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Steve Kerr didn't sugarcoat what a fourth straight meeting between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers means to either team, or to any of the players involved — playing a huge part in each player's legacy and the overall history of the league.
“We just want to kick each other’s ass,” Kerr said, according to Mark Medina of the San Jose Mercury News. “There’s no sort of love lost. That’s how it should be. We should be trying to beat each other.”
The rivalry has gone a rematch-worthy one to an outright modern staple of playoff basketball, with the two most dominant teams playing part in a June showdown for NBA title supremacy.
The Golden State Warriors dealt the first blow, spoiling LeBron James' homecoming and taking the title in 2015 under a then-rookie head coach Steve Kerr. The Cavaliers would rebound the next year, taking an unforeseen 3-1 deficit into a Game 7 and shocking the world, crowning themselves champions in 2016 after a hard-fought series.
Year 2017 would bring in a much more direct approach, with both teams sweeping their way to the NBA Finals, only for Cleveland to play spoiler to perfection in Game 4, taking one away from the Warriors' potential undefeated postseason run before the trophy went back to the Bay Area.
This rivalry is starting to stack up against some of the best in league history, potentially reaching heights among two of the winningest franchises in the NBA — as Kerr compared Cavs-Warriors to the rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Lakers-Boston was the dominant rivalry. Our rivalry with Cleveland is the analogy of the modern NBA,” Kerr said. “It’s the same thing. You got superstars all over the floor. You’ve had three Finals meetings. You have so many games and so many people watching. It’s definitely a special feeling in the building when both teams are there.”
The ratings have been at an all-time high in the past few years, keeping viewers glued to their TV sets and fans doling out exorbitant prices for seats at the respective arenas, setting it apart as the main attraction in June among all American sports.
