Sports Philosophy: Win Now vs. Rebuild. Is There a Third Option?

I hate to drag this topic out to a third post, but over dinner last night I thought more about the Warriors’ situation and realized their 2008 offseason is creating the perfect example of ‘win at all costs’ vs. ‘rebuild’ vs… ‘try your best while giving something to the fans’. This is America, and in America we not only value winning so grossly above 2nd, 3rd, and everything else, but we also want to win now. Rebuilding plan? Screw that. Show me the W’s. It is a mindset that I try hard not to fall into after hearing about how abnormal we are as a sports fan country compared to almost the entire rest of the world. Other countries really do value the performance, valor, heart, effort, and skill as much as, or more than the final score. Sure, there are examples where this isn’t true, but by in large, it is the case. (Americans are also obsessed with stats like nobody else – I have no qualms with being a part of that).

So when a team like the Warriors falls into the unfortunate situation of being a pretty good team in a really good conference and loses their best player, what now should they do? Go for broke signing up all talent you can get? Or trade away other expensive pieces, keep young talent, and play for top draft picks over the next few seasons? The Warriors tried the first option with their offers to Brand and Arenas, and they can be commended for that. But as already covered, once those became unavailable, they decided against option two… they decided to still spend, a lot, on players that will surely keep them in the 8-11 seed range out West.

So is that wrong? Did they set their franchise back another 10 years? Or did they do something that 6 magical games against the Mavs and one legendary dunk on AK47 forced them to do? You see, most casual fans outside the Bay Area do not understand how smitten the Bay Area locals became with the Warriors after that 2007 playoff run.

Kevin McHale kept the Timberwolves in no man's land by not trading KG or bringing in legit help.

People loved the Warriors. Sell outs became common place at Warriors games, and never before has an entire arena been on their feet for so long during games in January. The Warriors were relevant to the casual-to-moderately-serious fans again, and those are the people you rely on to boost profits and keep the interest high. Diehards are usually there no matter what. Diehards have all the retro apparel (although they bought it when it was current). Diehards will complain when you suck, but at least they’ll have something to talk about. It’s those more casual people that the front office really has to target, and the Warriors had them, hook, line, and sinker.

So what would happen if the Warriors so quickly went back to basketball purgatory, just two seasons after a 13 year climb from it? I guarantee you they already lost a number of the casual fans simply because of Baron’s departure, but one 24 win season, and the rest of those fans are flooding out the door. By spending $206 million on average talent, Chris Mullin at least insured that there will be some interest carrying over from the past two season. The Warriors won’t be trash, they’ll win 40-45 games, they’ll still be exciting, and that’s enough for many of those fans.

So did the Warriors owe it to those people? If you’re reading this, you’re probably a pretty serious sports fan and think “screw them, I don’t care about fair weather or bandwagon fans,” but it’s not that easy. “This game is a business.” How many times do you hear that? Well it’s true, and an extra 5,000 bandwagon fans in the seats each game probably adds about $15 million in yearly revenue (in my rough calculation). When there is no guarantee you can make 3-4 years of that by creating a powerhouse after rebuilding, it is a tough call to turn that money down. There is no hard and fast rule for win now vs. rebuild, but it is a dichotomy that has to have some middle ground. Even though that middle ground might be the worst for the team itself, it might be the best for a large number of the fans and for the books. I’m not fully convinced what the right option is. Are you?

Thanks for reading.

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Tags: America, Golden State Warriors, Rebuild, Sports Philosophy, Win

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