What Now? — EmJaySee

Something utterly magnificent happened recently, and quite frankly it’s something that has been on my mind ever since its occurrence. That’s right, against all odds I won a raffle for the latest pair of Yeezys. Oh and the Warriors won the whole thing. While they’re both intriguing topics, given the nature of the cover photo and the magnitude of the latter, I should probably explore the Dub’s W. It’s not necessarily a surprise to many of basketball’s viewers, but there are a few elements entangled in their victory that have been circling my mind. First, the fact that it wasn’t a huge surprise has been interesting to think about. I mean, the Finals were never really close. But looking further, where do we go from here?

Addressing the lack of surprise, there were admittedly points throughout the season where I had my doubts about the cohesiveness of the squad. Sparse bench depth and intra-team superstar abrasion were my two main concerns. However, as I pointed out in my last post, the bench grew steadily throughout the season due to sheer playing time. Perhaps even more surprisingly, the team’s main attractions got along, and they got along really well. And now that we’re a short way into the off-season, we can see this solidarity come to fruition. Curry signed a 5 year contract (which was ginormungous), and Durant took a $1.5 million pay-cut from last year to stay with the team for at least another two years. So things are working both on the floor and in the locker room. But where does that leave them, and the rest of the league?

Well, the rest of the league has no idea what the hell to do. Chris Paul moves to Houston, half of the Rockets go to L.A., P.G. joins tumultuous weather in Oklahoma City, and it hasn’t even been a month since the Dubs were crowned champions. The “super-team” they have created has the whole league talking, especially since it worked. If it hadn’t been for egregious officiating in Game 4 they would have swept their way to victory with their blue and gold broom, cleaning a path towards the history books. But I digress. The Warriors won in dominating fashion, and inquisitive league members are trying to find answers. At the same time, I’m trying to figure out where I stand in all of this.

One on hand, the impressiveness of their season is not to be undermined. And I would never say that I was unamused throughout any of it. There were a lot of viewers/commentators/annoying opinionists that claimed boredom throughout the playoffs, and that’s absurd. However, at the same time I had a lingering thought in my mind that we, for lack of a better phrase, bought our way to a ring. Even typing that out is uncomfortable, but is it true? Well…maybe. But then again, who wouldn’t do that with the means available? Plus, just because you have the ingredients to make a three Michelin-star dinner doesn’t mean you’ll cook the meal perfectly. The pieces have to come together just right. I’m not knocking the Warriors, they did what they had to do win and they won. And I’m definitively not upset that LeBron is back out of the magazines. “Well, then, what the heck are you?” you may ask. I’m curious what is in store for the future of both the Warriors and basketball. At the risk of over-analyzing, I'm wondering “what now?”

P.s. There were some sweet kicks in the Finals, undoubtedly. Curry unveiled his 4th signature shoe, Durant unveiled his 10th, and player exclusives were everywhere. But, by far the coolest thing to happen to basketball shoe culture in recent memory is the gift given to Russ West after winning MVP. Pictured below, Jordan gave him a 1 of 1 special pack of the Jordan 31, and two pairs of Jordan 10s. Aptly titled XXX1/10/10, this magnificent ensemble captures his triple-double average the best way Nike knows how — snazzy sneakers.