By Guillaume K. | Sports journalist
There are NBA players who only dream of collective and individual titles, records… And then there are others who simply want to enjoy the life of millionaires. This was particularly the case for the Warriors during the era of Baron Davis, the leaping leader.
If there’s one thing that unites many of the best players in NBA history, it’s a killer mentality. Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan are the best examples of this, they who were ready to torture their teammates in training in order to create an environment conducive to good results. And they were even more demanding of themselves, which shows their mental strength.
Except that in the league, not everyone has the ambition to become legendary and win the title every year. So in some teams, the atmosphere is not necessarily work, but rather relaxation and outings. This is what Baron Davis discovered when he arrived at the Warriors in 2005. While he wanted to aim far in the playoffs, he fell into a rather dissipated group.
Baron Davis cashes on Warriors exits
So as he explained in the excellent podcast “Club 520”, he had to find a way to combine his desires for success with the nocturnal desires of his partners. He therefore put in place a fairly simple system, which allowed Golden State to experience one of the most beautiful periods in its history. In the Bay, a victory was equivalent to a trip to the club!
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After a defeat I organized a team meeting. I told everyone, “If you guys want to party, I’m going to throw the biggest party for my birthday after the season.” But we must first start to consider the field as a place of celebration.” After that, we beat Detroit, which was the best team in the league. I decided that we should celebrate on the field, and that if we won, we could actually go out clubbing.
From there, we started going out after almost every meeting. It was incredible, really crazy. We moved like a rap group. We did our job, and then we went to party. No matter the city we ended up in the night, we took over the club, we drank all evening, I ended up at the DJ’s microphone singing.
Baron Davis fell to a team that cared more about the after-game parties than the games themselves. Frustrated by the situation, he imposed a condition sine qua non to his teammates: only victory allowed him to go to the club. As a result, the “We Believe” version of the Warriors was born, and traumatized both the floors and the dance floors.
If the Warriors didn’t go all the way to the title during this era, Baron Davis was at least able to play in a competitive playoff series, while enjoying the nightlife in the NBA. What if this was the real dream of a career?
2024-03-21 22:32:38
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