Six NBA Finals appearances. Six championships.
It seems like it was easy for Michael Jordan to run through the league as he led the Chicago Bulls to historic greatness.
Former Bulls guard and current Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said it was anything but easy — and it was something his Warriors experienced, too.
After the first two episodes of “The Last Dance” aired on ESPN on Sunday, Scott Van Pelt asked Kerr what the public doesn’t understand about that team and its run.
“I think just how difficult it was. Everybody knows how great Michael was, and he went 6-0 in finals, you look back and probably just assume he was so dominant that it was easy. It was not easy. It wasn’t easy for him or for anybody,” Kerr said.
“He made the difficult look easy because of his dominance, but he had to dig so deep year after year and it took so much out of him.”
It wasn’t just the physical mileage on the body that took a toll.
Emotionally, it’s draining to put the same amount of energy into it year after year, and the motivation can start to wane.
Kerr said it was that way with teams of old like the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers and Bulls, and in teams of modern times with dynasties like the Warriors.
“Your opponents are gunning for you year after year, so they’re not only getting better, they’re building roster for you. They’re thinking about you every waking moment,” Kerr said.
“And as you go, and as you win, the motivation, the energy that it takes, it just gets more and more difficult.”
Over the Bulls’ first three-peat, they played 304 games in three seasons plus postseasons. They played the exact same number of games in the second three-peat, meaning they averaged more than 100 games per season over two different three-year stretches.
The Warriors, in the five seasons and postseasons from 2014-2019, played 515 games.
That’s tiring. To add on, regular-season opponents are gunning for you every night out. Your name is always circled on the calendar.
“You win two, three championships, and it just gets more and more difficult because it’s exhausting,” Kerr said. “Every other team is just coming at you every day.”
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