Rick Barry and Cliff Ray talk about a long ago title

That was an informative and enlightening start to the Warriors broadcast Sunday night, Rick Barry and Cliff Ray discussing old times past, the Warriors’ 1975 NBA championship sweep of the heavily favored Washington Bullets.

Barry called it, somewhat excessively, possibly the greatest upset in sports. Yes, a bit over the top, but he and Cliff were there.  

So was I, in the press section, which in those days was on the court, not up in the oxygen zone.

Rick said this year’s Warriors team, scrappy and feisty, reminded him of that team that nearly 50 years ago won a title. Then with optimism filling the air and because station KNBR the lost airwaves, the Warriors blew a 15-point lead and lost to the NBA champ Nuggets, 119-103. Here we are still trying to get over the Super Bowl, and the defeats continue to pile up. Who even has a clue where the bedraggled (still in Oakland ) A’s may end up, geographically or in the standings.

And thus far there’s nothing encouraging about the San Francisco Giants, who have scored in only two of the 18 innings they’ve played in the Cactus League. Indeed, they were exhibition games. Or as Allen Iverson might have put it, “we talking about practice, man.” 

And, as we know when the regular season begins every team is 0-0, unbeaten and of course unscored upon. The Giants will remain scoreless, or relatively so, while the dreaded Dodgers will roll up run after run.   

Meanwhile, back in the NBA, the Warriors added a lacrosse player. They didn’t add a player named LeBron James, despite a delicious (and apparently fictitious) rumor the deal was an item.

It was no rumor the Warriors’ Steve Kerr was given a new contract that makes him the highest-paid coach in NBA history. Which is wonderful. Not so long ago, when Draymond was out, and the team was down, those so-called NBA insiders were saying Kerr might be fired at the season’s end. Oh, well, we all make mistakes.

The Warriors are off on a road trip which, not to be too dramatic, is critical to their playoff chances. They’re 10th in the Western Conference, a game and a half behind the Lakers, who still have LeBron.

Nothing is forever in sports or life, but it’s hard to imagine the Lakers, so dominant in the ‘90s, and the Warriors, winners four times starting in 2015, struggling to get in that final playoff spot.

But great athletes in any sport age all too quickly.

Teams draft and trade, hoping and working to bring together the combination which then brings success. But even as a city is staging a victory parade, there’s a newer, younger team, taking over.