With the Toronto Raptors winning the 2019 NBA championship, the Golden State Warriors dynasty is seemingly over. With that being said, the real question is did they have a chance to win the finals in the first place, or was this season cursed from the start? Did karma finally bite back at the super team? A strange coincidence may answer this question. Every single Warriors finals win was been largely helped with an Injury to an opposing teams top 2 player every year.

2015 finals

This started out with the 2015 Finals, when Kyrie Irving went down against Golden State in game 1, and with Love going down earlier in the playoffs. It left Lebron essentially helpless, and the Warriors with a walk to the finals win.

2017 Playoffs

Then two seasons later, even with Kevin Durant, it seemed the dubs once again needed an injury to push them into the finals. In the 3rd quarter of Game 1 of the Western conference finals, the San Antonio Spurs were up by 25 when Kawhi Leonard went down with a season ending ankle injury. The Warriors went on to not only win the game, but the series in a sweep

2018 playoffs

Finally, the 2017-18 season was their latest stroke of luck. As it seemed the Houston Rockets finally formed a team to beat Golden State. Houston was up 3-2, when suddenly Chris Paul had a hamstring injury that took him out of both game 6 and 7. Leaving the Rockets shaken and giving the Warriors much needed momentum to take the final two games of the series. Eventually leading to a easy finals victory over the Cavaliers once again.

2019 playoffs

With last nights unfortunate turn of events, it appears a curse has begun. It started in the first round of the playoffs when the newly added DeMarcus Cousins went down with a quad injury in game one. The Warriors went on to win in 6 games, then in game 5 of the second round. Kevin Durant went down with a quad injury as well. Despite this, the Warriors once again won in 6.

However, in the finals is when true tragedy struck for the last back to back champions. In game 2 of the finals, Klay had a quad injury trying to draw a foul, forcing him to miss a part of that game and all of game 3. Kevin Durant came back in game 5 and ruptured his Achilles, not only leaving him out of this series, but all of next year as well. Finally game 6 of the finals, the final game ever played in the Oracle arena. Klay Thompson tore his ACL in a heartbreaking fall in the third quarter. Which swayed the momentum in Toronto’s favor, and would eventually take control of the game and win their first NBA Championship.

Final Thoughts

So, was this a curse on the Golden State Warriors? Was it the Basketball Gods enacting revenge for the previous seasons, or just a case of bad luck? Perhaps Kevin Durant saw a “your 2019 is cursed like to undo” comment on Instagram and ignored it. The reason for these unfortunate events may never be known, but either way if has completely changed the layout of Free agency and overall NBA for years to come.