First in 40_ The Story of the 2014-15 Warriors _ Ep. 4 – Golden

The finals is everything that comes with it. Everything's different. Everything that you've practiced and become accustomed to throughout the regular season goes out the window. It's just a totally different thing. Like you practice at Oracle instead of your usual practice facility. You have 500 journalists from around the world watching you practice instead of having that privacy. It's a true show and a true spectacle. So your first time going through it, you're just trying to take it all in, but not get distracted by it. It's automatically, you're thrown out of routine. All the things that you do to get in your flow, you're thrown out of routine. First time you see all that, you're like, man. It's very tense. It's very, you're very anxious at home. You're just managing your world outside the game. It's so different. And it's our first time experiencing this. At Vantage Cast, because LeBron James has experienced this multiple times already. But you know who we got, and you know who's reminding us, hey, this is gonna happen, and this is gonna happen. It's gonna be weird. Tell your family this. Only one of us know. Maestro, Steve Kerr, telling us everything that's about to happen. So we were a little more prepared than the average team that's never been there, because our guy's been there. Yeah, I think that was one of the times where my playing experience could really come in handy for the players. Try to eliminate all the distractions, all the differences in the routine, and go play. After all of that, now you get to game one of the NBA Finals. It's taken 40 years, but once again, the Bay's team is the best team. The Golden State Warriors have won the NBA title. Oh yeah! Welcome to the 2015 NBA Finals. Game one is finally here. Congrats, man, I'm so happy for you. And for me, for you, man. What a guest. You've got Golden State. It's been 40 years since they won a title. Cleveland has never won an NBA title, and now both are four wins away from capturing that championship. The vibe in Oracle was nervous and anticipatory. The place was electric, but there was a different feeling in the air, for sure. You got LeBron coming back to Cleveland. You got young MVP up and coming, Steph Curry. How does little old David match up against big old Goliath? How does the three-point shooting team match up against the team that's going to the rim? How is this gonna happen? How is this gonna work? It is a matchup that many wanted to see, featuring these two star players and these two terrific teams. You already know what time it is, Joe. Dominate this game from the beginning. And we're underway. And this Oracle Arena crowd has watched some great basketball all season long, as Tristan Thompson scores the first points. Scored by Bogut. Now Curry stops, it takes a 15-footer over. Mozgov knocks it down. That first six minutes was a blur. Like, I don't remember anything about it, just because this is what you had dreamt of from a kid playing in the NBA finals. Everybody's a little jumpy, a little nervous. That's supposed to happen. It's the finals. Mozgov, shot clock winding down. James, two for two on jumpers. Crossover dribble gets by him to the rack, and he dunked it down with .5 to go in the corner. Good defense from Livingston. Irving gets by him inside. Mozgov for another stop. Spates thinks he can score every time he has it. Right, Mark? No, he's a big-time scorer. There you go. There's no question about it. You know that team, right? We're focused and we're concentrated. That's why we're not getting open looks, not in the break and not half court. Off the screen, bounce pass to Draymond. Slices to the rim, right hand slam. Hurry with the steal. Steps back for three. Bang! J.R. Smith puts up a three and nails it. J.R. Smith. Ball knocked away by Gundal. Lawrence to Andre. Andre on the break, steps around. Smith to the rim with a right hand. And he throws it down, and we're tied at 73. Yeah, Dre! There you go, Dre! Gaines to Irving. Irving for three. That's good. Ivory Irving from downtown. Curry guarded by LeBron. Crossover dribble. Spins on LeBron. Turns, open, takes the shot. Knocked it down! Moyers lead, 94-93. Screen set by Musgov. Tap of the key, three for LeBron. Good! 15 to shoot Curry off a screen. Takes a jumper. It's good! And the Moyers lead, 98-96, 53.6 to go. Curry, Curry drives to the basket. Lays it. No, he missed it! Irving may have gotten a piece of it. And the Cavs call timeout. A little over a second difference between shot clock and game clock. LeBron left side. Dribbles, waits, fades, and fires. It's up, it's no good! Rebound the corner. Shumpert shoots. No good off the rim. Had a chance to go in. And we've got five more minutes. I want him to see one go in. If he don't keep playing, I'm gonna keep playing. Overtime here in game one of the 2015 NBA Finals. Irving, he fell as he tried to come to a stop. Irving might be shaken up as he lifts, holding that left knee. Oh, big story here for the Cavs. Iguodala drives. Out to Barnes. Barnes for three. Bang! And Steph Curry will dribble it out. Game one goes to the Warriors. Goes to Golden State. Final score, they win 108 to 100. I know that you guys know what the challenge remains with Cleveland. What have the last two days been like in terms of emphasis, cleaning up what happened in game one? Staying under control to start the game. Playing a little bit more composed and a little more aggressive in the first quarter to try to assert ourselves. We understand it, obviously, how hard it is to get to this level and obviously to win four games in the Finals and win a championship. So we got a lot of work to do. You gotta come out and be the aggressor and attack at both ends and play with some fire. Play with a sense of urgency. Take care of the ball, but let's push it. Let's take it up to zero. Welcome to Oracle Arena and game two of the 2015 NBA Finals. And now the storyline has changed. Kyrie Irving is out and the Cavaliers have to change course. Iguodala guarding LeBron. Again, shot clock at five. LeBron picks up the dribble. T-3 right side, nailed it. Wow. Warriors down 11 in a timeout. LeBron, 34 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists. His second triple-double of these playoffs. Stunned Oracle at the moment. 313 to go in game two. Cleveland, 83. Golden State, 72. Curry, nearly slips. James now picks him up. Curry for three. That's good. Stephen Curry launches one, and it's a six-point game. Rebounding Iguodala. Finds Barnes wide open for a jam, and he got fouled. J.R. Smith fouled him. Curry, Curry off the screen. Splits traffic down the lane to the rim. Layup good! We're tied! Oh, Cleveland. Up top, LeBron catches the midcourt. Five seconds with four, with three. LeBron down the lane to the rim. Layup is no good. Tip-up no good. And we're the second game and we're going to... We got it. We got it, right? It's what we do. We got a lot of heart. We got a lot of fight in us. Let's finish the deal like we did the other night. It's never happened before in the finals where the first two went to OT. Gets a screen. Finds Shumpert open, pick and pop. The jumper is good. It's a three for Iman Shumpert. Jumper by Jones in the corner. It's no good. Rebound off the glass. No good. A loose ball. Foul. It's on Golden State. They find Curry. Curry ahead to Thompson. Knocked away. Stolen by Thompson. And the NBA Finals are tied at one game apiece. An inspiring bounce-back win for the Cavaliers. Just take us through Dele's performance on Steph Curry. It's one of Steph's probably worst shooting performances in his career. It had everything to do with Dele. He kept a body on Steph. He made Steph work. And he was spectacular, man, defensively. Shots go in. They don't go in. We never really harp on that. It's more what happens before the shot is attempted. So we look at the game itself, the process. We need to get better shots. The 2015 NBA Finals has moved to Cleveland, Ohio. All 16 o'clock. This great sports city starving for a championship and thrilled to welcome back their Cavaliers who return with the series all even after two overtime thrillers in Oakland. Takes a wide sideline, right baseline to the rim. Nobody home. And he dunks it with a right hand. LeBron James will hold it for the final shot. Pass to James Jones for three. It's good! Taken away by James. Head of steam. Pitched it down to Nova. Hot for James. Dunk! What a great play! Scream by Tristan Thompson. Takes a tap of the key. Fades for a three. It's good! Bounce pass LeBron. Game's over. The Cleveland Cavaliers have taken a two games to one lead in the NBA Finals. I don't think it's after a game, we feel like, hey, we can beat this team. We feel like any team we play against, you know, we got what it takes to put ourselves in position to win. So I don't think it's a confidence growing game by game. We just know that if we do and play Cavalier style basketball, which may not be the prettiest, which may not be as flashy as everyone wants to see, if we stick to our game plan, we could put ourselves in position to win a ball game. Steve Kerr, I mean, he just feels like Harrison Barnes is his guy. And I'm not sure that you rattle your team at this point by taking him out of the starting lineup just because it's 2-1 in the NBA Finals. Your team is really young. Do you do that to them right now? I mean, we could talk. I would. I'd go with Iguodala over Harrison Barnes just because I think Iguodala gives them a huge chance to win over Harrison. Well, I think our vibe was really good as a team because we were just down 2-1 in Memphis two series before. Because of LeBron's brilliance, you know, they came in, won game two, and then really dominated game three. So we faced another reckoning just like we did in the Memphis series. The beauty of the playoffs is from one game to the next it's a chess match. And you gotta figure out how to be honest with yourself, like with what's working and what's not, and think outside the box a little bit about an adjustment that can just give you a different look. Nick Uran coming in with the suggestion, which obviously turned out to work. So, boy wonder, as they called it. My official title with the team was special assistant to the head coach. My duties, first of all, was really whatever Steve needed. We'd been meeting for, you know, two days straight about what's our adjustment, what do we need to do? Cleveland was loading up the paint. They did a great job on Steph and Klay trying to limit their shots. Somehow we had to open up the floor without compromising our defense. And so we talked about a lot of different ideas. They always say it's a different game in the playoffs and it couldn't be more true. It's a seven game series against one team and you need to know them inside and out. Each subsequent game, diving into what their matchups were, what adjustments can we make? What plays are they running? How can we stop those? And so it's just a complete deep dive into one team. And so that's how things change in the playoffs. We're too good to play like this. We're too good to hang our heads, right? Let's go. Steve is, first of all, the best communicator I've ever been around in my entire life. Not to mention the best leader I've ever been around in my life. He's got an amazing way of making the room feel comfortable. He puts everybody at ease. No idea is a bad idea and everyone feels comfortable speaking up. And he does that through his emotional intelligence. Everyone has a voice. Everybody in the room has a voice and a good idea can come from anywhere. And Steve's always operated that way. It doesn't just happen overnight. Like by the time we get to the playoffs, he spent the entire year, he would call me on his drive in and ask what we should do for practice that day. So that trust is built up throughout the year. It's all these little touch points that he's always talking and checking in with people. And I've never met a person or a leader that puts others at ease as much as Steve does. We had to make some changes, open up the floor. We couldn't score in game three. But the crazy thing about it, I'll never forget coming out of game three, I told my good friend Clark, like, we gonna win the championship. He looked at me like I was crazy. He was like, wait, what? I was like, listen, we're about to make a change. We found something at the end of game three. We found something. And I don't know if they can, they don't have a counter to it. Coach Kerr had played for Greg Popovich for years, really respected what Pop, you know, did. So we had broken down in the video room all of the Spurs finals games from previous years, and specifically against the Heat when they played against LeBron. And so I remembered from that time that they had actually adjusted their starting lineup. They took out Tiago Splitter and put in Boris Diaw to get a little bit more mobile, a little bit more skilled, a little bit more agile. But I thought we might be able to have the same success as the Spurs had in terms of just putting some more speed, some more decision-making, some more skill on the floor from the jump. We're in a fight. Cleveland's playing really well. They've been the aggressor, they've been patrolling these games. The good news for us is it's 2-1. We'll get right back on track. The concept was, you know, replacing Andrew Bogut with Andre Godal in the starting lineup. Slide Harris into the four, and that would have made Draymond Green our center, which was bold. Part of my reason and thinking it might work is that we'd had a lot of success with that lineup, albeit in short spurts, but it was a powerful lineup in terms of length, versatility, and defensive ability. So we'd seen it in glimpses. It's not like it was completely unfounded. They play big, right? They play Tristan Thompson at the four, Mozgov at the five, and you incorporate Andre, and we spaced the court out. You gotta take them slugs off the floor. That ain't gonna work. The way that they were guarding me allowed Andre to kind of get into a spot to make plays, and finish, whether he was scoring or he was making the plays. It was the night before game four. Luke Walton and I go out to dinner that night. We met Chris DiMarco for dinner the night before game four in Cleveland. We were just having dinner. We were discussing the game. We kept going back to like, man, if this is our best lineup, we should start Andre. So we get back to the hotel. I'm ready to go back to my room, and Luke says, hey, I'm not tired. Show me what you're talking about with this idea. I show him some of the film of what the Spurs had done, and 10 minutes goes by, 15 minutes goes by, 30 minutes goes by, and he's like, you know what? Like, I can see, I can see it. I can see what you're talking about. Shoot Steve a text. So I put Steve and Luke and I on a group text. He texted me, you know, late that night. Hey, I'm watching film with Luke here. We both think this is something to maybe consider. Here's the thought process behind it. What about starting Andre and taking Bogues out of the starting lineup, spreading him out? The idea was Draymond is perfectly capable of guarding Mozgov and Tristan Thompson. They're big guys. So let's see if that opens up the floor. You still have Andre on LeBron, and maybe that creates the space that we need for Steph and Klay to get going. And that was that. Sent the text, went to bed. Next morning, wake up. It was right before practice, like right before we stepped on the court. And Steve comes up, he says, you know, we're gonna do it, I like it. Steve come in, he's like, all right, we're changing the starting lineup. All right, we're gonna start Andre. Oh man, taking Harrison out of the starting lineup? We're starting small. Oh, all right. Put your hard hat on, Draymond. You gotta go play the five. Buckle up now. It was the best idea that I had heard yet. I hated to do it because I thought Bogut was so good defensively for us. But in the playoffs, you have to make difficult decisions. Yeah, look, I wasn't happy. Let's be honest. Individually, you're never happy to hear those conversations. And you think insular a little bit, and poor me, and you know, a little power session for yourself. The numbers were there analytically, and we had to win that game. And that's when the adjustment was made. And once you realize like, no, this is gonna win us a championship, it was the move you had to make. Bogut was amazing. He came up to me right after it was announced, like, within the team, like during the practice. He pulled me over to the side, was like, all right, I need you to do this. You should do this. Like, watch out for this. Like, he gave me the whole rundown. And you don't really get that as a professional athlete. So we decided to go small and put Andre in the starting lineup, put Draymond at the five, and just play that, the death lineup as it was called. And that's where we took control of the series. Biggest stage, death lineup. All right. We've hung our hats on this lineup all year. Let's go. All for Golden State's team curve, changing things up. Andrew Bogut would not start in the middle. They're going small. Draymond Green gonna play center, and Andre Iguodala will start for the first time this season. Thompson right now on James drives hard, off balance, first shot misses, picked up and in. I remember it pretty vividly in terms of the game starting. We fall down to an early lead and we call an early timeout. Iguodala wide open. Can't hit the three, and they're open for three to start. And I'm sitting there in the second row, like, pulling my collar. I'm like, this maybe is not going great, you know? Delavan-Dover finds Shufford, his three-pointer, puts it in. It started out poorly. We were down seven-nothing out of the game. We took a timeout. Where the Cavaliers are off to yet another fast start. And for once in the very few times this season, the Golden State Warriors are facing adversity. And I remember very vividly Jaron Collins. He turned to me and he was like, we are getting any shot we want. It was just a huge sigh of relief. And then Steve said the same thing in the huddle, and it was true. It unfolded really well. We were able to get going. For me personally, it was just like, okay, there's a little bit of relief. Like, let's stick with this and like, see the results out. Curry pops out off a screen, gets it back. Dribbles on Delavan-Dover behind the back, step back jumper. It's a three. It's up and good for Curry. Back to Andre. Left side, no fire. That's off the front ribs. Jammed home by Harrison Barnes. Harrison Gonzalez down the other end and throws it down. Thompson's left wide open and hits it. Gets the ball out of his hands again. Shuffling. Can't hit the three. Thompson, the rebound. Tristan Thompson, back up and in. Tristan Thompson to Delavan-Dover. He wants to run. Floats it high for LeBron. LeBron dunks it. Weather the storm, all right? They got a lot of energy right now with the crowd. In over 48 minutes, they're playing seven people. They're going to wear down. Step, jab, step. Fades and fires. Jumper, good for Andre over Musco. Great pass to David Lee. Two hand slam for David Lee. Curry stops, fades, fires. Three ball, got it. Head coach Steve Kerr made another brilliant move in this postseason. He starts Andre Iguodala. Final score, Golden State 103 and Cleveland 82. Once we won that game, I think our guys felt just like in the Memphis series. Like, all right, we've unlocked it. Let's go finish our business. We were a new group, and so I give our group credit for believing that they could still get it done after falling down 2-1. Kind of just changed the energy and the speed that we could play with. That's the beauty of the playoffs. That's why we love it so much. Because from one quarter to the next, one game to the next, you're always reading and reacting to what the other team is doing and trying to stay one step ahead. Game four, we win. We come back home for game five. Welcome to game five. Then in game four, Golden State played what they like to call Warriors basketball, and here we are all tied up. It's going to be fascinating to see how Cleveland comes back now. Klay Thompson doesn't have any help, so he puts on the brakes. Now's the timeline. It's a screen from Draymond. Bounce pass back to Draymond. Another dunk for Draymond. 19-18, Curry. Quick three, knocks it down. Two steps in front of the right hash mark. Shuffle pass. Oh, beautiful pass. Iguodala with his sixth assist. Dribble handoff to Barbosa. Hill circle, gets to the paint. Down the lane, underhand scoop. Good for Leandro. Livingston looks right for Thompson. Pass to Barnes. On guard, he gets the rope. Dunked it down with the luck, and he was fouled. Parrish over to Andre. He'll fire away. Three ball. Left corner pocket for Iguodala. It's right there, Forrest. We just got to be a little more patient. Establish our intensity tone. Establish the tone of our energy and our will to fight, all right? Right now. Curry gets a screen. Backs up, gets double. Goes behind the back left hand. Fades and fires. Oh, my goodness. Curry with another three. Thompson low and free. Bang. Just over to Andre. He'll fire away. Three ball. Golden State Warriors are now one win away, but possibly bringing the NBA championship back to the bay. Final score, Warriors 104, Cavaliers 91. It is what it is. Get a chance to go back home and get a game at home and try and come back here and win another one. Before game six, I gave a speech to practice before game six. Steve was like, don't put too much pressure on yourself. He says that all the time. Live in the moment. And I'm like, nah, scrap that. I've only done this like two or three times with Steve. I'm like, scrap that. This is the last game of the series. Tonight, it's game six, and the Warriors are on the cusp of winning their first title in 40 years. You've earned the right to be here. You've earned the right to play in this game. But we have to earn one more thing, and that's the game tonight. We have to earn that. Nobody's giving us anything. Well, first, I remember knowing that there was a watch party at Oracle and trying to feed off the fact that we wanted to give them a true party. Even though we were trying to clinch on the road, nobody wanted to come back home for game seven. This crowd, obviously, all fired up. Moskov and Draymond Green. Nolan State has found their offensive rhythm the past couple of wins. Curry misses his first jumper. As they're back home, James drives hard and beats Moskov. Moskov off the glass. Let's settle in. Let's go win a basketball game. James spins, and it's stripped and stolen by Iguodala. There's Curry. Andre Iguodala with another fine defensive play that leads to an easy two points. Another feed inside to Curry. Ball moving. Iguodala hesitant to shoot now. Curry not, and hits the three-pointer. The extra pass from Iguodala. James drives. Oh, nice move off the glass. Trying to get it out of Curry's hands. Barnes finds Iguodala. Another wide open look, and another three-pointer. Iguodala's at three of his last four, and Golden State with an eight-point lead. Ormosa had a strong game five. Curry, quick release. Off. Azealy catches and finishes. Golden State, they lead the Cavaliers 28 to 15. We're done with the first quarter. James looks up at the shot clock. Sets, fires, and hits the three as the shot clock expires. Barbosa tries and connects. Leandro Barbosa hits his back. Here's Iguodala. Back out the board. Barnes for three. Another terrific play by Iguodala off the dribble. It's in a low-scoring first half. James drives. David Lee stays with him for a moment. His pass deflected, and Barbosa comes up with it, throws it ahead to Curry. Curry, one man to beat, drives. Layup is good. James drives. Off balance. Thompson on the follow. And the quarter comes to an end. Tristan Thompson, an emphatic slam. But Golden State, once up 13, will take a two-point lead into their locker room. Good things. We can get back to that. But the first quarter, we moved the ball a lot better than we did in the second. We started settling. Lack of confidence right now in J.R. Smith. He almost picked up his fifth as he turned it over. Iguodala fakes, drives, and finishes. Good look from Barnes. It's not time to be tired. You are close to a game seven. Find a way to get it done. Three, hits the three. And the Warriors respond with a 7-0 run. David Flack calls timeout, as Golden State goes back up by six. Great position. It's all about defense and rebound. Defend and rebound. Come on, guys. They made a run. Let's run right back at them. Let's go. Perry finds Green. Iguodala fakes. Goes to James Jones, lays it in. Andre Iguodala with 14 points and five assists. Delamadova floats it up. Shot misses. Tops it. Can't corral it. And Stephen Curry has the rebound. Dribbles out of trouble. Curry, rightful pass to Iguodala. And it's a 10-point lead. Cavs call timeout. Their defense leading the offense. You guys all got to fight. You fought for that rebound right there. You fought. You got it. Two points. Three on two. Curry puts up a three. Azealia on the foul. And the foul. Give the coaching staff for the Golden State Warriors credit. Elevating Azealia over Bogut and over Lee tonight. By lobbing up, Azealia rushed it. Couldn't get it. Azealia's tip misses. And the third quarter comes to an end. The Warriors 12 minutes away from their first NBA title since 1975. Boys, take care of the ball. Keep defending. You get to the fourth quarter, and you're like, all right, we're 12 minutes away from winning this championship. And that was probably the hardest challenge I think I had faced just personally, not fast forwarding to the end, like trying to just stay in the moment as much as possible. Pedro Barbosa with his best. What a move from Barbosa. And the lead is 14. Here comes James. Puts his head down. Lefty layup is good. And Steph Curry, 5 for 13. And they're up big. Bad pass stolen by James. Here we go. A 7-0 run. Guys, there's a lot of game left. Go put your heads down. Play. A lot of game left. Come on. Curry for three. Pluts it in. Steph and Curry from downtown. Gets away from Jones. Gets inside. Layup misses. Livingston on the slam. John Livingston once again with a big play. Curry finds Green. Green picks it out. Nogadala, his three-point attempt. Got it. The Warriors once again answer. I think I hit two threes in that game. Curry gets an opening. Fires away. Got it again. Steph and Curry from downtown. It's back to 11. I remember I had to do a cross-court pass to Clay, who made a three in the corner. Those are like the ones where I remember we were just separating ourselves at the time. That was when you kind of see and feel like, oh, we're right here. Let's go. Get the midway point here on the fourth. Green drives. Green kicks it out. Nogadala, wide open shot. That's a three-pointer. That's the 10th assist for Drayvon Green. He's got a triple-double tonight. How good has Andre Nogadala been in these finals? And the guy deserves this moment because he's sacrificed. They have one last run in the game. Comes up top to Smith. J.R. Smith, short. The shots just won't go down. James can't get it to go. And Green with another rebound, as we're under two minutes remaining. Curry drives and banks it in. 98-85. Del Evadova calls timeout. Golden State in control. Steve Kerr came into the Warriors. He challenged them. Hey, we know we're a good team. But we need to be great. And has pushed them, controlled them, supported them every step of the way. Curry gets it. Curry trying to get away. Del Evadova in pursuit, bumps him. And Stephen Curry will shoot free throws with 29.1 remaining. What a year for Steph Curry and his Warriors. MVP and a championship in the same season. And they do it on the road. So many huge road wins. Watch free throws there from Curry again. Well, James gets it. James brings it up the floor, gets away, sets. Nice fake, gets a good open look, and misses the three. Rebounding Adala, fouled from behind with 10.6 remaining. And that will do it. It's quiet here in Cleveland. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green could start their celebration. I'll never forget standing there and Steph holding the ball. And I'm standing there looking at him. He's like, what? I said, what? What? I didn't know what to say once we knew we were going to win. I think I said, what, like 17 times. And we dabbed up like six times, just staring at each other, like, what's happening right now? Because we knew we wanted it so bad, and it was actually here. And one of the great regular seasons in the history of the league, 67 wins. One of the most dominant home court records in NBA history is going to end with a title, Curry and Kerr. LeBron James with the congratulations for the MVP and a point of respect toward the Warriors bench. One of magnificent finals for LeBron James. And also Steve Kerr. Got to give him a lot of credit, Mike. Took over a tough job in a tough situation, won over the Lacrosse, and is a championship coach. And then got the last rebound, and he just threw the ball up. Threw the ball up in the air, which is a rookie mistake. Andre tracked it down. And the clock expired. Just remember that feeling of hearing the horn go off and celebrating, realizing you won your first championship. So definitely a special moment, and one you'll remember forever. To feel that for the first time, I've never felt that feeling again. The most incredible feeling I've ever had in my life, by far. Smith will bring it up, throw up a three, rebound Curry. And the dream season is now complete. The Golden State Warriors are the 2015 NBA champions. Their first title in 40 years. And how sweet it must be for those crazy loyal Bay Area fans. It's taken 40 years, but once again, the Bay's team is the best team. The Golden State Warriors have won the NBA title. A veteran in his second year at Golden State. Just a brilliant performance in his first NBA finals. It takes away the ego. It takes away all the things that you want for yourself personally. I think all that's stripped away. And I think that's the highest moment you can have as a team. You always see people jumping around, grabbing each other. It's the most selfless moment in sports. So if there's anything you remember, that was it. Why didn't we do this? We did it, man. You better believe it. We did it at the beginning. Steve Kerr, this organization, these players, incredible year. 67 wins. The pressure was on them. They responded, and they're champions. It is their moment. They've earned it. And they should celebrate it. Yeah! Zag Nasty, stand up! Yeah! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! I'm so happy! Yeah! Man! We go up onto that stage. There's about 300 Warriors fans behind the stage, chanting Warriors. I look down. I see the team. And I hear. This year's Bill Russell MVP, Andre Iguodala. Andre Iguodala announced as the finals MVP. Andre won MVP? Yes! That's fantastic! Oh my gosh. It's probably one of my proudest moments, not because I got the trophy, but because I wasn't thinking too much of it in that moment. I wasn't thinking I won the finals MVP. I was the best player on my team. I wasn't thinking of none of that. I was just so excited to win the championship that everyone else was more happy for me than I was myself. Incredible. I know Steve talks about it a lot, about how he obviously earned it and deserved it, but how symbolic that was of just our team. The guy that had to sacrifice his starting spot. He ends up starting in the finals. He ends up winning MVP. How about the guy who comes off the bench all year and gives up his starting role and wins MVP in the finals? That's kind of like the storybook stuff, that it was an embodiment of what our team was about. And so him being the first free agent that saw that goal, I could win with those guys. And in 2013, he made that move. And then two years later, he's a champion and a finals MVP. So it was a beautiful moment. I see the whole coaching staff, all the players, front office, Bob Myers comes and joins me. I looked around, I'm not kidding. I said, it's the greatest moment of my life. This is it. I got everything right here. This is my whole life, my family, my life in basketball. The greatest season that a coach could ever ask for in my first year of coaching with a group of people I loved all around me. This is it, greatest moment of my life. It's why a coach says, like that's why you spray champagne on each other because you realize how hard winning a championship is. And when you walk in that locker room, that's, you're letting all of that energy go and that you carry for your whole career really. But that year, 82 games, 16 wins in the playoffs, like it was really hard work. And we celebrate it like. 40 years since they've been national, so this is special, this is special, thank you. Studs have sunk in. As we're still chasing more championships and banners, but 10 years has flown by for sure. You gotta give credit to the ownership group. How much time, how much resources they put into making sure the team was right. Like you have to spend money to get players like we got, and they did that. They're still family for me. They're still a team for me. I can't explain how much fun I had with this team. You know, and like I say, it's always special. I think there's something really special about that first one and the fact that nobody expected us to do it that was really, really cool. It's very nostalgic and it brings back all those feelings of the camaraderie, you know, the special sauce that we had as a team, the personalities, the talent, and it's just special to see like all of us get a chance to, you know, come together over these moments, you know, it's a brotherhood. Everywhere we go, we hang out in town. We come to the city, hang out. Everybody, warriors gear, champs. To see how the people were standing on like, oh no, we champs, that was surreal. People ask me, what's the difference between winning a championship as a player and as a coach and what's better? And when I got that question after that first year, I can honestly say it's better as a coach because you feel more responsible for the entire group. You know, when we see that type of celebration and everybody in that room is so happy, it's the most incredible feeling of satisfaction that you can imagine. Hey. How you doing? I'm good. You good? Oh, this is funny. Yes, yes, this is a great day. Then you go into the parade, and wow. Special, special, it was special. It's hard, it's hard to even put that into words. Warriors going up, the Bay going up, you see it, that's about the military, the military, baby, let's get it. Hey. I just remember the magnitude of Oakland showing out. Well, I think it was a left onto Broadway off of the 10th Street, and we didn't see who was out there. When you turn the corner, it's just a sea of people, you know, starving Warrior fans that were so happy to celebrate this with us. It's this size. Right there. You don't know what to expect about a parade. I'm like real playful about it, I just have as much fun, and that's what we did. Ha, ha. The amount of people that showed up, the amount of energy, it was just 10 out of 10 energy the entire time. That's what it's about. That was such an incredible time. For Oakland to see its first parade in 40 years, what a time.