By and large, the Golden State Warriors are immensely popular. Their ratings are massive, kids everywhere now want to be Stephen Curry more than any other player, their jerseys are popular, the works. Everyone loves the Warriors. But you're never going to find a situation where literally everyone likes anything.
And so it is that there's a perception of ongoing criticism for Golden State, even as they continue to build a resume as "the greatest team of all time." Chief among those critics have been a cavalcade of former players to either say the Warriors aren't that good (as Oscar Robertson suggested last week) or that their team could beat them (as none other than Stephen Jackson hilariously said Friday).
You'll never believe it, but the Warriors don't like being criticized. I know -- I, too, was shocked. First, Stephen Curry says all the talk is "annoying."
"It's starting to get a little annoying just because it's kind of unwarranted from across the board," Curry said on the "Warriors Plus/Minus" podcast by the Bay Area News Group on Friday. "We have a very competent group, and we have fun when we're out there on the floor, and it shows, obviously.
"We enjoy what we do. But for the most part, you don't hear us talking about, you know, comparing ourselves to other great teams and 'We could beat this team, we're better than this team.' We're living in the moment."
Source: Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry finds bashing from retired stars 'annoying'.
And here's Andrew Bogut from Sunday's shootaround, essentially saying "Ha, whatever."
“They obviously want to get in the media and have their name heard again,” Warriors center Andrew Bogut said. “I just hope I’m not a bitter old man in my 50s and 60s. Every generation says the next generation is softer and slower and not as smart and not as physical. So I hope I’m not one of those guys that does that. It’s unfortunate. I respect all eras. Every era brought something different.
“When I’m on my couch with a beer open watching, I’ll respect everybody because I know what it takes to get to this league in whatever era you played in.”
“It’s just funny to me. It’s just funny that you can ask anybody,” Bogut said. “You can ask 12th man on a championship team from 1965, and some journalist is going to print the article.
“To us, we don’t really care about it that much. It’s more just starting to get funny now because they’re just asking random people from random teams that didn’t even win championships. It’s like, ‘Alright, cool. Great opinion.’”
Source: Warriors amused by criticism from ex-players - Inside the Warriors.
It's great perspective from both players, especially Bogut who really, truly won't care based on everything we know of him. (Draymond Green is an entirely different matter. Don't be surprised if in 30 years Draymond is talking about how his Warriors would destroy whoever the next big thing is.)
It's important to remember, however, that these are very select individuals issuing this criticism. They're also former players, so they're by their very nature competitive. They aren't going to want to admit their teams would fail under any circumstances. There are also any number of players willing to talk about how great the Warriors are, and how much better they are than their teams. Criticism stands out because of how great the Warriors are, and because of a slight developing false sense of persecution beginning to be crafted in narrative.
None of this will bother the Warriors, and certainly none of it will stop them. For a team that is remarkable in rooting out any sense of disrespect, you can only imagine this will push them to even greater heights, if that's even possible.
