A Look Back At What Life Was Like Before The Warriors Ruined Everything
If you can believe it, there was a time when the Golden State Warriors hadn’t ruined basketball yet. After making their 5th straight Finals I know that can be hard to believe but it’s true. The year was 2013-14, and the 51 win Warriors lost in the first round in seven games to the Lob City Clippers. That team had a 2nd year player in Harrison Barnes, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson. We didn’t know it at the time, but this would be the last season we would see this group not make a Finals together for the foreseeable future.
So because it feels like another lifetime ago that this team wasn’t in the final round competing for another championship, I wanted to look back down memory lane and relive what life was like way back in 2013-14. Even though it was only 5 years ago it’s crazy how much has changed since then. Maybe you were still in your mid 20s, maybe you were still in college living the dream, a lot of life stuff can change over that timespan despite the Warriors being the one constant through it all. Hopefully you enjoy this blast from the past.
Billboard Year End #1 Song: Thrift Shop by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ft Wanz
You remember this song? Shit was everyyyyyyyywhere in 2013. It ended up being 1 of his 2 #1 hits so you could argue it’s perhaps Macklemore’s most successful song of his career to date. I’ll admit, it still bangs after all these years and you’re lying if you disagree. It actually finished ahead of Blurred Lines back in 2013 in the charts and yes the only reason I mentioned that was so I could link you the video. You’re welcome. Can’t mention 2013 and leave that bad boy out, that’s blogging 101.
#1 Box Office Movie: The Hunger Games – Catching Fire
Hand up, I’ve never seen any of the Hunger Games movies. Not that I’m opposed to it, I am just a cheap Jew who hates spending money on movie tickets so there are a shit ton of movies I haven’t seen. One thing I do know though is Jennifer Lawrence is a goddamn smoke and the movie made $424,668,047 so it was clearly a big deal. It beat out movies like Iron Man 3 and Frozen which is pretty damn impressive. This was the second of the four films, and the series made over $2.9B which seems like a pretty good return on the $495M investment.
The Miami Heat won the title
Aight fuck that. Let’s move on.
Lance Armstrong admits to doping
So much has gone on since 2013 I almost forgot this happened. At the time though I’m not sure there was a bigger story in sports than when Lance Armstrong finally came clean about his doping after decades of denials. I actually got into a debate with one of my college buddies who is a big time Brady hater as to what would be the bigger story. If we learned Brady juiced or when Lance got caught? I said Lance was the bigger story but I could hear the other side. I mean there wasn’t too many American heroes bigger than Lance Armstrong and to learn that all 7 of his titles came with doping was a gigantic ordeal. We talked about him like he was the greatest athlete in the history of humans, and it was all tainted. That’s tough.
Playstation 4 and Xbox One were released
As someone who rocked their PS3 for wayyyy to long until Gamestop had a refurbrished PS4 at a good price, this was a big year for me personally. I was never allowed to have video games as a kid until my bar mitzvah when one of my parents friends got me the original Playstation with March Madness 2001 so Playstations will always have a special place in my heart. I remember when I got my first PS4 I felt like my whole world had changed. Is that sad? Yup no question, but this was a big moment for a lot of people.
Google Glass is invented
Remember how this shit was supposed to change the world? Have you seen ONE person rock Google Glass since it came out in 2013? I haven’t. Maybe this is a thing in Silicon Valley or something but I legit cannot remember seeing a real life human rock these at any point over the last 5 years.
Miley Cyrus twerked all over Robin Thicke’s dick
Self explanatory right here. You may never believe this but people got really upset with Miley Cyrus over this and we had to endure all these discussions about over sexualization of women in pop music. I won’t get into all that, but I think it was around this time that we all collectively said Miley was BACK.
The Red Sox won the World Series
Much, much better. Pretty interesting the Sox were winning World Series before the Warriors dominance and here we are and they’re still winning World Series titles 5 years later. They won 69 (nice but not nice) games the year before, came out and won 97 that year which was great because they would go on to miss the playoffs immediately following this title for the next two years. Everyone ended up hating John Farrell by the end of his tenure, but he’ll always have that 2013 ring.
Cost of living in 2013
Average Cost of New House: $289,500.00
Cost of a Gallon of Gas: $3.80
Movie Ticket: $10.25
Dozen Eggs: $1.88
Loaf of Bread: $1.98
The LA Kings won the Stanley Cup
Their second Cup in three years with a conference finals trip in between, the Kings were one of the best teams in the NHL back in 2013. They finished the year with their 5th most points in franchise history and won three Game 7s on the way to their title which they won over the Rangers. They missed the playoffs the next season and haven’t really been a factor since, but they’ll always have that three year run.
The Ravens won the Super Bowl
They’ve been mostly irrelevant since, but you have to credit Joe Flacco for the run he went on in 2013. It earned him that ridiculous contract that basically handcuffed the Ravens from that point forward, but that playoff run was pretty incredible. You may remember this as the year the Harbaugh brothers faced each other in the Super Bowl and then the lights went out which was fishy. Since then they have just 2 playoff appearances, one a loss in the Divisional Round and the other in the Wild Card Round and now Flacco isn’t even on the roster, so life comes at you fast. They’ll always have that SB though.
Boston Marathon Bombing
A day every person in Boston will remember forever. I remember being mad I actually had to work this day and couldn’t be at the festivities, then frantically running from downtown crossing through Haymarket and back to my apartment in the North End. There was sheer panic and chaos everywhere you looked, nobody knew what the hell was going on, and it was one of the scariest situations I’ve ever been a part of. The tragedy brought this city together like nothing I had ever seen before, and I dare you to watch that Bruins video and not get chills. Impossible.
As you can see, a lot has happened since the last time the Warriors were not in the NBA Finals. It sure as shit doesn’t look like that’s coming to an end anytime soon. This is our new normal. Water is wet, the sky is blue, and the Golden State Warriors play in NBA Finals. Wash, rinse, repeat.