i'm guessing this one? Spoiler <img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/d5/f6/4f/d5f64fe74fb26d5291df1e5fe04538b9.jpg">
Let's not forget, as a player, he had Michael Jordan as a teammate in 1996, 1997, and 1998. Then, a teammate of Tim Duncan in 1999 and 2003.
I remember noticing that he nurses his player's minutes. They arent on court 40 mins game in and game out. If you look at Bogut's minutes during the regular season, he's playing like 20-25? http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bogutan01.html
It's easy to limit your guys' minutes when no one ever gets hurt. I'm sure McHale would've loved to play Harden less than 35 minutes a night had Dwight and T-Jones been healthy all year. Or not have to throw D-Mo out there at the 5 instead of his natural position at the 4 which may have contributed to his season-ending back injury. Or not have to play Terry heavy minutes at PG instead of in a limited backup role because of Bev's freak injury to his wrist. Look, I'm not upset so much at the Warriors' good fortune with their players' health. It happens. What bugs me is how every other team, especially the ones they've had to face en route to the Finals(and in the Finals should they get there) have had critical injuries to key guys. I remember when the Rockets won their 2nd title in 1995, Jazz and Suns fans b-tched about Felton Spencer and Danny Manning being out for their respective teams. Well that's nothing compared to the opposing players who were either out or severely limited during Golden State's postseason run.
Legit chance they get all the way to a championship without ever having faced a healthy team. Atlanta was the last team standing w/ all of its key players (I don't consider Thabo a key player, sorry not sorry) -- then last night Demarre goes down. They have literally caught every team this postseason w/ at least 2 starters injured/out/in and out of the lineup. Incredible fortune, really.
Look I created this thread jokingly but to just put out how lucky the Warriors have been in regards to their own team health and how fortunate they've been to face the teams they have faced that have to deal with major injuries to key guys. Every championship run has to have a luck factor in it -- I mean for us in 94 it was the Sonics being upset in the first round. But it just seems like the Warriors maybe sacrificed a first born the way how the stars are just aligning for them with now the Hawks losing Carroll as well and Thabo, their best two defensive wings
My point was that the Warriors were not exception to the injury bugs, they did have their share of it. You can argue that Green has been better for the team, etc, but the fact remains that they LOST a 20/10 guy in Lee for most of the season, and now he is out of the sync with what they do because of that. Ezeli was regarded as their future in the middle a couple years ago, but he hasn't be able to have enough time to do anything because of that knee injury. With Bogut never fully healthy at any time, the Warriors has no one in the middle, that's why they often play that "small lineup".
But the Rockets got a fully healthy Utah Jazz team in the WCF in 1994. Not on the level of Seattle(although they would be in subsequent seasons) and the Rockets had home court advantage, but it was still a respectable opponent at full strength. I don't recall any of the Rockets opponents in the 1994 title run suffering from injuries to key players. The closest I can think of is Barkley's ailing back. I don't count Doc Rivers blowing out his knee earlier in the year with the Knicks since that led to them trading for Derek Harper which made them even better.