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If there's anyone who knows how to win a championship, or two, or three, or four, it's Draymond Green and the Warriors. If there's one player, and team, who does not, it's Fred Warner and the 49ers.
While that might hurt the 49ers Faithful to hear, it's true, and could be a reason as to why San Francisco has come up short in recent Super Bowl appearances.
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Green joined Warner on the latest episode of his podcast, "The Warner House," where he discussed the advantage that comes with knowing how to win a championship, how that benefited the Warriors in their 2022 NBA Finals series victory over the Boston Celtics and why that might have benefited the Kansas City Chiefs in their recent Super Bowl victory over San Francisco.
"I think what people don't realize is, and I think you will even learn this, is once you do it, you know how," Green told Warner. "And once you know how to do it ... we won a championship in 2022, not because we were the best team. We won the championship in 2022 because we knew how. Like Steph [Curry], Klay [Thompson] and I knew how to win, and so we knew how to win a championship. Boston didn't know how to win a championship.
"And so when it came down to it, one of the things that the Chiefs have over y'all, and it's a hump y'all will have to get over, is they know how to do it. So in every single moment, they have something to draw from to say, 'Oh, this is like this, and we did this.' Or 'The mindset now has to be that.' Or 'if we can attack this guy, he'd be attacking that guy when we did this.' "
One example of Green and the Warriors' championship pedigree benefiting them, was when Golden State trailed in its series against Boston two-plus years ago, and how they used their previous playoff experience to re-shift their focus mid-series and close out Boston in six games.
San Francisco 49ers
"Speaking of 2022, sure enough, 2022, after Game 3 we were down 2-1 and I walk into the locker room, and I'm walking off the court thinking to myself 'This feels so familiar' and I literally walk into the locker room and [Steph's] the first person I see," Green recalled. "And I just see he's got this look on his face like ... I stop, and I'm standing there looking at him ... and he says, 'You thinking what I'm thinking?' I said, 'This is [the Warriors vs. Grizzlies Western Conference semifinal series] all over again, because in 2015 we were down to Memphis 2-1, and it felt like the world was collapsing, and we had never done it though.
"So I say 'This feels like Memphis' and he's like 'Yes! That's exactly what it feels like …' he's like 'Cool, all right, it's over.' I'm like, 'Yes, it's over. For sure.' ... I get to Klay (in the locker room in 2022) and Klay's like 'Dray, this feels really 2015ish.' I'm like 'Absolutely.' I knew right away it's over, they done, we won."
And sure enough, the Warriors won.
Green's long-winded point, essentially, is that some teams just know how to win a championship and the mid-game or mid-series adjustments required to put them over the top.
That's not to say Warner and the 49ers will not hoist the Vince Lombardi Trophy one day, but once -- or if -- they do, Green believes it becomes much, much easier to do so again.
"And so I said all of that to say there's a know-how once you do it, and Steve Kerr knows how," Green explained. "And so he knows when to press the button, he knows when to make the adjustment, he knows when to do the thing. Because he knows how to do it and once you do it, it's just a feeling that you get of 'Oh, that's that? boom, no problem, we got this, we know to do that now.'
"And once y'all do it, because I think y'all will, but I'll tell you this, you've got to do it fast man, because you can't keep missing the window. You've got this window, and you've got to kick that motherf---er in, because if you don't kick the window in, it slams shut. I think y'all can do it and I think y'all will do it, but y'all gotta kick the window in and once you do it once, it's way more likely for you to do it twice than for you to do it once. It's way more likely."
The Chiefs, much to the 49ers' chagrin, have been there before. Not once, not twice, but now three times.
Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, coach Andy Reid, tight end Travis Kelce and other veterans on the roster likely will agree with Green's overarching sentiment.
It's an advantage that Warner and the 49ers would like to experience sooner rather than later.
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