On-Air Now
On-Air Now
Listen Live from the Casino Matrix Studio

Kerr reminded of ’98 Bulls when explaining Warriors’ slow start

By

/


With several impressive feats, including their 24-game winning streak in 2016 or the near-perfect dominance of last year’s championship run, the Warriors have set their bar of success incredibly high.

This standard, which shows that the Warriors are well on their way to becoming the NBA’s next overpowering dynasty, causes many eyebrows to raise at the slightest slip, such as their rocky start to the season, and jump to ask the question:

“What’s wrong with the Warriors?”

While Golden State’s early 5-3 standing is not as impressive as in year’s past, slow starts are nothing new to head coach Steve Kerr, who experienced a similar championship hangover in 1998 with the Chicago Bulls

“In ’98 with the Bulls we were 8-7 after winning 72 in ’69,” Kerr said before Monday night’s game against the Clippers. “That third year, everyone was fried and we started out the year 8-7, having all of these team meetings and it feels the exact same. It’s not easy. I think that’s one of the hardest things for people to understand, media, fans whomever.

In what turned out to be the final year of Kerr’s five-year career in Chicago, the Bulls began 1998 fresh off back-to-back championship runs and were bound for their 14th consecutive playoff appearance.

The Bulls sprinted out of the gate towards their 1996 championship run with a 23-2 start, which ended with a then record-setting 72-10 regular season. The following year, they went 17-3 with a 12-game winning streak through their first 20 games.

Although 1998 began significantly slower, 8-7 and 12-8 in their first 20, something eventually clicked for the Bulls and they finished the season 62-20 and won their third consecutive NBA championship.

When Kerr joined Golden State as head coach in 2014, the Warriors were in a similar spot as the Bulls were in 1996. They established themselves as contenders with playoff appearances the two years before and went on to bring the franchise it’s first championship since 1975 in 2015.

“When I got here three years ago, these guys were bouncing off the wall every night, they couldn’t wait to play,” Kerr said. “They had lost in the first round the previous year, they had this hunger and motivation and this is a different vibe this year. Every year is different and that’s what’s interesting about coaching.”

The Warriors showed no signs of fatigue coming off their first championship and opened up the 2015-16 season on a 24-game winning streak, which led to a record-breaking 73-9 regular season.

They ended up losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals, but the Warriors bounced back and won the championship last year after starting the season 17-3 with a 12-game winning streak.

“You feel it. You feel it after a number of years,” Kerr said. “The team has a different vibe around it and you have to fight through that.”

Now with two championships, three NBA finals appearances in their back pocket and Las Vegas in their corner, the Warriors fell to 1-2 after their season-opening loss to the Houston Rockets. Nonetheless, the Warriors appear to be headed in the right direction with their victory over the Clippers on Monday night.

“Ron had a great line a couple of weeks ago, he said Chuck Daly after winning a title with the Pistons said, ‘Sometimes you have to wait on a championship team. You have to wait on them, you can’t lead them you have to wait on them.’ And I kind of feel like that’s the case right now. We’re waiting on these guys a bit,” Kerr said. “I’ve got to nudge them along and make sure that, as long as we’re making good habits, we’re going to be fine in the long run.”