Now Brian Windhorst is crying about the Warriors' payroll? 🤣...🍆 Warriors against the world!!

 Most of you are probably lucky enough to not even know who Brian Windhorst is but I will bring you up to speed. He is the ESPN basketball "analyst" who looks like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. He knows nothing about actual basketball. Brian started out as a beat writer for the Akron Beacon Journal covering a then high school prospect attending his high school alma mater by the name of Lebron James. He parlayed that into a job covering James' first stint in Cleveland for the Plains Dealer. He eventually parlayed his love, and possibly lust, for Lebron James into an on air position with ESPN. His love for Lebron unwavering, he shoehorns him into a conversation whenever possible. Just this Friday, after Steph's 43 and 12 performance, he said, "Nobody has had 40 points and 10 rebounds in a finals game since Lebron James did it in 2020," completely oblivious to the fact that Giannis did it in the 2021 finals THREE TIMES!!

So he loves Lebron, which means he naturally hates the Warriors. Okay. So Stay-Puft goes on Scott Van Pelt's post game ESPN show, apparently because I never watch it, and instead of giving the Warriors it's due credit for a team effort win, he shats all over them by saying, and I'm paraphrasing, "We're celebrating Andrew Wiggins as if it's an underdog story but he's getting 32 million this year. It's not enough to beat the Warriors. You have to beat their check book."

Well let's look at that in the context of his dream weaver Lebron. Lebron realizes he doesn't want to build a winner in Cleveland the old fashion way and assembles a super team in Miami. He doesn't simply leave in free agency though. He makes this whole media spectacle out of it. "The Decision". This tanks downtown Cleveland, by the way. This was essentially his hometown team. He wins two out of four in Miami but when the going gets rough, D Wade loses a step, Chris Bosh health problems, he leaves then high and dry. He looks at Cleveland, young Kyrie, assets, and decides, "Let me inject myself into that scenario so that I can be the savior but that #1 pick (Andrew Wiggins), let's package that for Kevin Love. Let's bring Love in, and turn him into a glorified 3 and D for my legacy. And they win one. And when the going gets tough again, he bolts for LA. He blows up that franchise. Ships away all kinds of assets for Anthony Davis, only to ship away more assets for Russell Westbrook. Apparently Lebron doesn't believe in developing you g talent. He believe in padding his own legacy at the cost of a franchise's future. He did win one in LA. I'll bet money they won't win another for 20 years.

Back to Wiggins. He has good offensive years in Minnesota as a first, and then second option to KAT. Good years but unremarkable. He languishes on a bad team. The Warriors win two with KD. Fall short of a third, more than likely due to injury, no disrespect to a very good Raptors team. Consummate champions. The Warriors sign and trade KD for DeAngelo Russell. Russell plays well enough to entertain what fans decide to show up to the new arena (Mostly old fans. Not so many tech bros.) The Warriors then flip D.Lo to Minnesota, uniting him with his Buddy KAT, for Wiggins and the pick that becomes Kuminga. Right away, all of the talking heads, and some Warrior fans, called it a mistake. Said he was a bad player, and overpaid. What did the Warriors say? They said, "Klay is still injured. We don't know what he's going to be when he gets back. You're now are too wing defender. We're going to challenge you to be an elite defender." And Two-Way Wiggs was born.

guy looks like he's played a lot of ball in his time...great "analyst" tho.

only ESPN would keep BW on the payroll these days  

Now we fast forward. Four of the Warriors five starters, and their sixth man, are all drafted and developed players. Curry was the highest at 7th. Poole was 28th. Draymond was a undersized, unathletic 2nd rounder. The drafted Looney needing hip surgery. He would go on to have two such surgeries, and develop in Santa Cruz, before contributing to the big club. The Warriors aren't the Yankees. Simply buying up everyone's stars. Joe Lacob and management are simply playing 3D chess, and willing to put their money where there mouth is. When they turned a small market Oakland team into a big market Bay Area team, they were playing 3D chess. When they turned Andre Iguadala from a first/second option starter into a 6th man, they were playing 3D chess. When they developed Wiggins into a premier defender, they were playing 3D chess. The same Wiggins Lebron had no use for. They bring in guys like Bjelica and Otto Porter on veteran contracts, and actually fit them into the game plan. They have brought in guys like Javale McGee, David West, Damion Jones, No "Buckets" Speights and gotten valuable minutes. You don't have to outspend the Warriors. You have to out develop them. You have to out manage them. You have to out gameplan them. Boston had a nice core of homegrown talent themselves. We'll see how many titles they win together. They have to win Thursday first. I think they fall short.

Boston has the worst fan base of any city in America. They have been eating their own the past week, completely annihilating Tatum online. They are complaining about the refs in a game where they shot 31 free throws on the road. 31 to 15, on the road, even though the Warriors attacked the paint more consistently. Go back and look at the free throw totals in the Miami series, a series between two equally physical defensive teams. They don't get past the Heat without the refs. Boston really has the worst fans. I say this a man that sprung from the loins of a Boston sports fan. And I love my old man dearly but as we best Father's Day, he is gonna have to find something else to watch because the Warriors are winning this in 6!

Better coaching. Udoka can't seem to make an adjustment. He's got nothing from his bench last night, be ause he didn't really involve them. It was all Tatum and Brown, the J's as they're known, playing hero ball and looking for contact. They cried to the refs, even after acknowledging that they need to stop trying to create contact and crying to the refs. The Warriors have figured out a way to somewhat neutralize the Time Lord, bringing him away from the rim and putting him in the action. He had zero blocks last night, a first for the series.

The Celtics are a talented bunch, and very capable of winning the next two and the title but they are mentally weak. If they get down, they'll fold.

Warriors ML +152

If Dave and Elio are courtside again this is church.  Dubs 

Windbag is the worst

That was a lot so for the Cliff Note:

•Brian Windhorst is fat. He loves Lebron so he hates the Warriors. Cried about the Warriors' payroll.

•The Warriors are made up of homegrown players and veteran minimum contracts, with the acception of Wiggins, who teams weren't exactly clamoring for.

•Boston Sports fans suck but I will always love them, and the city.

•The Warriors are out executing the younger, more athletic Celtics. They have more experience and higher basketball IQ. It is showing. I felt the Time Lord would be the X-factor for the Celtics. The Warriors have neutralized him in the past two games. Brown and Tatum, while young in body, have to be mentally exhausted. They played 44 minutes last night, and were pretty much two against eight. Unless the Celtics get 40 FT attempts, I think they might fold.

Giannis had 50 and 15 with 5 blocks in a close out game just last finals. A game to give Milwaukee, of all places, it's first title since, what, Lew Alcindor? This is a professional basketball analyst for the #1 sports network (even though they suck) in the world. He forgets that, Giannis had three 40/10 games by the way, he forgets an all-time great performance, while stepping on another all-time great performance, to bring up Lebron. Lebron is watching at home, talking about how much he'd enjoy playing for the Warriors.

Excellent writeup, Stu. Bravo! 

You are spot on regarding Windbag, he is Labron’s hitman in the media. A mole that goes after the Warriors every chance he gets, but last night on ESPN he looked like a guy who bet the house on the Celtics and lost. I’ve been there before, so I know the look. It was either that or he was having a heart attack. 

Wiggins always has been really good. But there’s a difference in playing for a winning franchise. Timberwolves wanted him to be Michael Jordan.  A winning franchise just needs him to be himself. 

“In a finals game since 2020”…like that’s supposed to be a long time? (regardless of whether Giannis did it)

He was always good but putting it this simply minimizes the Warriors impact. The Lakers are a winning franchise. Would he have had the same impact there. Most "analyst" like Brian Windhorst, and even many Warrior fans, thought it was a horrible move. Wiggins wasn't some prized free agent acquisition. And the Warriors didn't sinply ask him to go out there and be himself. They asked him to go.out there and commit to being the primary wing defender. And they surrounded him with guys like Draymond and Iguadala to help coach him up to be what the team most needed. That's self awareness for a franchise. Knowing your weaknesses and filling them. Some of these franchise's act like they're playing a video game. Look at the Lakers. "Give LeBron what he wants. He wants AD? Blow up all our young talent and draft picks for AD." Then they win a title. "Lebron doesn't think this is enough to run it back? Let's bring in Russell Westbrook..." who has a 47 million dollar player option next season! Ok, how's it all supposed to fit together?

Meanwhile the Warriors are like, "we don't like DeAngelo. We need length and athlecism on the wing. 15-20 points will work but mainly we need him to be our primary wing defender. How about that nice Canadian kid. Jimmy Butler liked him. Jimmy Butler doesn't like anybody. Done." And the pick that became Jonathan Kuminga to boot. And the fans already love Jonathan Kuminga.

Exactly. It was just a way for him to throw Lebron into the conversation.

Lakers are a winning organization based on stars. Not really on their decision making to build a team.  

Put him on Miami or Phoenix (over crowder) and he’s making the similar impacts.  Miami is missing that length. Phoenix has it at center and small forward that’s it. 

Golden st front office definitely is one of the best no question. Spend money whatever…they still drafted perfect and still are with most likely one of the best up and coming centers who isn’t even playing right now. He will be a solid player. 

A little off topic but....When LBJ was in high school his team played at the 'Slam Dunk at the Beach' BB tournament in Lewes Delaware. A local paper snapped a pic of Lebron dunking on somebody and in the background in the 1st row is my better half's father. He said Lebron ruined a good pic. If you knew him you would get a chuckle out of it...

Phoenix is a really good team that was in the finals last season and the number one overall seed this season. And the commit to defense so yeah, he'd make an impact but we're talking about a really good team already. Miami is a great run organization with consistency in system and staff. They would be an even better fit for him than the Warriors. However none of these teams targeted him. It was a leap of faith that he would become the defender he has. It wasn't a guarantee. The Warriors challenged him to be that. It's not like he was some highly coveted free agent that would've made an impact on any and every contender. Of 16 playoff teams, I think he reaches his potential with maybe 5 of them. And I don't think those 5 would've even targeted him.

hes a pile of shit

These stories make this place great. We're a small community. Stories like this have more meaning than if it was posted on Facebook or something.

More, from Windbag:

“That’s a huge win for the Wolves,” Windhorst said on ESPN's “The Jump” right after the trade went down.

“Some people will tell you that Andrew Wiggins was one of the worst contracts in the league and that you would’ve had to attach multiple first round picks to get him to go away,” he added.

Rachel Nichols went on to ask Windhorst whether this speaks to head coach Steve Kerr's and the Warriors' belief that they could turn Wiggins' career around “in their system, their work ethic, their ethos?”

“I think it was a statement that they didn’t really like D’Angelo Russell,” Windhorst replied.

Still more, from Windbag;

After the Warriors reached the NBA Finals, dispatching the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals, Windhorst went on national television not to talk about Curry reaching his sixth Finals in eight years, but to tell the world he'd build a team around Kevin Durant, not Curry, because Durant is "taller."

On that very same day, he also said LeBron James (who he has intimately covered with the Akron Beacon Journal, Cleveland Plain Dealer and ESPN since 2003) would laugh at the concept of Steph Curry and James being compared while on ESPN's "Get Up." He was then shut down by Patrick Beverley who said bluntly, "Don't take our words."

But wait, there's more.

After Curry scored 29 in three quarters in the Warriors' Game 2 blowout win to even the series with the Celtics 1-1, Windhorst again went on the Worldwide Leader to say, "There's going to be an impression that Steph played great tonight, he was ... good, he was good, but he was not otherworldly."

At that point, Curry was one of three players ever averaging 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists on a true shooting percentage of 55% in the Finals (the others are LeBron James and Michael Jordan), but even after eclipsing three of those four numbers in the Game 5 win (he only had 4 assists) in just 32 minutes, Windhorst was again not impressed.

Before Game 4, Windhorst no joke said Curry needed to "channel the LeBron James strategy that the Cavs used to use against his Warriors." For those not following along at home, the Cavs lost three of four NBA Finals to the Warriors in the 2010s.

Typical know it all Yank!

You are going to be very upset with some of the crap you post on here.

Celtics are winning game 6 for starters. Here's a bet for you to take to the bank. Tatum over 27.5 points! Celtics by 13 and let's get ready for a deciding game 7

@Bobbys_pregame

Warriors have a solid former ucla player turned agent who 'finds' talent and develops it as GM...thats Myers...which is why Schlenk went to Atlanta.

Windworst is a fat dope who parlayed his LBJ situation into a good deal for himself.

Don't forget the Warriors have Wiseman coming back next year .

Rob Pelinka is no Bob Myers.

And Miami and Cleveland are doing fine without you , LBJ

@begginerboy

whos worse?   

Windbag and Lebron (Cavs)

Skip Bayless and the Cows 

Screamin A and anyone is the clear answer....yet all of these guys are horrific