
whether they would ever rise again. Now Curry has
willed them back to prominence, giving the world a
chance to appreciate his talents—all of them—anew.
in large part because he does it a lot without the ball,”
Green says of Curry, his teammate of 10 seasons. “The
way he creates space off the ball, finds angles, gets
himself open, never stops moving.”
Indeed, according to NBA tracking data, Curry consis-
tently ranks among the top 10 guards in offensive miles
per game since 2013–14. (He’s also deceptively quick,
with a max speed that ranks in the top tier.)
“The moment you relax,” Green says, “he just con-
tinues to move.”

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 55

 STEPHEN CURRY

That’s what happened to the Rockets in that Game 7 at his best, according to Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
back in 2018. (Houston also missed 27 straight threes, “His ability to get the ball out of a blitz is amaz-
of course, but that’s another story.) Bzdelik says the ing,” Kerr says. “All the four-on-threes [we get], where
Rockets devised their entire switching scheme that Draymond is putting the ball on the f loor and either
year with Curry in mind, knowing they’d need to beat attacking the rim or throwing the lob or spraying it
the Warriors to get to the Finals. But Curry would give out to the perimeter—most of those are because people
up the ball, make a quick move or two, then get it back blitz Steph. And he’s so good at getting the ball out of
just as his defender exhaled. It happened twice in quick the blitz to the right guy to allow the next part of the
succession in the third quarter that night, each result- play to happen.”
ing in a Curry three as the Warriors erased a 13-point
deficit and took control.
“When he doesn’t have the ball in his hands, he’s just as ONE OF A KIND
dangerous, if not more,” says Hawks guard Trae Young. Green (below) calls Curry “an anomaly” in
“It’s kind of tough to guard him, unless you want to part because of his movement: “He creates
guard him with two people.” space totally different than anyone else.”
That’s exactly what teams do, and often, according
to an analysis by Krishna Narsu and Saurabh Rane of
Bball Index, using data from Second Spectrum and
other sources.
Per the analysis, Curry draws multiple defenders
without the ball more than almost anyone at his posi-
tion. He ranked No. 1 among guards in each of his last
three full seasons (not counting 2019–20, when he was
injured) and has been top five in six of his last eight
seasons. From 2013 to ’22, Curry ranked second in get-
ting blitzed without the ball in his hands, behind only
Kyle Korver. “You see when he runs off a screen, how
two, three guys go with him—and somebody will get a
wide-open dunk or a wide-open shot,” says Thompson.
The same, of course, is true when Curry does have the
ball, because he’s rarely guarded with just one defender.
His knack for drawing so much attention—his so-called
gravity—is truly elite, per the analysis by Narsu and
Rane. Curry ranks No. 1 in “pick-and-roll aggression-
plus,” a metric that quantifies gravity by measuring how
defenses guard the player, from the 2013–14 through
’21–22 seasons, among all guards who met certain sta-
tistical minimums. Over the same span, Curry ranks There are other, even less obvious talents in play.
second in getting blitzed on dribble handoffs, behind “I think the underrated part is his screening,” says
only Damian Lillard. Mavericks star Luka Dončić, “because nobody wants to
Asked about his gravity, Curry says it’s the element get off him. So when he sets a good screen, it’s tough for
he takes the most pride in. the defense.”
“I get a kick out of during games, where you want to Indeed, he’s perennially among the leaders among all
see just how outside the box people will go to defend guards in the frequency and quality of off-ball screens
you different types of ways,” Curry says. “And almost he sets, per Bball Index.
using that as kind of like entertainment in the game, Then there’s Curry’s defense, once a subject of criticism
where I’ll start laughing to myself. I’m standing around and even derision. Now, it’s a relative strength. By his
E Z R A S H A W/ G E T T Y I M A G E S

half court, and somebody is just face-guarding you,
not really caring about anything else going on behind
them. And the gravity then helps everybody else [get
open shots].”
In fact, operating in a crowd is often when Curry is
own assessment, Curry says it’s the area he’s improved
the most in since his rookie season.
“He’s a much better defender than people think he is,”
says Warriors veteran Andre Iguodala, and the advanced
stats confirm it. From 2013 through this season, among

56 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS


all players 6' 5" or below, Curry ranked a solid 33rd out
of 517 players in DRAPM (defensive real adjusted plus-
minus)—and he was particularly effective this season.
And the list goes on. Curry’s midrange game. His
finishing ability. His passing and playmaking. His
handle. His rebounding. Teammates and rivals will
tell you it all ranks among the best. The stats gener-
ally confirm it.
And then there’s this: Run the plus-minus numbers
JASON MILLER/GE T T Y IMAGES
for every player, of every size, shape and skill set since
2011, and one star emerges with a clear, significant lead
over the entire league: Steph Curry.
Believe it or not, it was Curry’s shooting—yes, that
thing he does better than anyone ever—that once
seemed like an afterthought. It was in high school,
at Charlotte Christian School in
North Carolina. And it was Curry
himself who made it that way.
“I was a pass-first point guard
type player,” he says. “They had
to tell me to shoot more. . . . I got
a lot of joy from getting everybody
else involved.”
Of course, his shooting was
elite, even then. And of course,
as the stor y goes, Curr y was
lightly recruited by the big-time
basketball programs despite
his obvious talents and despite
the fans packing every gym he
played in. It’s how he ended up at
tiny Davidson. Underestimated?
Undersold? Underappreciated?
Those adjectives, those themes,
have been a staple of Curry’s bio
for his entire adult life, even as
he’s collected enough hardware
to fill a Home Depot.
Even after all this time, it still
defines and fuels him.
“That’s always part of the DNA
and what carries me through,”
Curr y says. “But it gets to a
point where it gets really hard to
articulate that to people, [that]
no matter how many successes
you have, you still feel underrated.
And the fact that you can’t walk
into a room like, ‘I got rings,’ and
still say you’re underrated—even
though I still feel like that. Weird,
weird vibe.”
So when Curry declares, in an NBA television ad,
“From underrated . . . to undeniable,” we know exactly
what he means. He embraces both poles, accepting
that both descriptions apply simultaneously. Just look
to another Curry commercial, the CarMax spot where
he asks, with mock indignation, “What’s wrong with
being the seventh pick?”
“It’s weird,” Curry says, “when I was the seventh pick,
it was like, ‘Oh, [he] was overlooked,’ because I was the
third point guard—I guess James [Harden] is a point
guard—I was the fourth point guard picked. Still, you’re
like top seven; that’s not really underrated,” he says,
chuckling. “But for me, it’s like that still was the chip I
had from jump, so it kind of carried ever since.”
Let’s try this exercise as a Rorschach test of sorts:
GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 57
 STEPHEN CURRY

Picture Steph Curry and then tell us the first words or that’s not sitting along the same lines of the greats? I’m
phrases that come to mind. sorry—no disrespect to other guards that have come
“Unguardable,” says All-Star Trae Young. before him—but the majority of guards don’t have an
“One of a kind,” says All-Star Rudy Gobert. era that they defined the way that era of basketball
“Unbelievable,” says All-Star Fred VanVleet. was played.”
“Unbelievably amazing,” says All-Star Luka Dončić. Consider the statistical company Curry now keeps. In
“Unreal,” says All-Star Darius Garland. March, he cracked the 20,000-point club, a distinction
“Electric . . . dynamic . . . crafty,” says All-Star shared by 49 players in history, only six of whom are
Khris Middleton.
“The best tough-shot maker in NBA history,” says
All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns.
“Historical,” says two-time MVP Nikola Jokić.
Quiz Curry’s peers, and you’ll hear lots of admira-
tion and adjectives like these, with one notable word
missing: dominant.
For decades, that’s been our go-to descriptor for
the greatest of the greats, from Chamberlain to
Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson to Larr y Bird, Jordan to
Kobe Bryant to James. When Shaquille O’Neal was in
his prime and striving to distinguish himself from all
the other greats, he created his own honorific: Most
Dominant Ever, or M.D.E.
Like Shaq himself, the word dominant is big and
brawny, infused with machismo and aggression, which
is generally how we like our NBA stars. For decades, the
game has been ruled by giants or explosive athletes—the
guys who don’t just score on you, but humiliate and lord
over you with their physical prowess.
But Steph? He’s the baby-faced assassin, strafing oppo-
nents from long range or slipping by them, dominating
the scoreboard but not dominating in any familiar way.
Which means, for some observers, he can’t join that
most exclusive tier of the pantheon.
“I wouldn’t say dominate,” says O’Neal, even while
praising Curry as “the greatest shooter of all time.” In
O’Neal’s framing, Curry leads his own wing, the room
with Allen and Miller and other legendary snipers, just WHO’S L AUGHING NOW ?
outside the great hall. Curry still carries a chip on his shoulder from
Even in his own time, Curry has often suffered being the seventh pick—and fourth point
from comparisons to guards who are more physically guard taken—in the 2009 NBA draft.
imposing, more ball dominant, more ardently alpha—
Westbrook, Harden, Irving, Derrick Rose.
But Myers suggests the old definitions are crumbling, under 6' 4". If Curry averages 1,600 points the next three
with Curry leading the charge. “That word [dominant] seasons, he’ll join the 25,000-point club, which currently
is usually applied to a more physical force. That doesn’t has 23 members, only one of whom—Jerry West—is
make it right,” he says. under 6' 5".
Green is even more emphatic. “Have you ever seen Or consider this stat from Meadowlark Media’s
what he does to a defense?” he asks about Curry, his Tom Haberstroh: With a 22–4 record in playoff series,
voice rising. “That is dominance.” Curry has a better winning percentage (.846) than MJ,
GREG NELSON

“The whole NBA is playing a brand of basketball LeBron, Kareem, Bird or Magic. His 93–41 record in
created by the ideology of Steph Curry,” Green says. playoff games produced a better winning percentage
“And you tell me that’s not dominance? You tell me (.694) than any MVP in history (minimum 50 games).

58 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

 “To have a guy as little as he is do that, in a league
of big, strong guys, it’s amazing,” O’Neal says. “Every
time I see Steph, I don’t see a lot of muscle. I don’t see a
big, brawny chest. I don’t see big shoulders. I know he’s
30-something, but he still looks like a little kid. But the
way he just dom—well, not dominates—the way he just
takes over games.”
See, even the M.D.E. struggles with the question.
S T E P H ? H E ’ S T H E B A B Y- FA C E D A S S A S S I N , S T R A F I N G O P P O N E N T S
FROM LONG R A NGE OR SLIPPING BY THEM, DOMINATING
T H E S C O R E B O A R D B U T N O T D O M I N A T I N G I N A N Y FA M I L I A R WA Y.
I
N COACH JASON KIDD’S waking playoff night-
mare, Stephen Curry isn’t raining threes from the
arc, or the logo, or the Bay Bridge. He doesn’t even
have the ball.
Met by three defenders in the lane, Curry has just
zipped a pass out to Porter at the arc. But now Porter is
swinging a pass to Wiggins in the corner. And Wiggins
is driving past Dončić, then zinging the ball out toward
the opposite side, where Curry, having curled to the
baseline and back around, has just popped out at the
arc, ready to catch the pass. Rise, fire, swish. All before
Spencer Dinwiddie can reach him.
The sequence came in the first quarter of the Warriors’
Game 2 victory over Dallas in the 2022 conference finals.
You could find versions of it throughout the series—the
same haunting specter that has kept coaching staffs
fretting into the night for the last eight years.
“Steph is the best conditioned athlete in this game,”
Kidd said that same night, “and he never stops moving.”
Thirteen years in, Curry is still stretching defenses to
their limits—and our imaginations, too. Thirteen years
in, he’s still forcing us to reconsider what dominance
means, what an all-time great looks like, what a good
shot looks like, how far is too far.
“If you look back forever, there’s nobody who plays like
him,” says ESPN’s Hubie Brown, who has witnessed most
of NBA history as a coach or analyst. “There’s nobody
that size that can shoot from that distance, shoot that
percentage, go to the foul line, shoot over 90 [percent],
handle the basketball like it’s part of his hand and move
to wherever he wants to go and keep you off balance
as a defender.”
Is all that skill and guile enough to crack the inner
sanctum of the NBA pantheon? Can Curry take a seat
somewhere between Robertson and Russell, West and
Wilt, Shaq and Kobe? Did he need to win this Finals (and
MVP) to gain passage? Was he already there? Brown
demurs. These are eye-of-the-beholder questions.
“He’s one of one,” says Thompson, “and there won’t
be another player like him. And his impact will last for
generations. So right now, I don’t think he might get
the credit like those other greats have gotten before,
but he also still has many chapters to write of his story.”
What is clear, once more, is that Curry is a defining
figure of this era, as much as LeBron or Durant or
anyone else who towers over him. Maybe the Warriors’
two-year playoff absence dulled our memories. Maybe
the three years Curry shared leading-man duties
with Durant skewed our perceptions—both enhanc-
ing and obscuring his legacy. Maybe we all needed a
vivid reminder.
Which is what made this season so exhilarating and
vital. There are no caveats and no KDs muddying the
waters. Just Curry, playing again like an MVP, with an
entirely revamped roster, reviving a dormant dynasty.
Or maybe we’re all overthinking this. Maybe, as Brown
gently notes, it’s as simple as this: Whenever Curry
elevates, no matter where he is, “You think it’s going
in. And that kid whose family brought him to the game
feels in his heart that ball’s going in.”
Is dominance just a function of stats and stature? Is
greatness measured in only rings and gold balls? Or is
there something more to it, something both essential
and ineffable?
“I would put him up against any player that ever
played as far as how he has made people feel,” says
Myers. “A lot of people say he’s worth the price of admis-
sion. That is greatness to me. And he’s got champion-
ships, and he’s got pedigree, and he’s got records. You
think of players that you remember, and why do you
remember them? Because in my opinion, they made
you feel a certain way. And he makes people feel a lot
of different emotions. And I think that he’s one of the
best ever to do that.”
GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 59
OUT OF THE
SHADOWS
Thompson’s passion,
masked by a calm
demeanor, burned
hot as he returned
from ACL and Achilles
injuries that kept him
out since June 2019.
 Adapted f rom SI.com
Januar y 13 , 2022

K L AY

THOMPSON
THE MISSING SPL ASH BROTHER RE TURNED AF TER T WO
S E A S O N S L O S T T O I N J U R Y— A N D O N E N O TA B L E S N U B — W I T H
T H E F E E L I N G T H AT H E S T I L L H A D P L E N T Y T O P R O V E
BY
HOWARD BECK

L
AST NOVEMBER, on the 882nd day of his involuntary bas-
ketball sabbatical, at halftime of the 148th straight game he’d
be forced to miss, Klay Thompson settled into a folding chair
to assess the Warriors’ past, present and future. The question
put to him was broad, and Thompson would soon give his
answer. But something else was bothering him.
“Also, about that top-75 thing,” Thompson said, interrupting,
“it’s like: How many records, shooting-wise, do I have to
break to be considered one of the greatest shooters—” and then he stopped
himself. “Like, whatever. It’s in the past, man.”
His irritation was palpable, and understandable. Three weeks earlier, the
NBA had announced its 75th Anniversary Team, the so-called “75 greatest”
list, a club more exclusive than the Hall of Fame, an honor every living NBA
star coveted—Thompson included. (I’d mentioned right before our interview
that I was among the NBA 75 voters, that I had in fact put Thompson on my
ballot and was sorry to see he didn’t make it.)
D A R R E N YA M A S H I TA / U S A T O D AY S P O R T S

His case at the time of voting was stout. Three-time champion. Five straight
NBA Finals appearances. A star player for the greatest regular-season team
in history. A five-time All-Star, with All-NBA and All-Defensive team honors

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 61

 KL AY THOMPSON
on his résumé. Record holder for the most points in
a single quarter. Record holder for the most three-
pointers in a single postseason. Eight straight seasons
of shooting at least 40% from the arc.
The world got a reminder of all that Thompson
could do in January, when he returned at last to the
lineup after a two-and-a-half-year rehab from knee
and Achilles surgeries. The gorgeous three-point
shot? Still there. The aggression? Most definitely.
The dedication to defense? Check.
The return of Golden State’s other Splash Brother
meant the Warriors were finally whole again, fully
loaded for another deep playoff run and primed to
prove their dynasty—prematurely eulogized when
Thompson and Kevin Durant went down in the 2019
T H E R E ’ S A R E A S ON W H Y T HOM P S ON G OT M U LT I PL E S TA N DI NG
OVA T I O N S W H E N H E R E T U R N E D A T T H E C H A S E C E N T E R , W H Y H I S
T E A M M A T E S A L L W O R E H I S N O . 1 1 J E R S E Y I N WA R M U P S .
Finals loss to the Raptors—
was very much alive and
demanding your respect.
But back to Thompson’s
annoyance and def iance
that night last fall, when
w e me t at h a l f t i me of
the Warriors-Timberwolves
game at Chase Center. Our
conversat ion was brief,
maybe 10 to 12 minutes, but
it revealed so much about
how he is wired, why he’s
been so essential to the
Warriors’ dominance.
It wasn’t just the NBA 75
snub that was bothering
him. It was, well, every-
thing. The team’s absence
from all those preseason Finals predictions this year.
The snide dismissiveness of pundits as the Warriors
raced to a 9–1 start. This nagging sense that the world
had just sort of moved on from the Warriors during
their so-called “gap” years, during which they lost
Durant, shed key veterans and watched Thompson
endure two of the worst injuries an NBA star can have.
62 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS
While the Warriors quietly healed and retooled, the
Lakers and Bucks took home Larry O’Brien trophies.
The Suns and Jazz seized power in the West. The Nets
constructed a superteam. Nikola Jokić became MVP,
and Luka Dončić became the league’s new darling.
The Lakers received more contender hype for their
bringing on the ill-fitting Russell Westbrook than
the Warriors did for their expected addition of, well,
Klay Thompson.
“I love it,” Thompson said that night, in a distinctly
vengeful tone. “I hope people keep doubting us.”
But it was nothing compared to his ire at the NBA 75
slight. Thompson, who might be the chillest star in
the NBA—a guy who finds his daily zen by boating
across the San Francisco Bay and playing with his
dog—was practically spit-
ting venom. He was upset at
not making it and, frankly,
upset about some of those
who did.
The rant went something
like this:
Ever yone always talk s
about winning. Isn’t win-
ning supposed to matter? We
were the first team in 50 years
to make five straight Finals.
We won three championships.
How many of these guys have
done what I’ve done? Isn’t
defense supposed to matter?
How many of these guys play
D? I take on the best perimeter
players every night . . .
And on and on it went.
Those remarks—perhaps his most revealing of
E Z R A S H A W/ G E T T Y I M A G E S
our entire conversation—are not on tape, because
they came before our interview officially began. My
recorder was off. By any standard journalism defini-
tion, we were off the record, simply making small talk.
And when Thompson unexpectedly veered back into
 BACK IN THE GROOVE
Thompson averaged 20.4
points and shot 38.5% from
three in 32 regular-season
games in 2021–22.

fire, Thompson is undoubt-

edly their cool. If Curry is
the team’s offensive engine
and Green its defensive back-
bone, then Thompson is its
conscience. But while Curry
has the MVPs and Green the
Defensive Player of the Year
trophy, Thompson sometimes
slips to an afterthought.
But with his return, the air-
waves and Twitter streams
were filled with adoration
for the guy who for two long
years seemed almost forgot-
ten. Think about what was
lost: another two All-Star
appearances, for sure. Per-
haps another All-NBA nod,
the rant during our interview (see the quote above), or two. Another All-Defensive team selection, or two.
I considered that off-record, too. Perhaps even another Finals run, or two.
But with Klay’s return approaching—and in light Think about how much stronger his NBA 75 candi-
of his addressing the topic briefly with NBA TV after dacy would have looked with another two seasons of
our talk—I reached out through team officials to ask team and individual dominance. Thompson should
whether he’d be all right with me using the few quotes have made it, anyway, for all the reasons already listed.
I had on tape and paraphrasing the rest. The word The Warriors don’t win that first title in 2015 without
came back: Yes, he says it’s O.K. Thompson’s brilliant shooting and defense. They don’t
Why ask to publish them? Because that fiery solilo- go 73–9 the next season without him. Curry could not
quy revealed so much about what makes him so essen- have carried the Warriors this far without Thompson
tial, so valued, so universally adored across the league. taking on the best opposing guards every night.
The value he places on winning, first and foremost. And for all the gravity Curry creates with his super-
The pride he takes in his defense. The competitive natural shooting prowess, Thompson does the same
passion that simmers beneath that perpetually chill for Curry. Heck, if Curry didn’t exist, Thompson would
facade. These are things every NBA player gives lip stand as the greatest volume three-point shooter of
service to but few actually live. all time.
There’s a reason why Thompson got multiple stand- “You’ve never shot below 40% in a single year of
ing ovations when he returned at the Chase Center, your career from three,” I remarked.
why his teammates all wore his No. 11 jersey in “Only one other guy’s ever done that—my point
B R E T T D AV I S / U S A T O D AY S P O R T S

warmups, why an injured Draymond Green insisted
on being in the starting lineup (to play just seven
seconds). Half the league, it seemed, was tweeting
about Thompson’s comeback as it unfolded.
“Even if you hated the Warriors, you love Klay,”
NBA TV’s Greg Anthony said on the broadcast.
If Steph Curry is the Warriors’ joy and Green their
guard,” Thompson replied. “Whatever. Sorry.”
It was a brief and rare moment of self-promotion,
a f lash of pride and frustration seeping out amid
the tedium of a long and torturous rehab. With his
wait to play over, the bitterness gave way to joy. But
Klay Thompson was back, which meant that once
again his game could do the talking.

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 63

 ANDREW

WIGGINS
T H E T O P P I C K O F T H E 2 0 1 4 D R A F T H A D S TA R R E D O N S O M E
MEDIOCRE TE AMS BUT FOUND NE W LIFE AS A K E Y COMPONENT
O N A C H A M P I O N S H I P S Q U A D I N G O L D E N S TAT E
BY
MICHAEL PINA

T
HE WARRIORS COULD not have won the 2022 NBA cham-
pionship without Andrew Wiggins. That, for a variety of
reasons, is a sentence that would have seemed unfathomable
to many people not too long ago.
Even after making his first career All-Star Game appear-
ance this season, Wiggins had been somewhat of an after-
thought in Golden State, a team with strong personalities
and championship-winning veterans. But he was essential
all year long and particularly in this postseason.
Throughout his career Wiggins has always been able to score, as his 19.7-points-
per-game average through his six seasons in Minnesota can attest. But he never
before received individual accolades because he racked up those totals on mostly
losing teams. This year, even though his 17.2-point scoring average was the lowest
since his rookie season, he found new efficiency playing alongside Stephen Curry
in Golden State’s whirling offensive system. And he was more accurate at the rim
ANDRE W D. BERNSTEIN/NBAE/GE T T Y IMAGES

and behind the three-point line than ever before.

In the playoffs he all but abandoned the need to playmake for others, instead
focusing on less glamorous ways to help the cause. To begin with, there was his
work on the boards. Wiggins transformed from someone who had been criticized

64 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

HIS AIM IS TRUE
Wiggins’s raw
numbers may have
dipped slightly this
year, but he had
career-best accuracy
at the rim and behind
the three-point line.
 ANDRE W WIGGINS

for drifting through possessions to being a game-tilting in another deal. But the team saw possibilities in the
force on the glass; in the postseason he doubled the athletic, 6' 7" forward.
1.2 offensive rebounds he averaged during the regular “A lot of people looked at that trade like, ‘Oh, that’s
season. When Steve Kerr was asked before Game 6 of another piece they can move,’ ” forward Draymond Green
the Finals what had surprised him most about Wiggins’s said after Wiggins’s 26-point masterpiece in Game 5
late run, that was the thrust of the coach’s message. of the NBA Finals. “We looked at the trade from the
“The rebounding surprised me. He’s really turned it very beginning like, ‘That is a guy who can fit next to a
up in every series,” Kerr said. “I’m 100% going to hold healthy group absolutely well.’ Thibs [former T-Wolves
that against him next year in the regular season. If he’s coach Tom Thibodeau] was like, ‘You’re going to love
not rebounding, I’m going to remind him he’s proven it him. He competes. He defends.’ And he was telling us
now, so there’s no excuse.” Jimmy loved him. And we all know how Jimmy Butler
In the postseason Wiggins’s on/off numbers were is. If you have any softness to you, Jimmy don’t like you.
those of a franchise player. When Wiggins was in the That’s how Jimmy is cut. [Wiggins] has continued to
game, Golden State outscored its opponent by 9.3 points show that. He’s continued to get better.”
per 100 possessions. When he sat, it was outscored by a Wiggins’s entire 2022 postseason turned out as well
whopping 5.5 points per 100 possessions. That 14.4 net as Golden State could have hoped. He not only played the
differential is the widest on the Warriors.
Looking back on where Wiggins and the team
were just a couple of years ago, these numbers
could not be more surprising.
Expectations were low when the Warriors
traded for Wiggins, the 2014 No. 1 pick by the
Cavaliers, who flipped him to the Timberwolves
for Kevin Love. Wiggins had appeared in only
five playoff games in the first four years of
his NBA career. He arrived in February ’20
to a franchise in flux. Golden State had com-
peted in five straight Finals and was trying
to hold on to a measure of that success with-
out Kevin Durant, who had been traded to
Brooklyn the previous offseason, netting guard
D’Angelo Russell in return.
Russell was an All-Star, but he never fit a
long-term vision on a team that already had
backcourt stars in Curry and Klay Thompson
(who was out with injury at the time of the
deal). So Golden State sent him to Minnesota for
Wiggins and a first-round pick. In the moment,
taking on Wiggins and his max contract was
seen as the cost of acquiring an attractive
draft asset (which the Warriors used to select
Jonathan Kuminga). There were understandable
questions about whether Wiggins could con-
tribute on a ball-moving team and complement
an aging Warriors roster. There was talk that
Golden State would eventually flip Wiggins

SHOWING HIS DRIVE

Wiggins, accused of drifting through
possessions earlier in his career, became
a two-way force in Golden State.

66 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

best basketball of his life, but he also became an indis-
pensable figure on a championship contender, thriving
as a two-way force and embracing a role that was both
critical and brand new for him.
So much of his own contribution came on the defensive
end, too, which is an area where Wiggins had previ-
ously tantalized but not delivered on a consistent basis.
But with the 38-year-old Andre Iguodala banged up
“ I T ’ S A M A Z I N G W H AT YO U D O W I T H O P P O R T U N I T Y,” S A I D C U R RY.
“ T H E R E ’ S A R E A S O N W E WA N T E D H I M H E R E .
T H E R E ’ S A R E A S O N T H A T T R A D E M A D E S E N S E F O R U S .”
K Y L E T E R A D A / U S A T O D AY S P O R T S
and Thompson not quite the same on-ball presence
as he was before he suffered a torn ACL and ruptured
Achilles tendon in recent years, Wiggins stepped up in
the playoffs to become the only long, athletic, reliable
perimeter defender on Golden State’s roster. Whether
he was taking on Ja Morant of Memphis in the second
round, Luka Dončić of Dallas in the conference finals or
Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as the Warriors
fought for another ring, Wiggins’s ability to make the
opponent’s top scorer work for every point was essential
to winning the championship.
“I love guarding every team’s best player,” Wiggins
said. “I know it’s huge. It’s going to help win games and
it’s something I look forward to. Being here, these guys
challenge you. Every day before the game, they will tell
you, We need you, and that’s important. And I love the
fact that they do that.”
He’s not the superstar of this team, and his first
All-Star appearance came only after he was voted in
by fans as a controversial starter earlier this year. That
made him an easy target for criticism. But the Warriors
needed Wiggins as much as he needed them. It’s turned
out to be a match made in heaven.
“It’s amazing what you do with opportunity,” said
Curry. “Take away the comparisons, the narratives around
him as a No. 1 pick, what everybody wanted him to be,
[what] his first six years in the league looked like. There’s
a reason we wanted him here. There’s a reason that trade
made sense for us. There was a high hope that he would
be able to figure it out at this level.
“There were bright spots that first year even though
we only had, I think, maybe 10, 15 games, whatever it
was. Then last year, taking another stride in terms of his
consistency on a daily basis. This year, he’s an All-Star
starter. He’s shining on the brightest of stages in the
playoffs. You can tell how much he’s enjoying it. It’s just
amazing to see things working out in his favor in terms
of dispelling all the narratives around him and who
he is as a basketball player right in front of your eyes.”
And after all these years Wiggins has a new sense of
what it means to be No. 1.
GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 67
F OR WA R D
RICK BARRY
1965–67 and ’72–78
He could get you a bucket.
The only player ever to lead
the NCAA, ABA and NBA
in scoring, Barry averaged
30.6 points for the Warriors’
1975 title team. He shot
free throws underhand,
The
making 90.0%
DIC K R A P H A E L / NB A E /GE T T Y IM A GE S ;
WA LT E R IO O S S JR . (INSE T )
HAS BEEN HOME T O SOME OF THE MOS T
 ALL-TIME TE AM

F OR WA R D

ANDRE IGUODALA
2013–19 and ’21 to present
The ultimate glue guy was at
his best in the 2015 NBA Finals,
when he earned series MVP
by averaging 16.3 points,
5.8 boards and 4.0 assists while
locking down LeBron James.

F OR WA R D
JAMAAL WILKES
1974–77
The silky-shooting Wilkes won Rookie of
the Year in the 1974–75 title season and was an
All-Star on Golden State’s 59-win team the next
year, averaging 17.8 points and 8.8 rebounds.
The Hall of Famer moved on to the Lakers in ’77.

J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ( I G U O D A L A ) ; J O H N D . H A N L O N ( W I L K E S ) ; J O N S O O H O O / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ( H A R D A W AY )

70 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

GUARD

TIM HARDAWAY
1990–95
The three-time All-Star was the
high-speed motor on the electric
Run TMC teams of the early 1990s.
He had four seasons in which he
averaged more than 20 points,
and in two of those years he also
averaged double-digit assists.
 ALL-TIME TE AM

CENTER
WILT
CHAMBERLAIN
1959—65
Wilt came West with the
franchise when it moved from
Philadelphia in 1962. During his
two seasons in the Bay Area he
led the league in scoring, with
44.8 points and 36.9 points,
before being traded to the
76ers in January ’65.
J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ( C U R R Y ) ; B E T T M A N N / G E T T Y I M A G E S ( C H A M B E R L A I N )

GUARD
STEPHEN CURRY
2009 to present
The modern era of Warriors excellence began
with the arrival of this shooter with an
ever-expanding range and a trademark
shimmy. A two-time MVP, he became the NBA’s
career leader in three-pointers in 2021.

72 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

G U A R D / F OR WA R D

CHRIS MULLIN
1985–97 and 2001–02
His game was as tight as his brush cut.
Mullin was a 51.3% shooter across his
13 seasons with Golden State, and after
retirement the five-time All-Star moved to
the front office as general manager.
 ALL-TIME TE AM

GUARD/COACH

AL ATTLES
1960–71 (player); ’69–83 (coach)
“The Destroyer” has held the titles of
player, player-coach, coach, GM and
community ambassador. As coach he
led Golden State to the 1975 title.

F OR WA R D

DRAYMOND GREEN
2013 to present
The Warriors couldn’t have won four NBA titles
in seven years without the fight and fire of this
tempestuous second-round pick. He was named
the NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2016–17.
J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ( M U L L I N , G R E E N ) ; N E I L L E I F E R ( AT T L E S )

GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS 75

 ALL-TIME TE AM

GUARD
KLAY
THOMPSON
2011 to present
A .417 career three-point
percentage only hints at the
value of the 6' 6" Thompson,
who is often charged with
guarding the opponent’s
best perimeter player
on defense.

CENTER
NATE
THURMOND
1963–74
Known as the defender
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (far
left) least wanted to face, the
hustling Hall of Famer made
J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ( T H O M P S O N , D U R A N T ) ; H E I N Z K L U E T M E I E R ( T H U R M O N D )

five All-Defensive teams

and seven All-Star teams,
and still holds Golden State
franchise records for
rebounds (12,771) and
minutes played (30,735).

76
 F OR WA R D
KEVIN DURANT
2016–19
He was a former NBA MVP
joining a championship-level
team, and that went just
how people expected (or
bemoaned). Durant averaged
25.8 points on 52.4% shooting
in his three Warriors seasons
and was the Finals MVP on
each of his two title teams.
 F R O M T O P, L E F T T O R I G H T: G E O R G E L O N G ; W A LT E R I O O S S J R . ; W AY N E W I L S O N A N D G E O R G E L O N G ; G E O R G E L O N G ; A N D Y H AY T; G L E N N J A M E S / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ;
R O C K Y W I D N E R / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; J E D J A C O B S O H N ; B I L L B A P T I S T/ N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; N O A H G R A H A M / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ( 2 )

JUNE 22, 2015

OCT. 28, 2013
DEC. 16, 1974
FROM RICK BA RRY IN 1967 T O S TEPH CURRY A ND K E V IN DUR A NT
SI AND THE CITY
H A S BE E N T O L D O N T HE C O V E R O F S P O R T S IL L U S T R AT E D
I N 2 0 1 9 , T H E H I S T O R Y O F T H E WA R R I O R S F R A N C H I S E

MARCH 24, 1969

MAY 13, 2013

JUNE 1, 2015
APRIL 24, 1967

DEC. 15, 1997

MAY 25, 2015

FEB. 23, 2015
DEC. 15, 1980
FEB. 13, 1967

2022 NBA CHAMPIONS

78
 J E S S E D . G A R R A B R A N T/ N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; WA LT E R I O O S S J R . ; D AV I D E . K L U T H O ; J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ; N O A H G R A H A M / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ;
G R E G N E L S O N ; J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ; N O A H G R A H A M / N B A E / G E T T Y I M A G E S ; J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H ; M A R K H A M M E R M E I S T E R ; J O H N W. M C D O N O U G H

MAY 15, 2017

JUNE 18, 2018

JUNE 29, 2015

APRIL 18, 2016

JUNE 5, 2017

DEC. 17, 2018

MAY 23, 2016

MAY 20, 2019

JUNE 19, 2017

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GOLDEN S TAT E WA RRIORS

79
 LAST SHOT
CHEF’S KISS
Stephen Curry earning his first Finals MVP trophy was
the perfect ending to the Warriors’ season.

ELSA /GE T T Y IMAGES

80 2022 NBA CHAMPIONS