After a thrilling, closer-than-expected 128-122 win over the Pelicans on Sunday night to extend Golden State’s winning streak to 16 games and give them a 21-2 start to the season — the best in NBA history for a rookie head coach — hyperbole, of course, entered the fray. Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com asked Steve Kerr if his Dubs team could match the 1995-96 Bulls — who went 72-10 with Kerr as their three-point specialist. Kerr was pretty adamant the idea is hogwash so early in the season, saying,”Oh God, no. No!”
Through 23 games, Warriors are on pace to best the 72-10 record Michael Jordan‘s Bulls compiled in the GOAT’s first full season back in a Bulls uniform after his retirement and ensuing minor baseball stint from 1993-fall 1995. Steve Kerr was a member of that team, which finished with the best single-season record in NBA history; it’s the only time an NBA team has finished an 82-game regular season over the 70-win plateau. Because Kerr played on that team, and coaches this year’s exciting Dubs squad, Ethan Sherwood Strauss was obligated to ask him about it, with a humble Kerr rebutting the notion as vehemently as possible:
Per ESPN.com, by way of Pro Basketball Talk:
When asked if the Warriors could pull it off, Kerr responded, “Oh God, no. No!”
Kerr followed that exclamation with, “We had this guy named Michael Jordan on that team. That year, I think we were 41-3. So if we can go 21-1 the next 22 games, come talk to me.”
[…]
“What I remember that year is there were about 10 games where Michael just decided, ‘We’re going to win,'” he said. “And every other team on Earth would have lost those 10 games. And Michael Jordan was … there’ll never be another one. Nobody has ever come close, and I don’t think anybody ever will. He wanted to break that Lakers record of 69 wins, so he decided we would do it, so we did it. There’s only one Michael.”
There is only one Michael, even with Kobe Bryant eclipsing his big brother on the all-time scoring list last night.
The Warriors are playing amazing basketball right now, but they don’t have the world’s best player on their team; although, Stephen Curry had 34 points, seven assists and seven rebounds in last night’s OT win, and is playing out of his mind right now, with Kerr calling him the best point guard in the league, he isn’t in that class. Curry isn’t MJ, and Kerr knows that better than anyone.
Kerr even got punched by MJ at practice, so the famed competitiveness of the Bulls’ shooting guard isn’t new to Kerr, as he alludes to in his convo with Strauss.
That’s not to say Curry isn’t just as competitive, but he’s younger and the Dubs have only gotten out of the first round of the playoffs once in Cury’s career. Plus, it’s just way too early to start talking about Golden State approaching 70 wins. As Kerr notes, the Bulls started 41-3 before losing in consecutive games in early February that season. If the Warriors can go 20 more games with only one loss, then — maybe — it’s appropriate to start talking about their chances of notching 70 wins, but we’re only a quarter of the way through the season, and that Bulls team went on to win the NBA Finals. There’s a lot of basketball left before we even think of drawing a parallel.
Is there any chance Golden State wins 70 games this year?
Follow Spencer on Twitter at @SpencerTyrel.
Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.
Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.
