A Golden Year

By: Lamar "L.A." Smith

"What? What? What?"

These were the words of this year's MVP Stephen Curry as he became the third point guard to win the MVP and the NBA title in the same year, joining Magic Johnson and Bob Cousy. He was elated and screamed "what" in front of his teammate Draymond Green exhibiting the grind of a historic season no one outside of the Warriors' locker room saw coming.

However, some analysts may point out how Golden State did not face an elite point guard throughout the team's title run. Jrue Holiday was hurt during the first round, Michael Conley played with a facial injury, Patrick Beverly did not play in the playoffs and Kyrie Irving broke his kneecap in Game 1 of the Finals. The Warriors also did not have to face the Spurs or Clippers in the playoffs who had the best chance of realistically preventing a Finals trip for the eventual champs.

Though, this does not diminish the Warriors' year. Curry became the only player to face and defeat every other member of the All-NBA First Team (3 of which finished behind Curry in the MVP race) in the route to NBA immortality.

Golden State was the best team in the NBA all year. The Warriors won 67 games in the regular season, had the league MVP, the All-Star team's leading vote-getter, two players on the All-NBA Defensive team, the league's No. 1 ranked defense and the league's No. 1 ranked offense. Therefore ending the season with the franchise's first championship in 40 years was only just. The longest drought between championships in NBA history was ended by the Warriors this year.

Curry and company only lost five games in the playoffs, The team never loss another game after going down 2-1 in both series to Memphis and Cleveland and proved jump shooting teams can win championships.

Many people doubted Golden State this year from NBA Hall of Famers to prodigal analysts like myself. We all were proven long.

Golden State shattered another glass ceiling in the NBA this year. The NBA is constantly evolving. The 80's and 90's saw bigmen dominating with Hall of Famers like: Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Alonzo Mourning, Patrick Ewing, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the list goes on and on. Now, the NBA is a point guard heavy league where one should be hard-pressed to win a championship without an elite point guard. The league is stacked with: Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, the "Baby-faced Assassin" Stephen Curry and so many more point guards.

Andre Iguodala was the X-Factor now he's the Finals MVP. Iguodala became the only Finals MVP to win the award without starting a single game during the regular season. He also had the 3rd lowest Finals scoring average by a MVP only behind Wes Unseld (9 ppg in 1978) and Magic Johnson (16.2 ppg in 1982). Iguodala averaged 16.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 4 apg and shot 52.1 % from the field and 40% from 3-pt range.

Iguodala scores a season high 25 points in the championship clincher and wins the 2015 Finals MVP.

A young team led by arguably the best shooting backcourt in NBA history in the Splash Bros have started a new trend. The Miami Heat started "Small Ball", "Positionless Basketball" and "Pace and Space". Well, this Warriors team created a new motto after a historic championship run.

'You live by the 3; you die by the 3. More like you live by the 3; you thrive by the 3.'

Kate Fagan made this statement on "Around the Horn". I have to agree, basketball is constantly changing and the Warriors are proof.