The Warriors are in the NBA Finals for the sixth time in the last eight seasons, and while some NBA fans may be tired of seeing the same team on the biggest stage again and again, at least one important person isn’t.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stopped by "Warriors Live: Finals Edition" before Game 2 on Sunday, and was immediately asked for his thoughts on the Warriors’ return to the Finals after a two-year hiatus.
“It’s thrilling,” Silver said. “Not just for Warriors fans, [but for] fans everywhere. Obviously they’re a team that people love to watch. They play just a really appealing brand of basketball. Whoever’s here – from a league standpoint – deserves to be here. But I think seeing these guys back at full strength is just a great basketball experience.”
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The Warriors were a regular in the NBA Finals from 2015 through 2019. Their opponent in the first four years, the Cleveland Cavaliers, was also the same. That changed in 2019 when the Toronto Raptors made the Finals and then prevented the Warriors from a three-peat.
The Warriors missed the playoffs in both 2020 and 2021, allowing the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns to make the Finals out of the Western Conference.
But Golden State’s core stayed mostly the same, and after getting healthy, they’ve come back with a vengeance. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are looking to lead the Warriors to another championship, playing the fast-paced style of offense with lots of shooting that has endeared them to basketball fans for the past eight years.
Golden State Warriors
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The Warriors’ rise from young up-and-coming team to a dynasty that some fans love to hate has been one of the main storylines in the league of the past decade.
If any fans thought that storyline stopped after 2019, they would be wrong. And evidently, Adam Silver is glad that it’s still going.