On Monday, the Golden State Warriors were dubbed "Franchise of the Decade," regardless of sport, by Sports Business Journal/Daily. In truth it's unclear just how big of a deal this is (we mean, anyone can give out an award). But yeah, sure, with the possible exception of the Patriots they probably were the team franchise of the decade if you think about it or care about titles like that.
Being given this honor was also about more than just win-loss records anyway. As NBA.com summarized Golden State's past 10 years:
[T]he Warriors have demonstrated innovation, led the league and all professional sports in a variety of business categories and won three NBA Championships, in addition to building and opening Chase Center, the team’s new, state-of-the-art arena in San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.
As noted above, this was also about things that aren't related, at least directly, to what's going on on the court. The accomplishments cited by Sports Business Journal included being named "Best Analytics Organization" at the 2016 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, being the first team to "unveil the modern short-sleeve jersey during the 2013-14 season," and being the first NBA squad to "unveil several new creative tech elements."
There's a lot more PR-y sounding type stuff over at NBA.com if you're interested.
More easy to follow (and important if you're not working behind the scenes for the franchise) the Warriors' trio of titles came in 2015, '17, and '18, respectively. Additionally, though it's extremely unlikely to extend, they've made trips to five straight NBA Finals. They also have an active sellout streak that began during the 2011-12 season. And their season ticket waiting list has 40,000+ people on it.
To commemorate this event the team put out a fast moving slideshow on Twitter. In fact, it's so fast moving that it almost looks like Kevin Durant isn't in it at all.
As you probably know, Durant was there for three years, two of which ended with NBA Championships (where he was the Finals MVP, both times) and another that probably would have if his Achilles tendon hadn't given out.
And, despite a somewhat acrimonious end to his Bay Area tenure, his contributions have been properly recognized by some within the organization.
On that note, a few hours later the team's Twitter account did add this to the thread, though it looks like far less effort:
Though they probably didn't intend to, or care, Golden State couldn't sneak this snub past some of their eagle-eyed followers:
There's lots more where those came from, but after awhile it's just beating a dead horse.
