This year, the City ruled the Land

With a near-perfect 16-1 postseason, the Golden State Warriors won their
second NBA Championship in three years on Monday night.

If you're a Golden State Warriors fan, like I am, you're probably in a pretty good mood today. After all, this is the year that the City ruled the Land.

Congratulations are in order for the Golden State Warriors on the occasion of winning their second NBA Championship in three seasons. On a late, spring Monday night at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., the Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers, 129-120, to win their best-of-7 NBA Final, four games to one.

Indeed, as Warriors fans know, there's strength in numbers.

The much-heralded Kevin Durant, who joined the Warriors family nearly a year ago on July 4, 2016, in search of his first championship, garnered the Finals MVP by pouring in 39 points in the clincher. Teammate Stephen Curry, himself a Finals MVP when the Warriors won it all in 2015, added 34. Together, they were virtually unstoppable. In defeat, LeBron James scored a game-high 41 points for the Cavaliers. After the final buzzer sounded, James found both Durant and Curry on the court and offered props to both. Very classy move.

Looking back, the Warriors won the NBA Championship for a reason – they had the best collection of committed players and a coaching staff who molded this group of highly talented and motivated athletes into a winning team. They played with joy and enthusiasm, beauty and unity. Throughout their historic 16-1 post-season run, there was always a sense of passion on display and their desire to achieve a common goal of winning the title was always in focus. On any given night, in any given game, the Warriors always hustled and more often than not, found a way to win.

Thank you, players: Matt, Ian, Stephen, Kevin, Draymond, Andre, Damian, Shaun, Kevon, James Michael, Patrick, JaVale, Zaza, Klay and David. Thank you coaches: Steve, Mike, Ron, Jarron, Bruce, Chris and Willie.

Long after the game ended but not before the celebration had waned, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, sporting a championship tee to go with his Champagne-soaked-and-spiked coiffure, reflected on the championship moment during a televised interview outside Oracle Arena, among a hearty group of blue and gold-clad Warriors fans. As always, with the right sense of thought and tone of voice – and with graciousness, too –  his words spoke volumes:

"There's so much joy, so much love. It's an incredible group of guys," said Kerr. "We know how talented they are. They are so committed to each other and to the greater good. That's ultimately what puts you over the top. We have the talent – obviously – to compete for a title every year, but what puts you over the top, I think, is when you have that level of respect and commitment to each other."

This year, it was the Warriors turn to win it all.

Golden State Warriors: They are the darlings of the NBA

Stephen Curry / An affable MVP who makes his art look effortless.

Barely two months into the new pro basketball season, the Golden State Warriors once again are the darlings of the National Basketball Association. Nightly, the defending champions have been providing their fans with a highly-entertaining product that sells out the house at Oakland's Oracle Arena. Five games into a two-week, seven-city road trip, the Warriors are also dazzling fans across the country in cities like Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Toronto, Brooklyn and Indianapolis, too.

The Warriors are scoring lots of points thanks to shooting the lights out from 3-point range, playing stingy defense that forces opponents into committing costly turnovers and, most of all, they are winning. Great teams find all kinds of ways to win.

Recently, the Warriors set an NBA record for most wins at the start of a season -- 16 -- and the winning streak continues, reaching 23 on Tuesday night with a 131-123 victory over the Indianapolis Pacers. The Warriors became the first NBA team to open a season with 13 consecutive road wins, breaking the 12-0 record set by 1969-70 New York Knicks.

Draymond Green / The Warriors' power forward scored 22
points and added 9 rebounds and 7 assists against the Nets.

So, the perfect season lives on -- 23-0 and counting -- and when you consider the Warriors won their final four regular-season games last season, the Warriors have 27 consecutive victories, which ties the second-longest winning streak in the NBA's history. Next, the Warriors complete their seven-city road trip this week with games at Boston and Milwaukee on Friday and Saturday.

Last season, en route to winning the team's first NBA crown in 40 years, the "Dubs" achieved a franchise-best 16-game winning streak, going five weeks without losing a game. One of the reasons for the Warriors' success can be attributed to having one of the brightest minds in the game in head coach Steve Kerr. However, he's been sidelined this season while recovering  from two off-season back surgeries. At the start of this season, Kerr passed the reigns to one of his assistants, Luke Walton, and the interim head coach hasn't missed a beat.

Luke Walton / So far, he's made all the right moves
as interim coach of the Warriors.

So far, Walton has made all the right moves, and he's getting the most out of his deep roster of talented stars -- point guard Stephen Curry, shooting guard Klay Thompson, and power forward Draymond Green -- and "second unit" role players like Andre Iguodala, Ron Livingston and Leandro Barbosa, each who could start for any other NBA team.

Nobody has been able to stop the Warriors this season -- maybe for a quarter, but not for all 48 minutes. When the Warriors take the court, writes San Francisco Chronicle columnist Bruce Jenkins, they "have five players who can run, pass, set screens, rebound, play fiercely motivated defense and, most importantly, hit the three-point shot.

"They love playing together: the fancier and more unselfish, the better. Curry is being linked with the all-time greats and Green looks to be a certain All-Star."

As the accolades come pouring in for the Warriors, the national media has begun to take notice. The other week, I read an utterly fascinated feature about the affable Curry in The New York Times in which Graham Lustig, the artistic director of the Oakland Ballet Company, said "there's a certain musicality to the way his body works. It looks like he's moving to a slightly different dimension as everyone else. Incredible, unbelievable control. And that's what you want in a dancer."

With each three-point basket shot from way downtown and every spinning layup, the 6-foot-3 Curry is reinventing the game of basketball -- transcending the sport, if you will -- and turning it into an artistic performance. According to Lustig, "much of his aesthetic appeal was rooted in what ballet dancers seek most: to make their art look effortless.

"Steph doesn't really look like he's putting in a lot of effort, does he? I'm not suggesting at all that he doesn't use effort. It's just that he doesn't display it, and I think that's probably at the core of what this is about."

Stephen Curry / "When he's hot, he makes things happen,
says teammate Leandro Barbosa.

Far from effortless, Curry began the season by averaging a league-best 31.6 points per game to go with 6.0 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 2.5 steals in winning Western Conference player of the month honors for November. With his 44-point outburst Saturday at Toronto, which included 15 points in a seven-minute span en route to an 112-109 victory, Curry has scored more than 40 points in seven games this season.

"Steph knows he's going to be on the court for most of the game, and he's going to have the ball in his hands for most of the game," Walton said after Sunday's victory against Brooklyn.

"He can pick and choose when he wants to get aggressive and take over and when he wants to get his teammates involved. That's his call out there, and he does a great job judging when to do both."

Toronto point guard DeMar DeRozan told the San Francisco Chronicle: "He's a heck of a player, and he makes it look so effortless." After a recent win at Phoenix in which Curry scored 41 points by knocking home 11-of-20 field goal attempts -- including 9-of-16 3-pointers -- in just 31 minutes on the court, Barbosa said: "When he's hot, he makes things happen. We were just enjoying watching him play."

While Curry seems to be enjoying himself shining in the spotlight -- putting on a boffo show for the fans both at home and on the road, which have included hip-hop mogul Drake in Toronto -- and contributing to his team's success, where their wins this season are coming by an average of nearly 16 points per game, the basketball world can't seem to get enough. The Warriors are not only a hot ticket at the box office, sales of their team merchandise have skyrocketed this season, too.

The Golden State Warriors / Celebrating the team's first
NBA championship in 40 years. 

Collectively, the Warriors show no signs of letting up. They love the feeling of being winners and their confidence remains high. In their win over Indiana on Tuesday, it was Thompson's turn to shine. His 39-point performance included 10 three-pointers.

Winning motivates this team. There's no boredom or conflict. After the Warriors' victory in Toronto Saturday, Curry called the team's winning streak "surreal." He told the San Francisco Chronicle that it doesn't sound right when you say it out loud. "But we're very confident when we're out there on the floor. We're very comfortable, and we expect to win every night."

Their fans love a winner and Curry and the Warriors keep delivering victories.

A postscript: On Saturday, a night after a gut-wrenching, physically taxing double-overtime victory over the Boston Celtics, which elevated the team's win-loss record this season to 24-0 and winning streak to 28 games, the Golden State Warriors finally lost a game, 108-95 to the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee. It was the seventh and final game of a two-week road trip across America and Canada. The streak had to end sometime.

Photos: Courtesy of Google Images.

Stephen Curry: MVP season is summed up in passionate 'thank you' speech to his teammates, family and fans

Stephen Curry / A unique combination of talent and humility.

Watching Stephen Curry win the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award this week -- the league's highest honor -- reminded me of the values of shooting, screening, cutting and passing he's shown throughout what has been a truly remarkable season. Curry, who stars for the Golden State Warriors, my hometown team, was the best player on basketball's best team.

Curry, the Warriors' first MVP since Wilt Chamberlain won in 1960, is a sharpshooting guard on a team that won a league-best 67 of 82 regular season games and is 5-1 in the playoffs so far. He is part of a very deep and very well-coached team, the marquee player that Golden State has built its team around.

Curry's memorable season statistics were dazzling and reflected his value to his team. He was sixth in the league in scoring (23.8 points per game), sixth in assists (7.7 per game ), third in three-point shooting (44.3 percent), first in free-throw shooting (91.4 percent), and fourth in steals (2.04 per game).

At a press conference in an Oakland, Calif. ballroom in front of about 500 friends, family and teammates on Monday, the diminutive (6-foot-3, 180 pounds) Curry shared the lessons that perseverance, faith and confidence played. He took the time to thank each of his teammates individually in his MVP speech and choked up when he talked about his father, former NBA guard Dell Curry, as his role model.

Among the words which Curry's Warrior teammates used to describe him: genuine. And Steve Kerr, his coach, called Curry a unique combination of talent and humility. "The way he carries himself, his demeanor," said Kerr.

Curry said he would donate his MVP prize car to the East Oakland Youth Development Center.

Among the highlights of Curry's speech, which focused on the importance of team:

"We’ll remember this year no matter how it finishes, really.  But we have a huge goal in mind this year, and we’ll be able to talk about it for years to come.

"Every time we think of this moment we’ll talk about it and moments that hopefully will happen in a couple of months, it will all mean so much to us. How much sacrifice we’ve put into it, how much work, just the consistency that it takes to get to where we are.  It takes all 14 guys.  You can’t have one bad apple in this equation, and we don’t.

"So we’re truly grateful.  I’m grateful to have this team behind me.  This is not possible without you guys.  I want everybody to get a fingerprint on that so I can remember who I rolled with during this year, and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

"All right.  I’ve been long‑winded, but this is the last part.  I’ve talked about faith, passion, and the drive with the guys that I’ve been around and the guys that surround me every single day.  But a part of that is having the will to succeed.  Knowing that you’ve put the work in and have the confidence to let it show.  What I tell people is be the best version of yourself in anything that you do.

"You don’t have to live anybody else’s story.  Sometimes people make it seem like you have to have certain prerequisites or a crazy life story in order to be successful in this world.  But the truth is you really don’t.  It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you have or don’t have, what you lack or what you have too much of, but all you need to have is faith in God, an undying passion for what you do and what you choose to do in this life, and a relentless drive and the will to do whatever it takes to be successful in whatever you put your mind to."

Finally, after nearly 40 minutes, Curry summed up his speech by sharing a bit of advice and wisdom from the heart:

"Make sure you live in the moment and work your butt off every single day, and I hope I inspire people all around the world to just be themselves, be humble, and be grateful for all the blessings in your life.  I’m truly honored to be your MVP this year.  Thank you very much."

Photo: Courtesy of Google Images. 

A Kerr-ific start for a first-time head coach

Steve Kerr / "I'm the luckiest coach in NBA history..."

Two months into the new pro basketball season, the Golden State Warriors have been the darlings of the National Basketball Association. Nightly, the "Splash Brothers" duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are providing a highly-entertaining -- and potent -- 1-2 scoring punch in the back court. The "Dubs" achieved a franchise best 16-game winning streak, going five weeks without losing a game.

One of the reasons for the Warriors' new-found success is simple: they have one of the brightest minds in the game in their new head coach, Steve Kerr. He's off to the hottest start of any first-year NBA head coach with a 23-3 record, the best record in the league. He's coached the Warriors to an impressive 10-1 record at home, including a 128-108 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Monday night, and they're 13-2 on the road.

"I'm the luckiest coach in NBA history because I inherited a team that was already this good," Kerr recently told the San Jose Mercury-News.

Before the start of the season, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Kerr far away from Oracle Arena, where the Warriors regularly sell out their home games. Our paths crossed following a couple of University of California, Berkeley women's volleyball matches, where his daughter Maddy excels as the team's libero. It was back in September during the first week of basketball practice, long before anyone could imagine Kerr's good fortune as a first-time coach.

My first impressions of Kerr were positive. Although our first chat was brief and mostly introductory, he was very gracious with his time and took a genuine interest in getting to know me and my wife. His role on this night was that of a college volleyball parent -- not an NBA head coach. He came dressed the part of a parent, too -- wearing chino slacks, a long-sleeved t-shirt and casual sneakers.

The second time we chatted occurred a few weeks after our first meeting. I wanted to ask Kerr, an avid reader and learner, about his reading interests and he eagerly shared with me that during the summer he read a 600-page biography about one of his basketball idols, legendary UCLA head coach John Wooden. I sensed from our brief conversation that Kerr, 49, wished he could have been old enough to play for Wooden. As someone who is a few years older, I remember the UCLA glory years as a kid growing up in southern California. I believe Kerr would have fit in well, both as a good team player and as an eager student of the game.

Even though Kerr wasn't old enough to play for Wooden, the Wizard of Westwood, he was well schooled, learning valuable tools of basketball wisdom from Lute Olson during his collegiate days at Arizona. Then, as a pro, he was mentored by the two of the best: Phil Jackson in Chicago and Greg Popovich in San Antonio. Kerr is a five-time NBA champion, having won three titles with the the Bulls, alongside Michael Jordan, and two with the Spurs, where his teammates included Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. As a broadcaster following his 15-year playing career, Kerr teamed with one of basketball's best in Marv Albert, and he applied his skills learned as player towards becoming a knowledgable and good-humored analyst.

After reading Eleven Rings, in which Jackson chronicled the 11 NBA titles he won coaching the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, I was intrigued to find out what books Kerr was given to read by his coach during his playing days with the Chicago Bulls. Jackson was legendary for assigning books to his players to keep them engaged during road trips. Kerr said the most memorable one he received from the Zen Master was the novel All The Pretty Horses by American author Cormac McCarthy.

"I want to keep stimulating my mind and keep fresh things coming in," Kerr told the San Francisco Chronicle. It's one reason why his staff regularly brings him articles of a non-basketball nature for him to read, and Kerr enjoys doing things away from the basketball court like watching his daughter's volleyball matches.

Here's what I've learned from observing Kerr: He's a very affable, down-to-earth guy who blends in easily with other Cal volleyball parents and, while sitting high up in Haas Pavilion out of the spotlight -- he graciously takes time to greet fans who approach him and willingly poses for photos -- always smiling. He's humble while also being likable, and both on and off the court, he's a credible communicator.

After I introduced myself as a long-time fan of Cal volleyball and complemented him on behalf of Maddy's gutsy on-court performance in a Cal victory, I also offered him congratulations on becoming the Warriors head coach. Little did either of us realize in September the tremendous success Kerr would enjoy during the start of his inaugural season. It's a work in progress that's still being written, but has all the makings of a becoming a best-seller.

Photo: Courtesy of espn.com and Google images.