Even Jerry West Knows The Warriors’ Dominance ‘Isn’t What Anyone Wants To See’


Getty Image

The Golden State Warriors rolled through the Western Conference this season with relative ease, and cruised through the first three rounds of the playoffs for the first 12-0 record in playoff history. The Warriors’ margin of victory in the playoffs has been an average of 16.3 points. Their counterpart in the NBA Finals, the Cavaliers, had an average margin of victory of 13.6 points. Only two other teams, Houston and San Antonio, escaped the playoffs with a positive plus-minus (1.2 and 1.0 respectively).

The 2017 NBA playoffs have been defined by these blowouts, with even the conference finals, which many hoped would be competitive, quickly turning into yet another series of non-competitive basketball. The Finals will hopefully bring a bit of respite to the otherwise disappointing level of competition in these playoffs — Golden State is still favored by seven in Game 1 — but this postseason has taken its toll on everyone watching, from fans to the media to even executives of the Warriors.

Hall of Famer Jerry West is an executive board member with the Warriors and has helped advise the building the NBA’s most formidable super team of 2017 and arguably of all-time. However, as West told Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated, even he has had a hard time watching his Warriors these playoffs because of the lack of competition.

“I don’t like parity,” West says. “I don’t like the word parity. Parity is average, and I like to see excellence. But I also like competition. I read the newspaper cover to cover every morning, and even though I don’t bet, I look at the lines in Las Vegas. We were underdogs in one game this year. We were favored in Game 2 of the conference finals by 15 points. That is insane. It’s not what anybody wants to see. At the end of the third quarter [when the Warriors led 106–75], I almost felt bad for San Antonio, but I also felt bad for our fans. Because if you’re a real fan at a playoff game, you want to see a hard-fought battle, back and forth, and at the end somebody wins by a point and you go home worn out. You’re charged. You’re edgy. But we’re up by 30-something, and I’m thinking, ‘Hmm, I’d like to leave here if I could.’ It’s the weirdest thing. I’ve never felt that way before.”

West’s brutally honest assessment of watching his own team bludgeon the Spurs is a stunning statement for multiple reasons. First, for an executive to outright admit that he felt bad for the fans that had to watch his Golden State team brutalize San Antonio is astonishing. Second, for West, someone that is an NBA lifer and has been around the game for decades, to say he’s never felt like this before watching a team shows how historic the gap between the Warriors and the rest are — especially when the rest are without their best player.

It’s not on the Warriors’ players to make things more competitive and teams will not look at the Warriors as a cautionary tale of why not to create a super team because they are such significant favorites to win the title, which is every team’s goal. However, there’s something to be said for West being honest about what the Warriors have done to the NBA. Parity, as West said, isn’t what matters — it never has in the NBA — but competitiveness is vital to creating a product people want to consume.

Fans don’t have to believe their team will win the series to show up or tune in to watch, but they have to believe they can win a game or at least be close in order to want to stick through four-plus games. So far in these playoffs that hasn’t been the case. The NBA Finals will hopefully bring that competition that we’ve been starved of for two months.

If not, West might be looking to leave early a few more times.

×