Volume 4: Golden State Prosperity

Golden State's Golden Age: The Toughest Star, the Weakest Fans. Back when James was with the Heat, he was still in his prime and had yet to win a championship. He was highly motivated and gave everything on defense, so this issue was not too serious. They could no longer stand Love's softness. Both were power forwards, so why was Antetokounmpo so tough while Love was so soft? For a team with James to solve its defensive problems, it had to have another wing providing help defense, or even propping up the entire defensive system, so that James could comfortably stand around with his hands on his hips on defense. In the end, James's fans realized that only The Brow met James's requirements. "Don't pin your hopes on The Brow. We've never beaten the Warriors..." But Pelicans fans were fairly clear-eyed: many people talked about how enormous Iguodala's impact had been, but the Warriors' defensive core at the time was Green, while their offensive core was Curry. Curry averaged around ten more points per game than Iguodala and was extremely clutch, yet he did not receive a single vote. James, meanwhile, got four votes, which was truly shocking. Especially after being swept by the Warriors in last year's Finals, James had now been swept twice in the Finals. He might never escape the reputation of being soft. Even putting Green on the court would not have been a problem. As long as he was used purely as a role-playing workhorse and Curry controlled the ball throughout, victory would have been assured. What was even more interesting was that whenever the Warriors faced another team, people would lavishly analyze the Warriors' opponents' strengths—unstoppable interior attacks, unstoppable drives to the basket, unstoppable targeting of Curry, unstoppable wing isolations—while forgetting that Curry himself