Last night, the Warriors clinched their first Pacific Division title since the 1975-1976 season.
Holy mother of God, a whole lot of stuff has happened since then. That was THIRTY-NINE years ago!
In 1976, a number of memorable things transpired:
Taxi Driver was released.
An upstart from Georgia named Jimmy Carter won the Presidency over the incumbent, Gerald Ford.
Paul McCartney had another hit song.
Which, you know is great and all.
Long live Sir Paul for all of eternity and such.
But, personally, this was my favorite song from 1976:
Hejira is both the title of the song and the name of the 1976 album from Joni Mitchell.
I've had a deep fascination with Joni my entire life. Recently, I covered Amelia, another song from the album.
But Hejira holds a verse that somehow perfectly conveys my feelings about this 2015 Warriors team:
Well I looked at the granite markers
Those tributes to finality to eternity
And then I looked at myself here
Chicken scratching for my immortality
Each team, no matter the year, is battling the past. Every athlete comes up against that wall.
No matter what LeBron does, he comes up against the WALL OF HISTORY that is Michael Jordan.
Stephen Curry is Steve Nash 2.0, not Stephen Curry 1.0.
This Warriors team is having a historic season But how historic? When they started strong, people started wondering if the Bulls' 72 win season was in play, a notion Steve Kerr immediately shot down.
As basketball fans, and moreover as people, we have an unfortunate inability to merely appreciate greatness when it lies before us. We cram the player, or the team, into some hackneyed historical equivalent, searching for precedent.
I suppose there's no other way.
But for us, as Warriors fans--and especially for myself as a twenty-eight year old child of the eighties--this season is unprecedented in a way. Or, rather, you have to go back to 1976 to find a parallel, and who in their right mind believes in the validity of any history that predates the year of their own birth? You can't prove to me that it actually happened. ( /sarcasm )
There's another important (regarding the Warriors) lyric in that Joni verse:
There's the hope and the hopelessness
I've witnessed thirty years
How better to sum up the past thirty (nine) years of Warriors basketball?
Remember this?
It's been a long road...#DubNation pic.twitter.com/j47BDmT2v4
— JC Gacula (@Jcie0Law) March 25, 2015
Or this?
That, my friends, was the roster from the 2000-2001 team that went 17 - 65, an amazing .207 winning percentage.
This year's team has a chance to COMPLETELY FLIP THOSE NUMBERS and go 65 - 17.
Or better.
Man, the way they're playing?
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I keep circling back to Joni Mitchell and her 1976 album Hejira.
What is it to be an individual? To stand apart from the whirlwind of time and of comparison?
Life is a journey--a desire to find one's self and to be the most powerful version of that self. Joni knew this. Knows it still.
Even the name Hejira means journey. (From wikipedia):
The album title is a transliteration of the Arabic word hijra, which means "journey", usually referring to the migration of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad (and his companions) from Mecca to Medina in 622.
Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and every single person on this team has dealt with adversity. Has been questioned. Has had their skill and ability doubted. And look where they are now.
That 1975-1976 team was defending the National Championship. They lost in the conference finals to the Phoenix Suns, who would go on to lose to the Boston Celtics. Life is cruel. Someone has to win.
For now let's enjoy this ride while we are on it.
Love to the guys, love to everyone. Congrats on setting a new milestone. Eyes on the road. One game at a time.
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Lastly, let's all remember the wise words of Shaquille O'neal, who said that the Warriors "have to win the championship this year, because next year it's gonna be tough to repeat."
Wait, what?
https://t.co/S16SotyrSO MT @SherwoodStrauss: Shaq on Warriors: "They have to win this year, because next yr, it's gonna be tough to repeat."
— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) March 25, 2015
Aaaaaand one more, because I can't resist:
"That’s weird, Andrew Bogut’s shirt is printed different; says ‘Pacific Division Champs Which Mark Jackson Has Never Won’"
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) March 25, 2015