“Champions never complain.
They are too busy getting better.”
~ John Wooden
I will readily admit that I’m not an avid fan of professional sports. I was when I was younger, but changes in the industry through the years, many of which have been detrimental to the average sports fan, have rendered professional sports inaccessible, and therefore irrelevant to me. Despite this, however, I do find myself drawn to the end-of-season playoffs in football, basketball, and baseball — especially when a local team is involved.
Growing up in the 1960s in San Francisco, championships in professional sports were things fans in other cities experienced. The San Francisco Giants made it to the World Series in 1962, but were defeated by the always formidable New York Yankees. The Warriors and 49ers, while occasionally entertaining, also failed to win a championship in my childhood. That’s just how it was.
Things began to change in the mid-70s when the Golden State Warriors stunned the basketball world by sweeping the Washington Bullets in the 1975 NBA finals. Just a few years later, in 1982, the San Francisco 49ers held off a talented Cincinnati Bengals team to win their first Super Bowl. They would go on to win four more championships in 1985, 1989, 1990, and 1995. For the first time, the word “dynasty” was being associated with a San Francisco sports franchise.
In 2010, the San Francisco Giants made the most of their appearance in the World Series by defeating the Texas Rangers in five games. Two years later, the Giants did what no one thought could be done that year when they defeated the powerful Detroit Tigers. Not only did the Giants win the Series, they did so with four straight victories. Then, when San Francisco won the National League pennant again in 2014, they went on to defeat the Kansas City Royals with a Game 7 World Series win. In this epic contest, Giants’ pitcher Madison Bumgarner came out of the bullpen to pitch five scoreless innings in relief to seal a close 3-2 Giants victory and the title. Again, the term “dynasty” was being tossed about.
Now it’s the Warriors turn to hear the “D” word applied to them. In 2015, Golden State defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA title. In 2016, after taking a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, the Warriors let the championship slip away as Cleveland came back to win the Finals in seven games. The same two teams met again in 2017 and 2018. The Warriors were victorious in both of these championship series. Golden State made it to the Finals, once again, in 2019, but lost in six games to the Toronto Raptors.
After two injury-plagued seasons, the Warriors pulled off an unlikely feat tonight in Boston when they defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the Finals to win the 2022 NBA Championship. Dynasty? Well, there’s a lot to be said for a team that plays in the NBA Finals six times in eight years and wins four NBA titles.
Despite the fact that I’m not an avid fan of professional sports, I am grateful for the successes I’ve witnessed by local teams in my lifetime. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to see athletes like Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, Ronnie Lott, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Rick Barry, and Draymond Green — all of whom so successfully represented the San Francisco Bay Area.
