The fun-loving group who bombed 3s like no other team in NBA history, whose selfless play helped set a regular-season win record, whose biggest superstar exudes an aw-shucks way about him? That team of America’s darlings is in peril.
The 2015 NBA champions and 2016 pre-playoff monsters, the Warriors had shimmied and moon-shot their way into the nation’s hearts, a rare machine that never slipped while also evading the Goliath tag. A team that played together and didn’t house a 6-8, 250-pound athletic freak-of-nature LeBron James or a blink-and-you-miss-him Russell Westbrook managed to keep its Cinderella ethos for most of last season’s playoffs.
Until Draymond Green’s legs and arms flailed whenever he was in the proximity of another player’s junk. Until fans began picking up on Stephen Curry’s endless whining to officials. Until James embraced the underdog role and stole three straight in the NBA Finals for an unbelievable Cavs upset.
Now, this group of Warriors is in unfamiliar waters, morphing into the baddies. Might as well shrug into that label and sign cartoonish villain Matt Barnes, right?
Golden State, still in a holding pattern as the Kevin Durant courtship drags on, reportedly is interested in the forward who would be polarizing if anyone passionately supported him. According to ESPN, the Warriors, Mavericks, Clippers and Kings have shown interest in the 36-year-old who averaged 10 points and 5.5 rebounds per game for Memphis last season, when he wasn’t suspended for attacking Derek Fisher or saying terrible things about Derek Fisher.
Barnes, who dashed to his estranged wife’s house in October when he learned the former Knicks coach was with her and their children, previously had expressed interest in Golden State.
“Cleveland in 7,” Barnes rightly predicted to “Hollywood Unlocked” in early June about the NBA Finals. “Because I want to possibly go to Golden State next year and help them win.”
What kind of person would the Warriors be enlisting? The kind who rages when an ex has the audacity to date someone else and who brags about his blow-up — “Violence is never the answer, but sometimes it is.”
A frontcourt consisting of Green and Barnes? These wouldn’t be your slightly older brother’s Warriors.
