Nineteen years ago, Jonathan Kuminga was born half the world away in Congo.
Steph Curry was just 14 at the time, while Draymond Green and Klay Thompson were 12. Who would have guessed that in 2022, they’d all be in the same locker room on a mission for an NBA title.
There’s a definite generation gap (or two) between Kuminga and the championship trio, but the fact they were all talking to reporters at NBA Finals media day Wednesday is a testament to the organization’s bold strategy to blend two eras. Injuries aside, everything’s gone according to plan: the super vets are leading the way and the next wave is getting invaluable playoff experience from the best to ever do it.
The Boston Celtics are the Finals boss out of the East for Golden State. This is old hat for the old heads of the Warriors.
On the flipside, Kuminga was only 12 when Curry, Green and Thompson first kissed the Larry O’Brien trophy. Earlier this season, Green said he noticed that Kuminga always laughed at him whenever they interacted around the practice facility.
“He’s looking at me like I’d look at a 55-year-old man,” Green said with a laugh.
Steph, 34, is the team’s second-oldest player beyond 38-year-old Andre Iguodala, who sounds like he is contemplating retirement. Father Time is knocking at the door and Curry is closer to retirement than his NBA debut in 2009, but he’s still a savant on the court with peak conditioning.
“I try not to let my mind think about that too much,” Curry said. “Don’t wanna feed into it, I feel like I’m still in my prime, for as long as I can go out there and move the way I am. But it is weird, you think about the age ranges of guys being on this team. … It is pretty cool to be an old head and being able to pass that wisdom off to the young guys.”
The baby-faced assassin is all grown up.
Of course, Klay brought a whole ‘nother perspective to the topic of being a resident old head on the Warriors.
“Although we’ve been doing this a long time, 32 is very young in the big picture of life,” Klay said. “Because our lives are out in front of the camera, you see us grow up. I still feel very young and still think I have great years ahead of me. But I think I have a lot of wisdom compared to where I was the first time we did this.”
Kuminga is the lone teenager on the squad, now that Moses Moody celebrated his 20th birthday on Tuesday. James Wiseman is 20 and Jordan Poole is 22. Wiseman is still a wait-and-see prospect, but it appears the Warriors have hit it out of the park with their draft picks the past three years. The next nucleus is already in the building.
Poole and Andrew Wiggins are signed through next season and seem like prime candidates to be extended following 2023. Kevon Looney is a free agent this summer, but the Warriors would like to keep him around. Ditto for Gary Payton II.
There’s great reason to believe the Warriors will be keeping the band together, regardless of how the Finals plays out.
“Unless Andre (Iguodala) retires, it’s looking pretty solid,” Green said earlier this week.
Longevity, loyalty, continuity and commitment are hallmarks of this Dubs Dynasty – from both the players and ownership.
Curry was the No. 7 pick in 2009, Thompson was the No. 11 pick in 2011 and Green was the No. 35 pick in 2012. Now they’re No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 when it comes to NBA playoff winning percentage all time, with Steph (.695) slightly trailing Klay and Draymond (.705) due to injuries in 2016 and 2018.
“Those guys weren’t top-two, top-five, top-10 ranked high school players,” Iguodala said. “They weren’t top-five picks in the draft. They had to go to school for three, four years which is unheard of in these times. For them to be able to stay at that level – the highest of the highest level – for this long, it’s hard for them to understand the magnitude of it.”
This marks Wiggins’ first deep postseason run. He never made it past the first round in his five-plus seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
After playing with Curry, Thompson and Green for three series over the span of the past six weeks, Wiggins said he can feel the trio push its game to another level.
“You can see the level of intensity rise,” Wiggins said. “Playoffs is very detailed, it’s very physical. It’s a different game. It’s a game of adjustments, too. Those guys have been great on the court and I feel like it comes to them easy. They’ve been here for so long and they’ve been here and had success. Those guys are very confident and very calm in high-intensity situations.”
Looney has been through this Finals fire with the trio before. He mostly sat on the bench during the team’s runs in 2016 and 2017, but played big minutes during the 2018 and 2019 postseasons.
Loon has seen first-hand how the league has changed, as he entered in 2015 thinking he’d be a traditional power forward, but now he’s considered a center. The 3-point shot and positionless basketball have taken over the sport since the Warriors’ success of the 2010s, brought to you by the Splash Brothers, Death Lineup and Hamptons 5.
A decade of dominance. Six finals trips in eight years. Three rings. And counting.
In short, the three old heads have changed basketball.
“It shows how special of a trio they are,” Looney said. “They’re able to win under different circumstances, different teams, different eras, different styles of play. When they first won it, the NBA was a lot different, the style of play was different. They kinda changed the game. … Those guys are going to be remembered as winners. They’re going to have their individual accolades, but I think they’re mostly going to be remembered as being dominant and winning.”
