Draymond Green took a page out of coach Steve Kerr's book following the Warriors' series-clinching win over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night, a victory that placed Golden State in its sixth NBA Finals in the last eight years.
Perhaps sarcastically using a viral comment made by his coach last season, Green discussed the Warriors' championship pedigree and reaching their sixth straight Finals when he, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are all healthy.
"Like I’ve said over and over again, and we keep saying it, no one has proven that they can knock us off that [top] spot," Green said. "That’s the mindset we come into this thing with. We understand what it takes to win a championship. We understand the process and how you have to get better throughout the course of a season.
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SIGN UP HERE " ... Most teams in the NBA just aren’t that good. You can win games in the regular season, that means nothing. We understand that. We don’t chase wins during the regular season, we chase improvement during the regular season."
Last February, when Kerr was asked about increasing Curry's minutes as he worked his way back from missing all but five games of the 2019-20 campaign, he uttered the quote for the first time, which caused a bit of a stir among Warriors fans.
“For me, for our organization, we're not throwing Steph out there for 40 minutes to chase wins,” Kerr said.
After receiving negative feedback for his first try at the quote, Kerr hilariously brought it up again when talking about his hopes for rookies Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody after Golden State's preseason opener to begin the 2021-22 campaign.
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"Jonathan and Moses are so young," Kerr said. "They've got a bunch of guys ahead of them who have been in this league and know what they're doing, so they've got to earn their time. We'll see how it all plays out, but we're chasing wins this year."
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Later, Curry referenced Kerr's line in October after the Warriors beat the Sacramento Kings to open the season a perfect 3-0.
"Chasing 82-0, all right?" Curry said with a laugh.
Golden State didn't chase wins this season, finishing third in the Western Conference with a 53-29 record. But the Warriors are chasing a championship and are four wins away from bringing another title to the Bay.
