As we rush once more to eulogize the Golden State Warriors—to offer our hot-take last rites and fake-trade sacraments—it’s tempting to dwell on the chaos, to get lost in a haze of punches and chokeholds, to make one man’s meltdown the symbol of a dynasty’s demise. It’s tempting to blame Draymond Green.
It’s easy to get caught up in what-ifs. What if Green hadn’t punched Jordan Poole last year? What if Green hadn’t throttled Rudy Gobert last month? Or smacked Jusuf Nurkic last week? What if he’d exercised more self-control? What if he were on the court now, making basketball magic with Steph Curry, instead of serving an indefinite suspension?
With just days to go until Christmas, the Warriors are a distant 11th place in the West, at 12-14. Six of those losses have come on nights when Green was either ejected or suspended—and there are surely many more to come before the league reinstates him.
By the time the Dubs’ defensive anchor returns, their season—and any realistic hopes of title contention—might already be lost. Given age and mileage and contracts, they might never get another shot. Cue the eulogies. But if the Warriors’ long reign is indeed over (and here, I’ll still give them the grace of that “if”), it won’t be because of Draymond Green.
NBA dynasties do not die by fisticuffs or suspensions, or by the sins of a single wayward soul. They die of old age, of brittle ligaments and cranky backs. They die of hubris and ego. They die of nostalgia and benign neglect. They die because it’s the nature of things—and not even team owner Joe Lacob’s billions or his “light-years ahead” proclamations or his two-timeline fantasies can change that.
The truth is, the Warriors of Steph and Klay and Draymond are, by historical standards, already stretching the limits for longevity. If we measure a dynasty’s term from its first championship to its last, with the same core stars, then Golden State has already matched or surpassed four of the NBA’s seven historic dynasties (defined here as winning at least three titles in a decade).
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