With the Golden State Warriors getting off to an NBA-record 14-0 start in this year’s playoffs, and now only two wins away from an NBA championship, some are beginning to bring up the possibility of them being the greatest team of all-time.
Led by four All-Stars in Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson, many have begun asking how they would fare against Magic Johnson’s Lakers, Larry Bird’s Celtics, Michael Jordan’s Bulls, and Shaq and Kobe’s Lakers.
Magic recently said that he believes his ‘Showtime’ Lakers would sweep these Warriors. That was brought up to Green who had a very simple response to it.
Green’s laugh said everything about his thoughts on how a hypothetical series between the Warriors and Lakers will go. Magic said that the Warriors were too small for his Lakers, but these Warriors are an entirely different beast from other ‘small’ teams.
The obvious question in any series between the two is how the Warriors would deal with trying to stop Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Even Green, who will likely be Defensive Player of the Year this season, would likely be powerless against Kareem’s sky hook.
The opposite of the size question, of course, is how the Lakers would deal with the Warriors’ speed. Chasing around Curry and Thompson off screens would be tough, and Durant is a matchup nightmare for anyone.
There’s also the big factor about the different eras that each team plays in. Three-pointers were not nearly as prevalent in the 1980s as they are in todays NBA and that would make a huge difference.
It is this uncertainty that makes debating these topics so fun for fans. It’s hard to think that either team would sweep the other, but unfortunately, there’s just no way to find out for sure.