I share my thoughts the Warriors winning the NBA Finals in bullets points.
No experience necessary. The player roster included zero NBA Finals experience. Some of them have playoff experience. All of them have the basketball skills to play in the NBA Finals. I wish more companies' job openings follow the no experience necessary. The Warriors were hungry to win.
Steve Kerr was a rookie head coach. The no experience necessary applies to Kerr who won five NBA Championships as a player. Kerr hired assistant coaches with coaching experiencing. Kerr won 67 games in the regular season which is an NBA record for a rookie head coach. The Warriors won 16 games in a row which is a franchise record. The team never lost three games in a row during the regular season and the playoffs.
Ownership hired good consultants. Good decisions made. The owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber purchased the Warriors in Jul 2010. The consultants have the courage to tell ownership they were wrong; for example, they rejected Lacob to acquire Kevin Love in a trade and sign free agent Dwight Howard.
The consultants helped the owners make good decisions. Here's a timeline of some good decisions:
*Jun 2011: Mark Jackson was hired to be the head coach.
*Mar 2012: Monta Ellis was traded for Andrew Bogut.
*May 2014: Mark Jackson was fired.
*Sep 2014: Steve Kerr was hired to be the head coach.
*May 9-10, 2015: Kerr cancels practice after the Game 3 loss to the Memphis Grizzles. Coaching staff adjusted their defense in Game 4.
*Game 4-6 NBA Finals: Coaching staff made the decision to play small ball. NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala started the three games. He never started a game in the regular season.
Steve Jobs: You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. The timeline above is a good example of connecting the dots backwards. The Warriors trusted their decisions become success. The actions paid off positively later.
The stars aligned. Timing and luck followed them. The Warriors avoided playing the Los Angeles Clippers and the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs. The Warriors avoided major injuries; on the other hand, their opponents suffered injuries to some of their key starters. The Warriors took advantage of their timing and luck. Champions take advantage of good fortunes.
The 3-point shooting worked. Common basketball knowledge says a team can't win the championship on 3-point shooting. The Warriors proved the knowledge wrong.
Family friendly, humble, and unselfish. The San Jose Mercury News described the NBA MVP Stephen Curry in their Sun Jun 21 Warriors newspaper special.
Sacrifice. Iguodala and David Lee accepted bench roles. They were starters in past seasons.
Save the champagne when the Warriors earned the championship. The Warriors saved the celebration for the big prize. Celebrating the smaller victories in the playoffs was unnecessary. I believe all basketball teams winning playoff series celebrate only when they win the NBA Finals.
Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors for winning the 2014-2015 NBA Finals.
Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com
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