Looming in the West are a pair of NBA squads that have combined to win the last two NBA titles—the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs—and look like the best the league has seen since Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls won a record 72 games in 1996.
The defending-champion Warriors are 49–5 and have arguably the league’s best player in Stephen Curry. Curry, the reigning MVP, is leading the league in scoring (29.7 points per game) and is averaging nearly five 3-pointers made per game. Meanwhile his team has rallied without the services of head coach Steve Kerr for most of the season.
The 47–9 Spurs, meanwhile, hit the jackpot in free agency last summer when they signed LaMarcus Aldridge away from Portland to take part of the load off of Tim Duncan’s shoulders. The result has been a team that would normally—in almost any other season—be the talk of the NBA. Instead they are flying below the radar while the Warriors have been hogging the headlines.
James knows both teams well, having faced the two franchises in each of the past two NBA Finals. If he faces one of them again this year, he may be open to some advice on how to stop them. It probably won’t be from a fan in the front row though.
