What Has Changed In 37 Years Since Last Warriors Game 7?
OAKLAND (CBS SF) - When the 2013-2014 Warriors take the floor Saturday for their do-or-die matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers, it will be the first time in 37 years the Dubs have played in the most dramatic stage the NBA has to offer.
Backin 1977, it would have been hard to imagine this matchup. Here are a few reasons why:
- Steph Curry wasn't born. Neither was Blake Griffin or any other player involved in the game. Ultra-veterans Jermaine O'Neal (Warriors) and Hedo Turkoglu (Clippers) would not be born until 1978 and 1979 respectively.
- Had they been born, Curry and fellow sharpshooter Klay Thompson may not have recognized the game anyway. Their favorite weapon, the three point shot, wouldn't come into the league until 1979; At the time it was considered a gimmicky addition to the game.
- Throw all that aside, what would the game have looked like? It would have been a mismatch, after all the Buffalo Braves only won 27 games that year. The Braves? Yeah, the Clippers name didn't exist until the franchise moved to San Diego in 1978. You're forgiven if you didn't know. The team remained mostly irrelevant until Griffin and Chris Paul arrived in 2010.
- One thing that a '77 matchup and the 2014 would have had in common? No Donald Sterling. He didn't buy the team until 1981. He moved them north to Los Angeles in '84 due to low turnout at home games.
What else was invented since the last game 7 played by the Warriors? Shorts capable of covering Rick Barry's mid-thigh.
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