As soon as Kevin Durant left Oklahoma City for the Golden State Warriors, the term "super-team" started popping up everywhere. It used to be all about forming a "Big Three" and that was the phrase being thrown around following Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen being traded to the Boston Celtics to join Paul Pierce. Then it became very en vogue when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat in 2010. The latest trend will now be finding ways to become a super-team. But what makes a super-team anyways??
Jason Terry has some thoughts. He's helped take down a Big Three before when he and Dirk Nowitzki beat the Heat in the 2011 Finals. To him, he says it's more about what a team accomplishes than what we call them as they come together. He doesn't believe the Warriors are a super-team ... yet. He said they're forming one, but we have to wait until they win championships before they can be crowned. To him, someone like the San Antonio Spurs -- winning five championships during Tim Duncan's career -- is a super-team.
Terry via YardBarker:
"Every team back in the day had two or three superstars but you weren't calling them super teams. I think it's more about the way they play. For me, San Antonio is a super-team. They won five championships with [Tony] Parker, [Manu] Ginobili, and Duncan. But guys don't really look at that and say, 'That's a super-team.'
"Because they have super individuals doesn't make them a super-team. For me, it's more about the accomplishment and what they're able to accomplish. And are they going to accomplish it? It's yet to be seen, so I refuse to give them that label right now. But they do have two guys that have won the MVP, so they are starting to form a super-team as we speak but it's yet to be seen."
That's hard to argue with when Terry says we have to wait. I think most people assume the Warriors are destined for championships with Durant. They won 73 games last season and were one win away from back-to-back titles before their historic collapse against the Cleveland Cavaliers. But they haven't won anything with Durant yet, so we need to see that before they get crowned. That all makes sense. Nobody wants the smoke machines and light shows like we saw with the Heat after the signings in 2010 before a ring gets put on the finger.
Really, this just becomes more about a marketing type of deal and the phrase of the day becomes a buzzword for everybody to use. We call them a "super-team" because it creates a bit more gusto in how we discuss them and it makes it all the more dramatic if we see them fail to win the title as constructed.
Now we just need to see Terry react to someone asking him if the New York Knicks are now a super-team.
