The Warriors are a Dynasty, But Not the Best I've Seen

Why The 2000-2001 Lakers Are 

Still 

The Best Team I've Ever Witnessed

The Warriors have now won three titles in four years

The Last team to win three in four years were the 2000-2002 Lakers

A Few Brief, Closing Thoughts on the 2018 Finals

With just under a minute to play in Game 3 last Wednesday, Kevin Durant stepped into and sank a 33-footer with the shot clock winding down, extending to a 106-100 Golden State lead and securing a 3-0 stranglehold on the series. The moment the ball went through the hoop, I abruptly shut off my television. I did not watch a single second of Game 4. The result was inevitable. Just as everything that transpired these past few weeks was inevitable. Just as this entire NBA season was inevitable.We knew who would hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy when the season commenced in October, and, frankly speaking, we probably know who will hoist it again next June. The slim chance these 2018 Finals had of being a remotely interesting series evaporated in the waning moments of Game 1. The missed free throw, the J.R. blunder, the call reversal. I'm only going to focus on the call, the other two speak for themselves. As any official in any sport at any level, perhaps the most important attributes to have are conviction and confidence. I both referee basketball and umpire baseball, and this is one of the first things they stressed in training. Calls will be missed, calls will be made, but maintain your conviction, credibility, and control over the proceedings. I state as much in an old piece (Old Post), which discusses a similar instance which was so redolent of the call reversal in Game 1 that I felt it necessary to discuss. The instance I am referring to came in a 2014 NFL Wild Card Playoff game between the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys.

Detroit was driving, up three, with a chance to seal the game and the upset the Cowboys in Jerry World. This is when a pass interference, one of the most hazy calls in sports (you see where I'm going here), was called, correctly I might add, on Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens. How dare the referees thwart America's Team! They incurred the wrath of all of Jerry's World, serenaded with boos and the imploring of a helmet-less Dez Bryant (who should have been thrown out of the game immediately). At this critical juncture, these referees lost their conviction, reversed the call. and watched the Cowboys engineer a comeback and ultimately win the game and move on in the playoffs. Fast forward to Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals. Now, the difference here is that, ultimately, I think a blocking foul on LeBron James was the correct call (it was close). Not the point. The point is that it is a slippery slope. Replay was implemented to correct the obvious, egregious miscall. It's purpose is not to reverse a pass interference or a block/charge call, probably the two most subjective calls in all of sports. I heard numerous people say, and I would agree, that you could ask 100 people about that James/Durant play and 50 would say charge, 50 would say block. I personally think it was a block, but I believe more in an official's conviction and giving credence to the call on the field. This particular play should never even have went to replay. When we no longer do that, all credibility is lost. So, without even mentioning the horrid officiating in the rest of the series, and in the league as a whole, the referees obliterated any chance of a competitive series in Game 1. Disclaimer, the Warriors likely would have won in five anyways, but they went on to a four-game sweep and their third title in four years. They are indeed a dynasty, but they are far from the best dynasty I, at 27, have seen in the NBA. Have we forgotten about the Kobe/Shaq Lakers of the early 2000's? The team of the millennium? The last team that won three in four years? Arguably the most dominant, imposing duo in the history of the league? Kobe, Shaq and company throttled teams. The Twin Towers, the Jail Blazers, the Greatest Show on Court. These are real, legitimate, teams with pedigree, not the riff-raff that the Warriors are mowing down. The Warriors are great, no question about it. The Warriors are a dynasty, no question about it. But let's be real, Los Angeles smashed quality competition, while Golden State is just pubstomping (definition). So, while the Warriors play a beautiful brand of basketball and are an unprecedented spectacle of shooting, they are nowhere near as good as the Lakers of the early 2000s, the best team I've ever witnessed. Here is why..........

Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal dunking over Mutombo in the '01 Finals

See that player Shaq is dunking over above? That's Dikembe Mutombo, one of the most prolific shot-blockers in the history of the league. In fact, with 3.289 career blocks, he trails only Hakeem Olajuwon on the NBA's all-time leading list. With all due respect to Mutombo, Shaquille O'Neal made him look like a child in the 2001 NBA Finals. There's no shame in that, Dikembe, the self-proclaimed Big Aristotle dwarfed all of his competition. With Shaq presently known best as the charismatic giant on TNT or in countless advertisements, it is easy to forgot what a force of nature he was on the court. Forgive me for being too young for Wilt Chamberlain, but I have never seen anything even remotely resembling Shaquille O'Neal. The phrase "men among boys" is thrown out far too frequently, but with Shaq, no expression could be more accurate. He was just a different kind of beast. In the 2001 Finals, he averaged 33 points, 16 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks per game en route to a five-game gentleman's sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers. Of his 79 total rebounds, 31 came on the offensive end. And, when he ends up with the ball in the paint off of a missed shot, good luck stripping him or stopping him. He's not bringing the ball down and he's not holding it precariously. He's throwing it down over multiple defenders. What a helpless feeling. David Robinson? Vlade Divac? Tim Duncan? Mutombo? These are real NBA big men, and none of them stood a chance. If they don't stand a chance, who do you expect the Warriors to throw at him? Javal McGee? Draymond Green? You see my point. Men. Among. Boys. To those who say Shaq's game would not translate to the modern NBA, I say you do not understand Shaquille O'Neal. The combination of size, power, skill, and agility may never be seen in the NBA again. The grace with which a man of that size played the game........Well, I wouldn't have believed it possible if I didn't witness it with my own eyes. Remember it, appreciate it, respect it. And, hypothetically, 2018 Golden State Warriors, try to stop it. Godspeed.

Kobe Bryant

Bryant with a tomahawk jam off a feed from Shaq in the '01 Finals

As the most ardent Kobe Bryant fan out there, I cannot believe I am even addressing this. Kobe was not carried to three championships by Shaquille O'Neal. Not by a long shot. The two were mutually dependent on each other, the most complementary (on the court) and compatible (again, on the court) players ever to join forces. In fact, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Phil Jackson describes Kobe as the dominant force on those championship teams.

Phil often speaks cryptically, and he seems to be saying that Kobe was not only the impetus for these teams on the court, but off it. Bryant's work ethic and competitive ferocity are well-documented, and, like Jordan, he demanded the same intensity from his teammates. Rumor has it that he even tried to fight Shaquille O'Neal at the height of their feud. But Phil Jackson, who frequently referred to Bryant as malleable, asked Kobe to do something he never fully asked of Michael: to defer and facilitate. When most fans think of Kobe, they think of prolific scoring, shooting, and acrobatic dunks. This is a slight disservice to his memory. It is easy to forget that Phil, and he has stated this on numerous occasions, asked Kobe to run an offense that would feature Shaq. For all intents and purposes, and with all due respect to Derek Fisher, Kobe was their point-guard in the most critical moments. When the game was on the line, the ball was in his hands. Kobe made them go. He performed the role masterfully, an obvious fact when examining the team's 15-1 playoff record in 2001. A common misconception is that Bryant has been a merely a scorer, even a selfish player or a ball hog. I'll let legendary coach of Duke and the U.S. National Team debunk that blasphemous notion.

Able to successfully accept a slightly reduced role due to the presence of Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant was flexible (physically too), in ways that Jordan was not. Despite a rapidly ascending set of skills, he was able to rein in his game for the benefit of the team. The team flourished as a result of his sacrifices, and Bryant developed into the premier playmaker for the entire squad.Take a look at this one-minute clip from the 2001 Finals. Kobe snatches the defensive rebound, goes coast to coast, slithers and spins past literally four defenders, before dumping it off to Shaq for an easy dunk. I can't help but chuckle in awe at this clip. It's like these guys were coming from a higher league, they were just way better than their contemporaries.

Now, don't get it twisted, Kobe could, and would, absolutely take over when necessary. Much of his brilliance in 2001 came on the road, where he averaged 32.4 points per game for the entire playoffs, including 48 and 45 in consecutive games at Sacramento and at San Antonio. He led his team to an 8-0 record away from Staples Center for the entire postseason. How crazy is that? No one wins on the road in the NBA playoffs anymore, and this team went 8-0 in dominant fashion. You think these guys would be scared to play in Oracle Arena against the Warriors? Not a chance. Kobe would embrace it, he would flourish in it, he would thrive in it. Not a single player on the current Golden State roster could stay in front of a 22-year old Kobe Bryant. Send help? Shaquille O'Neal is waiting in the wings to throw it down on someone. Here's Kobe, at 22, abusing the Spurs' Twin Towers, David Robinson and Tim Duncan, who had just led the Spurs to a championship in 1999. These are hall of famers, these are champions, and they were completely and utterly outclassed.

The Role Players

Even in the case of Kobe and Shaq, two men don't make a team (though these two come pretty damn close). Fortunately, they had the perfect compliment of role players around them. Let's first examine the guards, Derek Fisher and Brian Shaw. With much of the play-making responsibilities falling on Kobe, Fisher was primarily a spot-up shooter for the '01 Lakers, and a brilliant one at that. For the entire playoffs, Fisher hit 35 of 68 three-pointers, an outrageous 51.5% clip. In the 4-0 drubbing of the Spurs in the Conference Finals, he hit a ludicrous 15 of 20 (75%) from beyond the arc. Obviously many of these looks came as a result of the attention paid to Kobe and Shaq, but to say he performed his role admirably would be an understatement. Fisher's backup, Brian Shaw, on the other hand, was more of a distributor. In limited playoff minutes  (nearly 300 less than Fisher), Shaw racked up 43 assists, just four shy of Fisher's total. The amount of back-breaking, demoralizing alley-oops from Shaw to Bryant were numerous. Shaw also is said to have served as a calming presence on the team, and a mediator between Kobe and Shaq. We then move to forwards, Rick Fox and Robert Horry, two veteran, cerebral, professional players. Fox was incredibly efficient during their playoff run, shooting 56% from the floor and 87% from the free throw line. And I need no argument for the clutchness of "Big Shot Bob" Robert Horry. Instead, I want to focus on the impact these two could make defensively, particularly against the present-day Warriors. In theory, what counters the snipers of Golden State? In my opinion, long, athletic wings that can contest shots and make things difficult. They can go cold. They can be beat. We've seen it as recently as these playoffs, even these Finals. Steph Curry went 3-16 in Game 3, including 1-10 from three. Those misses lead to long rebounds and outlets. Do you know how lethal Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal are in the open court? Yes, Shaq too. They can turn boards into buckets instantly (see: the video at the end of this piece).  Back to Horry and Fox, at 6'7" and 6'9" respectively, they have the ability to contest these shots. In fact, Los Angeles had the acumen and versatility of Horry as at threat coming off the bench as their sixth man during the 2001 run , backing up veteran forward Horace Grant. Perhaps the most underrated and underappreciated player from the Chicago Bulls first three-peat was Horace Grant. Recognizing his value to this particular group, Phil Jackson brought his former player in for one season in Los Angeles. During the 15-1 playoff run, Grant was the team's third leading rebounder with 96, and also added 13 blocks. Grant was always a solid player and a good defender. This team was perfectly balanced. Surrounding the colossal superstars was a surplus of veteran leadership, championship pedigree, and basketball IQ. While much of the credit is bestowed on Phil, Kobe, and Shaq, this team does not reach it's apex without these players fulfilling their roles wonderfully.

The 2000-2001 Lakers in Perspective

Any conversation regarding the 2000-2001 Lakers begins and ends with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. The two superstars combined for 958 points in the postseason, an outrageous 58% of the team's total scoring. They also held the team's top two spots in both rebounds and assists. Shaq led the way by collecting a monstrous 247 rebounds (15.4 per), and Kobe dished out 97 assists (7.3 per). As I stated earlier, these two were simply way too good for their competition. In fact, I may be wrong, but I can't recall another instance where a single team definitively possessed the two best players in the entire league. The result? A .937 (15-1) playoff winning percentage and nearly a 13-point margin of victory per game. Before the 2017 Warriors, who went 16-1 and had an even greater point disparity, these were both records. Save the numbers, give me Kobe, Shaq, and Phil any day of the week. In fact, I don't even think it would be close. I can say, with confidence, that the 2001 Lakers played basketball at the highest level I have ever seen it played. It was pure balladry. It was sheer dominance. Now, I was, admittedly, a child during the Jordan era, and never saw firsthand Bird or Magic's legendary teams. Russell? Kareem? Chamberlain? These were before my time. For what it's worth, however, I'd roll the ball out and take Kobe, Shaq, and company over any team in the history of the league. The '87 Celtics, led by Larry Bird, who went 15-3 in the playoffs. Magic's '86 Lakers, who posted the same record. Take your pick, Jordan's '96 team that went 15-3 or his '91 team that went 15-2. How about the '71 Bucks, which Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led to a 12-2 postseason mark? Or the '83 Sixers, who went 12-1 en route to Moses Malone and Julius Irving's only rings? For obvious reasons, pitting teams against each other throughout time is pure conjecture. At the same time, maybe it's my nostalgia talking, but I'm putting my money on the '01 Lakers every time, because they are STILL the peak of basketball as I know it.