Hardwood Paroxysm Presents: The Warriors are the Best Team Since Sliced Bread
Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) thinks the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors are the best team since the Atlanta Falcons in Madden 2004.
Steph Curry is commonly referred to as a glitch, a human cheat code, a gamebreaker who renders typical defensive sets null and void. The last time we were faced with an athlete spoken of in such hyperbolic terms, he was actually in a video game.
No video game athlete since the turn of the century was as broken as Michael Vick in Madden 2004. At the time, even the most fleet-footed quarterbacks hovered in the mid 70’s for speed rating. Following his breakout year in 2003, Vick was selected to adorn the cover and receive the usual bump in stats that comes with the honor.
EA went a bridge too far – defenses were ill equipped to deal with Madden Michael’s 94 speed and 96 throwing power. The game was still rooted in arcade-style gameplay, years away from the implementation of DE contains and auto spies that helped dampen Vick’s impact. You could run rollout after rollout, sucking in defenders with the threat of the run and unleashing strikes to players in single/broken coverage.
Curry’s comical shooting ability paired with his handle and vision is the real-life answer to Vick’s QB package. Defenses are constantly on their heels trying to prevent him from getting shots off, but it gets easier for his teammates the harder they press to shut down Curry. There’s not really an answer yet as to what teams could/should do to cut off his scoring supply.
Supporting casts play an important role for both icons. Draymond Green is Curry’s version of Warrick Dunn, a multi-purpose weapon who provides a release valve in the passing game and protection – pass pro for Dunn, defense for Green – that opens up a multitude of lineup choices for Steve Kerr. Klay Thompson is Peerless Price, in this instance coming off screens and burying threes rather than torching secondary members and hauling in Vick strikes. There are even some parallels between Andrew Bogut and Keith Brooking, the defensive centerpieces at the heart of Golden State and Atlanta’s teams.
The most prominent common thread between those digital Falcons and today’s Warriors is the feeling of disbelief surrounding their star’s accomplishments. No matter how many times I watch Curry pull up from 30+ feet and hit nothing but cotton, no matter how often he pulls off a dizzying crossover, there’s still that thought of, “Come on man, that’s not even fair.”
Not since Michael Vick’s yearlong reign of terror has an athlete — digital or otherwise – captured that emotional cross between helplessness and certainty of success. Bad news – we can’t ban Steph Curry from the NBA, like many Madden enthusiasts did Vick’s Falcons in competitive play. Opponents might be stuck fighting this unstoppable machine for a while.