Publicly talking about pulling off a three-peat is not something a whole lot of athletes do, probably because it's hard as shit just to win one championship. But when you already got the first two down, and your team is composed of Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and now, DeMarcus Cousins, it no longer seems like such a pipe dream. Consequently that's now the route Stephen Curry is going. And, according to him, so are the rest of the Warriors.
The two-time MVP admitted as much in a preseason interview with ESPN.
"We talk about the three-peat just because it's in front of us," said Curry of the feat that hasn't been done since the Lakers pulled it off between 2000 and 2002. "I don't think that's something that's repeated every single day. But when we start the season, obviously we lay everything out on the table, what's at stake in terms of our expectations."
That's probably about as cocky as you're going to get from him, and he added to it with conciliatory analysis and info that indicated how the team came to that conclusion (meaning he's still Steph Curry).
"Yes, winning a championship is the goal," Curry added. "How you get there and how you kind of break up that mission on a day-to-day, game-by-game, month-by-month basis is what makes us, I think, great. In terms of encouraging each other, being in tune with some of the things that might be thrown at you, whether it's injuries, whether it's a couple slumps on the court, playing-wise whatever the case is, we adapt really well and we don't stay down for too long.
"In terms of the overall goal, it just depends on the day in terms of how we communicate it. But yeah, we understand that winning a championship is attainable if we take care of our business, and doing it three years in a row is a tremendous opportunity for us that we should not be afraid to talk about and go after."
Finally he told ESPN that it's fun being the team that other squads circle on the calendar.
"To be honest, it's fun," Curry said. "You know no matter if it's a Tuesday night at home or a back-to-back in some random East Coast city, you're going to be tested and you can't just sleepwalk through stuff."
"We've been exposed at times in terms of when we're not extremely locked in that we can be beat. But when we are focused and in tune with each other, understanding what we're trying to do to be successful, obviously we're tough. And it requires that every single night as best you can to get to that level. So the atmospheres we play in are fun, no matter if it's home or road. It's just really easy to get up for any type of game."
Anybody who's played 2K with a team of 99s knows the feeling. Well...try to enjoy the season anyway.
