The NBA’s Golden State Warriors needed some Game of Thrones inspiration
Inspiration comes in all forms, even when you’ve recently won an NBA title. According to Sports Illustrated, this is the situation that Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr found himself in when trying to motivate his team to begin their 2015-2016 title defense run during this offseason. Kerr reached out to sports website Bleacher Report, whose popular animated short Game of Zones is a spot-on hilarious Game of Thrones parody with an NBA twist. BR did not let the head coach down:
For those of you not familiar with the NBA or the Golden State Warriors, most of the jokes from the video are of an inside nature. However, there are some notable nods that even the most casual of sports fan should recognize. First off, last season’s NBA MVP—Stephen Curry—is reciting Daenerys Targaryen’s line from Season 5, only the joke here is that Curry’s daughter, who infamously took over one of his press conferences, is sitting directly under his arm, and he’s stroking her hair like some deranged pet.
Of course, Game of Thrones fans will notice scenes like White Walkers marching on the Fist of the First Men from the Season 2 finale, and even Miami Heat star Chris Bosh as Drogon from last season. Of course, Steve Kerr takes the role of Ser Alliser Thorne from Season 4’s “The Watchers on the Wall,” and rallies the men of the Night’s Watch to fight the wildling horde.
As mentioned, there are quite a few inside jokes used that really only the Golden State Warriors players would get, but Bleacher Report was kind enough to explain them in detail. Like that punch line at the end of the video: “Iguodala has a saying he always uses (apologies for the vulgarity) when he shoots a jumper that he feels is going in: ‘Hold my [junk]!’ or sometimes it is abbreviated to just ‘Hold it!’” Yeah, I laughed a little too hard at that.