The end of a decade means a time to reflect on many of the events that have transpired over the past 10 years. Everyone begins asking questions of what moments, people and things meant the most over that time frame. What was the biggest news story? The best movie? The most interesting viral video? And here at WarriorsTalk, we’d like to offer up our own question for contemplation: which was the best, most important NBA franchise from 2010 to 2019?

You can probably guess what’s coming next. I’d like to submit the Golden State Warriors for consideration. In the past 10 years, no organization has had more success or made a greater impact on the league and the world.

Although no one knew it at the time, the Warriors’ candidacy for this title began on December 12, 2012, at American Airlines Arena in Florida. They had gotten off to a great start at 14-7, but on that night against the Big Three Miami Heat, they captured the nation’s attention. They hung with the defending champs the entire game before executing a terrific final play, baiting the Heat into a defensive breakdown for a wide-open layup by a rookie Draymond Green with less than a second to go for a 97-95 win. It offered hope to Warriors fans that maybe this team was turning things around, but it also put the league on notice.

For the Warriors, this decade has been defined by Stephen Curry. As he goes, so goes the franchise. If that game against the Heat was the team’s coming out party, a game against the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden two and a half months later was Steph’s personal showcase. In a nationally televised game, he erupted for 54 points and 11 three-pointers while adding six rebounds and seven assists. The Warriors lost the game, but in retrospect, what that performance did for Curry is far more important. Before that day, most basketball fans saw him as that kid from Davidson with ankle injuries. Beginning that night, people realized that he was one of the league’s biggest shooting threats and a force to be reckoned with in the NBA.

That 2012-2013 season culminated in a run to the second round of the playoffs, during which NBA fans were reminded of the Warriors’ massive home-court advantage at Oracle Arena. But for a franchise to be considered the league’s most impactful, they have to prove it not just on the court, but off of it as well. They have to be a draw for top players and a team that gets mentioned regularly in the free agency rumor mill. In the summer of 2013, they became just that. They first turned into legitimate contenders in the Dwight Howard sweepstakes, then bounced back by engineering a complex sign-and-trade for Andre Iguodala. All of a sudden, free agents wanted to play for the Warriors. That hadn’t been the case for a long time.

The following season and the first-round exit that came with it didn’t particularly add to the Warriors’ case as team of the decade. What happened next did. In 2014-2015, under new coach Steve Kerr, the team took off, stringing together a 16-game win streak as part of a 67-15 regular season. As this happened, Curry took over the league. His ability as an off-the-dribble shooter changed offenses and defenses in a way that very few players in recent memory have been able to do. He broke his own record for three-pointers made in a season en route to a much-deserved MVP award. Even with all of that, the league wasn’t giving the Warriors the respect they deserved. Their record may have made them the presumptive favorite, but fans and pundits were overlooking them. They felt like the Cinderella team and the likely champion all at once. That’s what made the subsequent run to the title so much fun. The fact that they closed the playoffs with a Finals win over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers added the perfect cherry on top. To become the best, you have to beat the best. Defeating James in a playoff series did just that.

Of course, to become the best team of an entire decade, you can’t win for just one season. You have to have a period of sustained success. The Warriors maintained their success and then some the following year. They jumped out to a 24-0 start before breaking the NBA’s single-season record with 73 wins. Curry posted one of the best offensive seasons in NBA history for his second straight MVP. Now, everyone wanted to shoot threes and find the next guy who could play like Curry. Kids looked up to him. He led the league in jersey sales. Fans flocked to arenas by the thousands to watch him and his teammates play. Even his pregame routine became a cultural phenomenon. A skinny 6’3” guard had become the darling of the league and a household name, even to people who didn’t watch sports. The Warriors had rapidly risen to become kings of the NBA. 

But when you’re on top, enemies and haters emerge. Harvey Dent said it best: you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. The Warriors were not dead. Now, they were the ones everyone else wanted to beat. Slowly, Curry stopped being a beloved figure and turned into someone to be vanquished. As he played this new role, the franchise did the same. When the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in the 2016 NBA Finals to fall to the Cavaliers, everyone outside of Dub Nation got to rub it in. When they signed Kevin Durant to compensate for the loss, everyone hated them even more. They were no longer just an opposing team. They were perhaps the most disliked team in the league and someone whom everyone could attempt to crush. Other teams circled matchups against Golden State on their calendars. The Warriors knew they would be getting every opponent’s best game.

Even with 29 teams and fanbases actively working against them, they kept rolling. Three more seasons of at least 57 wins, three more Finals appearances, two more championships. They turned Durant from an elite player into an NBA champion and a star Finals performer. The hate in the media and on the internet didn’t stop. Narratives in the news and social media negativity tried to break up a budding dynasty. It didn’t matter to the team as they wrapped up the decade with seven playoff appearances, six 50-win seasons, five Finals appearances and three championships. The latter two are the most by any team in the 2010s.

The Warriors are not the only franchise who can make a case for this award. The Miami Heat defined the early part of the decade. The hype surrounding that team when James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh got together at the same time was unheard of in recent American sports history. The entire league and sports world watched their every move, just as they did for the Warriors. During the decade, the Heat put together a 27-game win streak in 2013, reached the Finals four times and snagged two NBA titles — including the thrilling 2013 series victory over the San Antonio Spurs — as James earned two MVP trophies of his own. The media coverage, social media discussion and cultural impact was nearly at the same level as what the Warriors received.

But the Heat’s success felt more artificial as they created a superteam overnight with the acquisitions of Bosh and James. With one massive exception in Durant, the Warriors built their winning ways largely with homegrown players over time. And in the 2010s, no franchise attracted more attention than the Warriors. No franchise became as socially relevant as the Warriors. No franchise in this decade changed the way that basketball is played as much as the Warriors. And no franchise enjoyed as much success, for both the individual players and the team as a whole, as the Warriors.

The fight to become the best team in the NBA is lengthy, brutal and involves people and organizations both inside and outside of the league. In the case of the 2010s, the Golden State Warriors have emerged at the top, standing alone as Team of the Decade.