Is the Warriors' Dynasty Out of Time?
...Or is this the beginning of a new chapter(?) Find out tonight vs. Memphis
This week for me has been a lot about not having enough time. I know this is a thing everyone is dealing with right now because I get about thirty different versions of answers back when I mention it.
Not enough time or organize and check off about thirty mundane tasks throughout the day. Not enough time to pay attention, individual attention, to loved ones—even though you’ve been trapped under the same roof as them for a century (14 months.) Not enough time to reconnect with those who you’ve lost to the ether of distance and, perhaps, your own mistakes. Not enough time on this planet peered, to do the things you want to do, period.
For me, it’s the latter that’s taken over as a theme this week. I’ve written about it here and here. Basically, though, I lost an old friend to a freak incident and, once more, my first thoughts were there wasn’t enough time to catch up with him, to find out he was really doing.
I know I’m not the only one who felt like this. From Saturday, when I talked to a mutual friend who was much closer to his and the situation than I, he mentioned he and a handful of others would be renting a place in his hometown (Hood River, Ore.) for a quiet celebration this coming Saturday.
Cut to: flurries of emails and texts, most of which I’m, admittedly, on the periphery—an afterthought of—and the thing seems to be ballooning to include dozens of fo people whose pasts intertwine not only with this man, who was, as one friend described it, “he was a legit very kind and lovable himbo” and basically, “a regional (Pac NW) Channing Tatum.”
So all the boys from his past will be there, all the girls, and all their friends. And in that mix, some dated, some married, some divorced, some stayed together; some went on to break free and start completely different lives in different places. Some will return different people with different ideas about who they are, and well, you know how it goes.
It’s easy to look in the mirror day after day, live your life as it is, strive for what you want it to be, and not notice much change. It’s a WHOLE OTHER THING to not see someone for twenty years, and all of a sudden, they pop back up, and wow, that’s you? And yes, and this is you? Yes.
Then again, some have remained close, even formed pods with their kids in Portland during a pandemic, et the very least track each other casually on social media. So maybe there won’t be many surprises reveals after all.
Maybe the wake will turn into a sad little dirge, and all the what-could-have-beens will fade into pleasant but brutal performative check-ins. Or maybe someone will pair off and make a well-earned mistake or two until the purple-gray of dawn over Mt. Hood pushes them to wake in the rental—the cleaning service will be here by 10.
For me, I’m not joining. Not because I don’t want to be a part of All of This, or because I don’t want to remember my lovable himbo prototype. For me, I’ll do what I do when such business occurs; I’ll lace up the trail shoes and go get lost in the nearby wood for a few hours. I’ll scream from a medium-sized peak out over the ocean and pretend I’m the only one left on this Earth. It’s a bit of a cowardly move. But a safe and appropriate one nonetheless. Not in the sense that I don’t want to be around people, but in the sense that that’s the only way I can be alone or at peace with the fact that my time, also, is going away.
Just like the rest of us.
Warriors vs. Memphis
I can’t help but think the Warriors on Wednesday were the very embodiment of running out of time. And, you know, how life goes basically. Unstoppable and nearly unbeatable in the first half, had the game ended in the locker room, they would have been remembered fondly as one of the greats. A second-tier supporting cast made unstoppable by the golden god of basketball Steph Curry and his right-hand/henchman Draymond Green. To watch them scatter and conquer vs. the defending champs and, perhaps, the greatest ever to play the game in LeBron James was a treat for all…time.
But then the second half came, and the Warriors, it seemed, started feeling pressured for time. Not enough to get into their sets, namely forced turnovers and as the game’s clock expired, a dagger three from James, like he always does. A reminder that death can come from anywhere, but the kind you don’t see coming comes from above.
So here they are now, a fresh sixty minutes on the board, one hour to show whether they’ll get a longer stay of execution or gather their things and mourn what may have been.
The real shit of it is, the Warriors AND the Grizzlies are better than (ready?) the Wizards, the Celtics, and likely the Heat, Hawks, and Knicks. (Apologies to Knicks fans, you’ve earned this one.) But that’s the way it goes when you in the top-heaviest division in all of sport.
Golden State beat Memphis on Sunday to solidify their eighth spot and just-go-one-for-two chance at being in the playoffs. Still, like Annie Wilkes rising once more from the floorboards to fangirl her worst, the Grizzlies and perhaps the youngest, most athletic one-two punch in the game, is back to dash away from the dreams of last decade’s dynasty.
Green, never one to wilt at the mic, ran it a little and provided some locker-room fodder on the Sunday postgame when he torched Memphis for keeping Jonas Valančiūnas, maybe the second-best in the game right now, despite his posting 29 on 12-for-15 shooting.
Green, the lone Warriors big (if you can call him that) and the runner of the offense, will also play help-side on the Grizzlies’ other already-there superstar Ja Morant, who in Memphis’ series finale against San Antonio on Wednesday had 20 with six assists. That game, as a team, the Grizzlies shot 44 percent from the field and seven of 22 from the 3-point line building a 21-point lead in the first quarter but let the Spurs back in late in the game.
Golden State is a third-quarter team, always has been, and they never will stay from that. Steph Curry and Dillon Brooks will go toe-to-toe for this do-or-die tango, but look for Andrew Wiggins to step up once more for the Warriors and create space for Steph in the second half.
In the end, the Warriors want this one a little more. It’s the end of an era in the Bay and for them it’s about wanting (and deserving) a shot at Utah. The only question is, will they be given the gift of time to get there?
Take the Golden State Warriors -3.5 vs. Memphis Grizzlies at 6 p.m. PT at the Chase Center in San Francisco