Chelsea FC: Comparisons To 2015 NBA Champions Golden State Warriors

As the Golden State Warriors lifted the Larry O’Brien trophy on Tuesday night, one could not help but think back on the long years of suffering that the Warriors put their fans through. Decades of ineptitude made all the worse by poor decisions by management in drafting players and letting superstars go. A once proud franchise that won a championship in 1975 had become one of the worst teams in the league and were known more for their mediocrity than anything else.

They had a brief glimmer of hope in the early 1990s with Run-TMC and the mid-2000s with the “We Believe” squad that was a great deal of fun to watch but were never taken seriously as title contenders. Today they are the best team in the NBA after one of the best regular seasons in the history of the league and have become one of the best-run franchises as well. They have marketable stars and fully invested owners that delivered a title to a desperate franchise.

Now, doesn’t that sound an awful lot like our beloved Chelsea FC? The Blues won the top flight in 1955 but did not win it again for another 50 years until 2005. They faced years of poor management under terrible ownership that nearly bankrupted the club with their poor decision making. In the 1990s they became a fun team to watch with stars such as Ruud Gullit and Gianluca Vialli, won a few trophies, but were never taken seriously as Premier League title contenders.

New ownership came in to the fold and revitalized the club and in a few years made the Blues a true title contender. They also have marketable stars in Eden Hazard and Oscar and are now one of the biggest clubs in the world. Blue truly is the color in both the San Francisco Bay Area and in West London.

So join us as we compare members of the Warriors’ championship team with the title winners from Chelsea FC.

Next: Steve Kerr