BOSTON – It turns out the dynasty just got halted.
Golden State has won the NBA championship again four seasons after its last. It’s the franchise’s seventh title and fourth for its three superstars: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, who have spent the last decade growing up together, winning together and over the last three years learning how fragile success is can be.
On Thursday, they defeated the Boston Celtics 103-90 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. They won the series 4-2 and celebrated their final victory on the TD Garden hardwood floor, under 17 championship banners, in front of a crowd of disappointed partisans.
With 24 seconds remaining, Curry found his father near the baseline and hugged him, shaking as he sobbed in his arms. Then Curry turned back to the game. He put his hands on his head and crouched, then fell onto the seat.
“I think I passed out,” Curry later said.
He thought about the past months of the playoffs, about the past three years, about the people who didn’t think he could be here again.
“You get goosebumps just thinking about all the snaps and episodes that we went through to get here,” Curry said.
Curry, who scored 34 points in the clinch game, was named Finals Most Valuable Player. It was the first time in his career that he had won the award.
“None of this happens without him,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “For me, this is his crowning glory.”
Curry, center, had 34 points on 12 of 21 shots and hit six 3-pointers. Credit: Allison Dinner for The New York Times
Boston fought back.
The Celtics took a 14-2 lead to open the game and played better than their lackluster start in Game 5, but Golden State’s firepower threatened to overwhelm them. For almost six minutes of play from the end of the first quarter to the beginning of the second quarter, Boston failed to score.
Golden State built a 21-point lead in the second quarter and maintained that cushion early in the third.
With 6 minutes and 15 seconds left in the third, Curry scored his fifth 3 of the game and gave his team a 22-point lead. He held out his right hand and pointed to the ring finger, confident that he was well on his way to winning his fourth championship ring.
The moment may have motivated the Celtics, who responded with a 12-2 run. Ultimately, however, they had too much ground to recover from.
Golden State celebrated after two seasons of underperforming records, one that made them the worst team in the NBA. Its players and coaches have spent this season waiting for Thompson’s injuries to heal, for Curry’s (fewer) injuries to heal, and for new or young pieces from their roster to grow into important roles.
When they became whole again, the three-player core talked about cementing its legacy.
They were so much younger when their journey together began. Curry was designed by Golden State in 2009, by Thompson in 2011, and by Green in 2012.
Curry was 27 when they won their first championship together in 2015. Thompson and Green were both 25 years old.
This season also marked Kerr’s first as coach of the team.
Golden State went 67-15 and stormed through the playoffs to the NBA Finals without realizing how tough it could be to get there. The next year, the team set a league record with 73 regular-season wins, but lost on a return trip to the Finals. Kevin Durant joined the team as a free agent that summer, and Golden State won the next two championships and was hailed as one of the greatest teams in NBA history.
The champions have grown as people and as players during this phase. Curry and Green added children to their families. They were rock stars on the go, swarms of fans were waiting for them in their hotels. Three championships in four seasons made Golden State seem invincible.
Only injuries could stop them.
The dynastic run ended in devastating fashion in 2019 in their fifth straight finals appearance. Durant struggled with a calf injury, then tore his right hamstring in Game 5 of the Finals against Toronto and left the team for the Nets in the offseason. Thompson tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during the next game. The Raptors won the championship that day.
In 2019, the team exited Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, entering the season without Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.Credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times
“It was the end of an era at Oracle,” Curry said, referring to Golden State’s former arena in Oakland, California. The team moved to the Chase Center in San Francisco in 2019. He added: “They’re getting ready for the summer, trying to regroup and trying to figure out what’s going to happen next year.
The two ensuing seasons of futility were difficult for all of them, but no more so than for Thompson, who also tore his right Achilles tendon in the fall of 2020 and sidelined him for another year.
During this year’s finals he often thought about this trip.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Thompson said. “I’m very grateful and everything I’ve done up to this point has led to that.”
Heading into this season, we didn’t expect Golden State to return to this stage any time soon. This was especially true because Thompson’s return date was unclear earlier in the season.
But then hope. Golden State opened the 2021-22 campaign by winning 18 of its first 20 games. The team had found a gem in Gary Payton II, who had been brushed aside by other teams because of his size or because he wasn’t a great 3-pointer. Andrew Wiggins, acquired in a 2020 trade with Minnesota, Kevon Looney, drafted weeks after that 2015 championship, and Jordan Poole, a late first-round pick in 2019, showed why the team valued them so much.
Curry set a career record for 3-pointers and mentored the team’s younger players.
Who could say how good this team could be if Thompson had returned?
That answer came in the playoffs.
Golden State beat the Denver Nuggets in five games and the Memphis Grizzlies in six. Then Dallas took just one game against Golden State in the Western Conference Finals.
Curry, Thompson and Green, the engine of five straight finals, entered this year’s championship series completely changed.
“The things I appreciate now, I didn’t necessarily appreciate then,” Green said. “In 2015 I hated taking pictures and, you know, I didn’t really put two and two together. Man these memories are so important.”
Draymond Green, left, had 12 points and 12 rebounds and finished two assists just short of a triple-double. Credit…Allison Dinner for The New York Times
They vowed not to take any part of the finals experience for granted, including the negative parts.
Throughout the series, Boston fans chanted Green with an expletive. During the champagne celebration in the dressing room after the game, his teammates imitated them.
“It’s beautiful,” Green said. “You embrace the tough times and so do we, and that’s how we get on top. For us it was a beautiful thing. When I hear my teammates sing it, it can hardly get any better.”
They faced a young Boston Celtics team, just as young as they were in 2015, led by 20-year-olds Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, led by elder statesman Al Horford. The Celtics did almost everything the hard way as they sought the 18th championship of the legendary franchise.
They swept the nets in the first round but participated in seven games against the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat. They won when they had to and made too many careless turnovers when they didn’t.
Boston was the younger, stronger and sportier team in the finals. The Celtics weren’t afraid of Golden State or the big stage and proved it by winning Game 1 on the road. As of Game 5, the Celtics had not lost consecutive games in the playoffs.
Curry prevailed over Boston’s defense in Game 4, scoring 43 points. Then the Celtics thwarted his effort in Game 5, only to have his teammates make up lost ground.
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Green recalled a moment during Golden State’s flight from San Francisco to Boston between Games 5 and 6. He, Thompson and Curry sat together when they were greeted by Bob Myers, the basketball team’s general manager and president , operations were discovered.
“He’s like, ‘Man, you’re all funny. You guys are still together. You all don’t understand, it’s 10 years. Like, that doesn’t happen. The boys are still sitting at the same table together,’” Green recalled. “He says, ‘Boys aren’t even 10 years on the same team, let alone still sitting at the same table and enjoying each other’s conversation and presence.'”
At a separate press conference minutes later, Thompson was asked about that moment and why the three still enjoy each other’s company. Curry stood against a wall, watching and waiting for his turn.
“Well, I don’t know about that,” Thompson said. “I owe Draymond some money in the form of dominoes, so I don’t want to see him too often.”
Curry bent at the waist and doubled over with a chuckle.
“I was half asleep,” Thompson continued. “Draymond and Bob talked their hearts out for six hours during a plane trip. I was just trying to get some sleep.”
Golden State fans celebrated another title, this time at a watch party at the Chase Center in San Francisco.Credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Curry later said, “All personalities are so different. Everyone comes from different backgrounds. But we’ve all struggled around a collective unity in how we do things, be it in the locker room, on the plane, in the hotels, whatever it is. We know how to have fun and jello and keep things light-hearted, but we also understand what we’re trying to do and why it all matters when it comes to winning games.”
The next day, they won their fourth championship together. They gathered in a crowd and jumped around together. When Curry won the finals as MVP, they sang “MVP” along with everyone else on stage.
Long after the celebration was over, Thompson and Curry stayed up there together, sometimes sitting together and sometimes dancing together. Thompson looked down from the stage and said he didn’t want to leave.
Curry descended before Thompson, but stood first on the top step. He held a cigar between his lips and held the MVP trophy in his left hand.