All signs point to the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors being past their primes. Although that may be the case, neither franchise has escaped the revolving door of major media storylines; you can only imagine what it was like when both were winning playoff games and vying for an NBA championship.
These two teams have been a lightning rod for news all these years because one has LeBron James , and the other has Stephen Curry , two of the greatest players and leaders of their generation.
But at their best, how did each lead their team through such scrutiny?
Former Warrior dishes on peak Golden State
Within the white lines on the hardwood, the Warriors were the NBA’s quintessential powerhouse. From stars on the roster and a fantastic head coach and management to perhaps the most upbeat culture you could find, the Dubs had it all.
But that didn’t stop the running from getting tough, especially in Kevin Durant’s final season with the team in 2018-19, a season that once promised to be the peak in the Bay before an abrupt downward spiral engulfed title odds — and the immediate future.
“Every day, there was a new narrative, a new topic, this and that,” said ex-Warriors guard Quinn Cook of the Warriors’ season . “That’s the most pressure season that I have been a part of for sure.”
Golden State’s season was mauled after Durant and Draymond Green clashed moments after the final possession of regulation during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers in November. That moment was the initial crack in the team culture and also happened without Curry — who had suffered an adductor strain earlier in the month — in the lineup.
“When we got DeMarcus [Cousins], it was just so closely scrutinized,” Cook said. [Golden State] had went to four straight finals. I remember when Draymond and Kevin got into their thing.”
“That was probably the most scrutinized team that I’ve been a part of, he later added.
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A new experience
Even from Cook’s perspective, who was a role player with the Warriors in 2018, playing 14.3 minutes per contest, the timeline of the team’s season is a harsh recall for many reasons. But ahead of the following campaign, the guard had his opportunity to explore elsewhere, and he took it.
At the time, though, it appeared that he was going from a crumbling situation with the Warriors to a downright bad one with the Lakers, who were far from successful in James’ first season in large part due to his injury suffered on Christmas Day.
L.A. was out of the playoff picture by January, then-head coach Luke Walton’s seat got hotter as the year went on, players sat away from each other on the bench, and the team was psychologically ripped apart over the trade deadline saga revolving around then-New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis .
Davis, though, did join the Lakers in June via trade, which gave life to a franchise desperate for a breath of fresh air. Cook, along with a host of other quality rotational pieces, filled out the roster, and L.A. took off winning games at the start of the 2019 season.
"We had no distractions in L.A.,” Cook affirmed . “Being with [Le]Bron every day, we ain’t watching First Take. We not watching what people saying on TV. … Bron was so laser-focused, AD [Anthony Davis]. AD is not even on social media. They be so locked in.”
The 2019-20 Lakers are remembered as such. They were happy on the sidelines, seen jumping in the air any time their teammate made a highlight, together after games to do the postgame interview — all things, as players from that team would admit even today, was a tone set by James.
Although the events of the Warriors’ 2018 season were too perplexing for Curry to resolve on his own, his current and former teammates applaud him for being the galvanizing force of the Warriors teams they’ve played on.
The King, meanwhile, has set a different standard that has rubbed off well on dozens of teammates.
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