A month-and-a-half from now, the Golden State Warriors could be hoisting their third NBA championship in four years. Ifthat happens—and we concede that's a big "if"—then the one year they would not have been champs in that time span, they still set the NBA record for most wins in a season with 73. The franchise is also in the position to keep themselves intact for years to come should they not get cheap.
Despite that run of undeniable past and probable future successes, Scottie Pippen isn't anointing them as the NBA's next big dynasty. At least not yet. The Hall of Famer and six-time champion with the '90s Bulls said as much to Dime Magazine while he was shooting footage for an upcoming edition of the Foot Locker series, Off the Record.
Pippen's main gripe seems to be an issue with the team bringing Kevin Durant aboard in the 2016 offseason.
"You say they’re on a dynasty run, but I don’t see it that way," Pippen said. "They picked up probably the best player in the game after they won their first championship. I don’t consider that a dynasty run. They went out and got the best player in the game after they won their first championship and after they lost in the Finals defending their first title. I don’t see them as a dynasty, I think bringing Kevin Durant in really changed my respect as to where I rank this team going forward in terms of a dynasty."
He goes on to explain that Durant's addition doesn't preclude them from becoming a dynasty (in his mind) but he does believe it moves the goalposts.
"I thought they were organically built up until they went out and got Durant," he continued. "And I think that was the change, but I don’t really see Golden State as a dynasty. Dynasties are teams that [do] things special, does things different. Even in the year that they won 73 games, they lost the title. So I can’t consider that part of their dynasty. That wasn’t a dynasty season. So then they came back the next season and won a title, so I can’t back track and say let’s add last season to it because Kevin Durant wasn’t with them at that time."
(Re-reads quotes.) Not sure I agree with a whole lot of those sentences. But whatever, to each his own.
