Sometimes somebody says something that just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Enter Bill Simmons, the longtime sportswriter, podcast host and diehard Celtics fan, who said during his podcast after the Warriors clinched Game 6 of the NBA Finals on Thursday that you “can’t call” Golden State’s four titles in eight years a dynasty.
Here’s a partial transcript of the discussion between Simmons and his buddy Joe House:
Bill Simmons: “Curry, Kerr, Dray and Klay: four titles, six Finals. Four titles in eight years. Which has not been done since the Bulls six titles in eight years. The Spurs won five titles but that was from 1999 to 2014. You can’t call it a dynasty, but it’s definitely the weirdest run I think we’ve had.”
Joe House: “Why can’t you call it a dynasty?”
Simmons: “Because it’s just not. It’s a run.”
House: “What’s a dynasty?”
Simmons: “It’s not that.”
House: “What is it?”
Simmons: “It’s not that. They had the second pick in the lottery one of those years, they missed the playoffs last year. I think they’re the team of the decade though, I think that’s what they get, or the team of their generation.”
House: “I don’t really wanna play semantics but six Finals in eight years is kind of pretty good. The league is [75] years old. The era is 40 years old.”
Simmons: “I don’t know. It’s the equivalent of if the Celtics had the ’81, ’84’, ’86, and then couldn’t figure out that next stretch in…’91, ’92, Bird got hurt, all those guys. The Lakers, same thing. They had the run from ’80 to ’88, then it seemed like they had a next version of themselves with Vlade, Magic and Sam Perkins.”
House: “So, you’re saying none of those teams are dynasties?”
Simmons: “No, no, I’m just saying how they reinvented themselves when it seemed like they were done.”
The most bizarre aspect of Simmons’ take is he doesn’t really explain what he believes a dynasty is, other than pointing out that the Warriors got a high draft pick after a season when all of their stars were hurt.
Making it to six NBA Finals in eight seasons is extremely rare. The last team to accomplish such a feat was the Jordan Bulls, a team that is typically used as the primary of example of what a dynasty in professional sports looks like.
Possibly anticipating backlash, Simmons sent out a tweet on Friday morning, with a link to a column explaining his definition of a dynasty. Here’s what he wrote in 2012:
In general, the word “dynasty” gets thrown around too liberally — they don’t happen anymore, regardless of the sport. The last “dynasty” was probably the 1996-2001 Yankees, who appeared in five of six World Series and came within one inning of winning all five. In the NBA’s seven-decade history, we only witnessed four true dynasties: Russell’s Celtics (13 years, 11 titles), Jordan’s Bulls (eight years, six titles), Magic’s Lakers (12 years, nine Finals appearances, five titles) and Mikan’s Lakers (six years, five titles), who have to be included even though they thrived before things like “the shot clock,” “dunking” and “multiple black guys on each team.” Bird’s Celtics (seven years, five Finals appearances, three titles) could have snatched the “80s dynasty title” from Magic’s Lakers if Lenny Bias didn’t decide to get high. Duncan’s Spurs (nine years, four titles) never made you feel like “My God, how are we gonna stop those guys?” Shaqobe’s Lakers (five years, four Finals appearances, three titles) became something of a lost dynasty, the guys who blew a chance to own the 2000s because they couldn’t get along. Nobody else is worth mentioning.
Even by that extremely specific definition, a team that won five titles in 12 years — Magic’s Lakers — would qualify, but the Warriors — won four titles in 9 years — would not.
Simmons’ longtime buddy, and general manager of the Sixers Daryl Morey let Simmons know what he thought about the take on Twitter.
Hey, man, to each their own.
