I've been a Warriors fan for many years. Anyone who has not watched their season unfold might easily discount them as a low-talent team that barely had what it took to make the playoffs. A timely trade, all players healthy(finally), and just a few months to gel as a team they are now the hottest team, with only San Antonio standing between them and the NBA finals( yes, I am going waaaaay out on a limb here ).
Dallas had a fantastic season and had only one team that they couldn't figure out how to beat, the Warriors. In fact, they couldn't beat them at home for two years straight. Why Avery Johnson couldn't see this and decided to sit Dirk and Terry? in the last game of the regular season, when he COULD have knocked the Warriors out of the playoffs with a win, is beyond me. Why Cuban let Steve Nash go, when it was obvious that Dirk was great BECAUSE of this pairing is also beyond me.
Many broadcasters overlook the Warriors. For years I have been listening to Kobe-Dirk-Hamilton-"insert star player here" apologists talking about what a bad game their favorite buddy is having, when they should just be able to whip the snot out of these "nothing" Warriors. Never a word that the Warriors were playing good that night. Charles Barkley wearing a yellow "We Believe" t-shirt, after predicting that Dallas would win the series in 5 even after the opening loss, is sweet justice for this fan. When you watch those commercials for the NBA playoffs do you see a Warriors jersey in any of them? The frickin' Toronto Raptors(no offense, Martini
) are shown but not the Warriors? C"MON!
Not trying to rub salt in the wounds of any Dallas fans. Just trying to say that just 'cause the Warriors have been overlooked does not mean that they are not a very good team right now and deserve the series win, not because Dirk did not show up, but because the Warriors finally did. Dirk will take a lot of heat for this loss, but I believe he is a very good player that deserves better than Avery Johnson and Mark Cuban.
