Spirits were high, and the champagne and Henny were flowing freely on Monday afternoon at the Warriors’ championship parade in Oakland. Jordan Bell narrowly avoided catastrophe at one point as he very nearly ran out of that sweet, sweet cognac, but thankfully some hero fan from the crowd was there to step in with the crunch-time liquor assist.
And what would a championship parade be without some t-shirt-based troll jobs? LeBron started the trend back in 2016 with his Ultimate Warrior shirt, and Draymond Green struck back last summer with his “Quickie” shirt, which he readily admitted was pure spite. Naturally, he was at it again on Monday with a graphic tee based on the Arthur meme that LeBron went viral with earlier this season.
And because everybody was feeling a little toasty, there were jokes aplenty, some of which went over better than others. Take, for instance, Warriors GM Bob Myers, who tried to joke that Kevin Durant doesn’t deserve a contract like Steph’s because he hasn’t been with the team long enough.
#HeGone pic.twitter.com/LZyCqvgBMA
— NBA Retweet (@RTNBA) June 12, 2018
“[Steph Curry] has been here from the way before days,” Myers said. “He’s earned it.”
Cue the groans and eye rolls and nervous laughter. But in Myers’ defense, he and the Warriors are clearly committed to doing whatever necessary to keep Durant. He indicated as much in an interview on Sunday when he said that the team’s negotiation plan is to give Durant “whatever he wants.”
Still, retaining Golden State’s core group in the long-term is a bit trickier than that. Green and Klay Thompson are up for extensions this summer, although neither are expected to take it as they can make far more money by waiting until they hit free agency in 2019 (Klay) and 2020 (Green), especially considering Dray already did so in 2015.
For now, it’s all champagne and caviar in Oakland as the celebrate their third championship in the last four years, cementing their status as a modern-day NBA dynasty.
