The Golden State Warriors, with their 6 game victory in the NBA Championship series vs the Cleveland Cavaliers, are at the forefront of a brand new sports model, built on teamwork, sacrifice and sublimation of individual egos…Unlike the old sports model, which always featured one prominent player and a lesser supporting cast, the Warriors have demonstrated that the total team unity concept is the way to succeed in today’s modern era…

No longer will basketball be subject to the fluctuations and maddening injuries and inconsistencies of self titled “alpha dogs” like Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks, or in older days gone by, players like Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz, or even the sainted all time best NBA player ever, Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls….

These players, and they are all acknowledged superstars who are either already in or soon will be elected to the NBA Hall of Fame, were and still are mired in the old style concept of basketball…They always demanded the ball, they always wanted to take the crucial shots at the key moments and they always wanted to run the show…For better or worse, they were determined and selfish enough to have the team sink or swim according to their supremely gifted athletic talents, and they were very often successful…But this is a new and different era…

Because in today’s game, with all the extra travel and the extra layers of play off games and the myriad of injuries that beset seemingly every team every year, this old concept of living or dying with your superstars has become outmoded, outdated and as dead as the dinosaurs….Players today are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever and the whole old playground concept of “give me the ball and get out of my way” line of thinking has become obsolete…

The Golden State Warriors, admittedly blessed with extra ordinary good health this year, are the poster boys for the new breed of NBA teams…Yes we have our super star player in Steph Curry, the reigning NBA MVP for 2015 spearheading the way, but he is perhaps the most modest, self effacing super star in basketball today, as far from the “alpha dog” mentality as possible…

He constantly defers to his teammates and passes the ball to them if they have a better shot at making the basket, and the whole team has bought into Coach Steve Kerr’s philosophy of team unity, sharing, and sublimation of individual egos for the greater good of the team concept…

I am an unabashed and proud Warriors fan, no johnny come lately, a San Francisco resident, and have lived here for 40 years rooting on hopeless teams over the years since witnessing our last NBA Championship, and I can sense the sea change that is occurring on the hardwood floor today…

The brilliance and beauty of this new sports model that Coach Kerr has been preaching has borne fruit all season long; the Warriors finished with an NBA best record of 67-15…And whenever we did have the occasional injury occur during the season, it was always the “next man up” philosophy that prevailed…This concept in itself is hardly revolutionary thinking, it is standard throughout all sports, but the difference is that the Warriors totally bought into the team concept, because Coach Kerr utilized almost his entire roster every single game…

It can be argued that the depth and effectiveness of the Warriors bench players was so great because of this constant trust, reliance and utilization of the whole team every night…Don’t forget, every player on an NBA roster is there because he excelled on the high school or college level; only the best of the best ever make it to the NBA…So the revolutionary concept of actually using ALL your players every game actually contributed to the overall lack of injuries and general good health of all of the Warrior starters….

And a more unselfish, less greedy group of players than the Warriors starters has never been assembled before…From the fabled “Splash Brothers” Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, to the ferocious and multi-talented, able to play any position Draymond Green, (“described by Kerr as the “heart of the team”) and the unique “point center” play of Andrew Bogut, perhaps the best passing center in all of basketball, and the solid all round contributions of Harrison Barnes, the Warriors starters all bought in to the team concept so ably preached by Kerr.

A prime example of this occurred in the NBA finals when 6th man and defensive whiz Andre Iguadola came off the bench to guard alpha dog Lebron James, replacing starter Andrew Bogut and did such a fabulous job he was voted MVP of the NBA Championship Series! Bogut, to his credit, did not sulk or whine about being relegated to the bench, even though he had started nearly every game this year, because he too totally believed in the “whatever is best for the team” concept so brilliantly espoused and implemented at all the right times by coach Steve Kerr…

None of this would have been possible if at the start of the season Iguadola, a starter all his NBA career, had not graciously and enthusiastically embraced Kerr’s request to sit on the bench and be the 6th man rather than start…His unselfishness and team first attitude permeated, infused and inspired the entire squad throughout the long and grueling NBA season, and culminated in Iguadola winning the Series MVP and the Warriors winning the NBA Championship!

Yes, there is a new sports model in the making, and next year and in the years to come all the NBA teams, which always try to emulate last year’s winner, will slowly begin to embrace it…The concept of team unity, cohesiveness, and unselfishness, the epitome of a “team” will permeate all through the ranks of the NBA…

A new, revolutionary sports model to succeed has been devised, improvised upon, and will soon be implemented into the formerly “me first” ball hog mentality of the NBA, and it was the Golden State Warriors who showed the way to the top by their unselfish sublimation of their individual egos for the greater good of the team as a whole…

Make no mistake, this is the wave of the future, and the Golden State Warriors are the first to reap the whirlwind of success through team unity and genuine trust and affection for their teammates…All hail the 2015 NBA Champions, the Golden State Warriors!