On Wednesday night, the Golden State Warriors won their 73rd game of the season, breaking the Chicago Bulls’ 1995-96 season record of 72 wins. That’s insane. About 96% of basketball talk this season has been about the Warriors and whether or not they’d break the record and the entire time I thought, “Nah, not possible. Not goin’ to be able to do it!”
But they did, and once they did it, I started thinking about what all went into making the impossible, possible.
I was listening to an interview with their General Manager Bob Myers this week on Russillo & Kannell and he brought up an interesting point - this unprecedented team and organization all came together, not as a result of a “master plan”, but rather because of a series of decisions focused on improvement. He picked a backup point guard this year that was better than last year because it made them a better team.
The whole organization - from ownership to the 13th man on the bench - everyone was on the same page, throughout the year. Even on the debate between resting the players versus going for the record, they evaluated their options at every level and came together on a decision: go for it. Sure the owner took *a lot* of credit for it, and they do have one of the best players, who had perhaps the greatest offensive season in history, but it was an organizational effort for sure.
And in a season where the Bulls were a disaster - on and off the court - it makes me appreciate an organization coming together with a game plan, executing it with top talent, and having a drive to destroy everyone in the league.
I encourage you all to watch at least one Warriors game this postseason and appreciate some greatness. We may never see anything like it again.
Time for Links of the Week:
New life goal: Have $100m laying around so I can be labeled a “billionaire space philanthropist”. [Forbes]
The New York Times went deep on the team that is responsible for blurring out the private parts on the TLC show “Naked and Afraid”. Things I learned: 1) It takes 50 hours per episode to do the blurring. 2) “TLC” (rightfully) no longer goes by “The Learning Channel.” 3) 3.7 MILLION people watch that show. [New York Times]
This week, the NCAA announced that they may begin allowing players to endorse products, giving amateur athletes a way to make money for themselves instead of just for the university. Progress, I say! [The Big Lead]
I was literally *just* talking with my wife about missing Famous Franks’ philly cheese steaks, so of course I had to come across “11 Things to Eat at Purdue University Before You Graduate”. (belly grumbles) [Spoon University]
AMC Theatres have given in to millennials, allowing certain movie theatres to be smartphone friendly. Why? Because - according to the piece - “you can’t tell a 22-year-old to turn off their cell phone.” Yes, yes you can. Using your mouth, you form the word “turn”, followed by ”off”, then “your”, then “cell”, then “phone”. And then you stomp your foot. For emphasis. [The Verge] Update: They ditched the idea pretty quickly. [USA Today]
OK, it’s a baby goat learning how to walk. Go ‘head internet, do your thing. [Mashable]
Last week, it was announced that Twitter won the right to broadcast certain NFL games next year, which to be honest just blows my mind on how that will work. Adweek with the list of games: [Adweek]
The Cubs are awesome so far this year! Love it. The only problem is all of their games are going to be super-duper long, and here is why. [Fangraphs]
WARREN BEATTY IS CONSIDERING A DICK TRACY SEQUEL! SOUND ALL OF THE ALARMS! [Dark Horizons]
The Guardian commissioned a study of nearly 70 million comments on their site since 2006 (which, first of all, way to get 70 million comments), but their study is crazy. Great layout, great info - check it out. (Warning: some salty language, but you know, in a professional-study-PG-13 way.) [The Guardian]
RIP: 1995-96 Chicago Bulls record. Have a great weekend.