Nevius: Admiring the Warriors' less obvious attributes

I have a man-crush on the Warriors. It isn’t just that I enjoy watching them play. I admire them for what they’ve become.

We are not talking about individual players, although they are worthy of extravagant praise. Nope, what I like about Sports Illustrated’s Sportspersons of the Year is the concept.

Maybe it is all part of the current shape-shifting in sports.

Baseball is all big rips and Ks now. Yet not long ago we were praising the World Series champ Giants for building on pitching and defense.

Football really has become basketball on grass. If you’re not throwing for 300 yards, you really didn’t have much of a day, did you?

And the Warriors have changed the NBA. They are the team to see; the team to be. And, I’d submit, they had the toughest transition to pull off.

To begin with, let’s agree on how they’ve done it. You’re going to say shooting 3s. And I respect that opinion. You may very well be right.

However, I disagree. It’s the flow, the glide of the offense that breaks the mold. A local writer called it “egalitarian,” and that sounds right.

Last week I asked Jonas Jerebko, the 6-10 Swedish forward, about a play in a previous game, when Steph Curry found himself standing all alone beyond the 3-point arc. Not a person on planet Earth would knock Curry for taking that shot.

But he pushed it down to Jerebko, who, after a bit of banging around with his defender, put it in.

“That’s the kind of team camaraderie we have,” Jerebko said. “It is what makes it fun to play and fun to watch.”

It’s a delicate balance, though, which is the hard part. In another sequence, Kevin Durant passed up a contested layup at the hoop to bounce a baseline pass to center Jordan Bell for a I’m-trying-something-new 15-footer (which he made). That’s what gives you confidence.

As a free agent, Jerebko said he talked to coach Steve Kerr about his role with the Warriors. When he got off the phone he told his agent, “Don’t even listen to anybody else. I want to play with coach Kerr.”

He’s been an interesting example of that Warriors aura. When Jerebko talks about what he’s doing here, compared to three other NBA stops, it isn’t hard to read between the lines.

“My role here is more free than I have ever been,” he said. “Being involved in plays feels good.”

As opposed to what often happens to big Euros. When their first instructions from the coach are, “Bang around on the defensive end and then go stand in the corner while we run offense.”

When one of the old, stand-around teams plays the Warriors now, the contrast is striking. A guy like Jerebko, or an undersized center like Bell, wouldn’t fit the old style.

And they are essential to the Warriors.

Meanwhile, for all his fame and international branding, I’m not sure we give enough credit to Curry.

He is the living embodiment of “the Warrior way.”

Just for starters, that the smallest guy on the floor dominates the game is mind blowing. Again, you’re going to rave about the 3s, but to me his genius plays are the forays to the hoop. Either hand. Deft, clever spins off the glass. You almost need to see someone’s shot get blocked to remember how difficult that is.

He scores, he moves the ball, he makes the right pass. Now, does he also sometimes say “watch this” and throw the ball into the stands? Yep, we never said he was perfect.

But any team would love to have those qualities alone. What if we also throw in that he’s incredibly accessible, handles himself beautifully in interviews and seems generally unimpressed with himself?

The moon landing kerfuffle was more silly than anything, although it is a look into how his mind works.

Because Curry is a goof. Picture LeBron James conducting an on-court baseball pantomime, pitching a basketball with full windup to a teammate, who is in a catcher’s squat. There’s no payoff, Curry just does it to amuse himself. James must shake his serious head.

But there is something here. Curry makes that pass to Jerebko, to let him know he’s accepted and trusted. And big guns like Curry and Durant need to do that or the whole concept falls apart. If they buy in, everybody’s in.

The SI award is a good time to look back on this group and say, this has been a remarkable run. There have been roster changes, injuries and the latest Draymond Green explosion. But they’ve not only held it together (points to Kerr), and won (shoutout to Klay Thompson), they’ve changed the game.

And they are, demonstrably, the most popular team in the NBA. NBC Sports Bay Area’s Ray Ratto had an interesting stat the other day. The Warriors sold out 100 consecutive away games. The next nearest was, as Ratto put it, “whomever LeBron James plays for,” with 25.

I told Kevin Durant about the sellouts in other gyms. He said that was interesting, but ...

“They still boo you.”

Ah. That’s the problem. First they want to see you. Then they want to be you. Then they want to beat you.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cw.nevius@pressdemocrat.com. Twitter: @cwnevius