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Stephen Curry and the Warriors celebrate winning the 2021 NBA Championship.
When fans open the reimagined NBA app starting Tuesday, Sept. 27, they’ll be treated to wall-to-wall content from every NBA game, social-style vertical video stories, unprecedented player and team access, new original programming and existing favorites, as well and free access to the NBA Vault.
A highlight of the new content is “Gold Blooded,” a seven-part documentary chronicling the Golden State Warriors’ journey to the 2022 NBA Championship. The series features exclusive never-before-seen footage and interviews with team executives, coaches and players, including the big three of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The first two episodes of the series are available upon launch of the app, with new episodes released every Tuesday and Thursday until the start of the regular season.
“We usually do a movie at the end of the year, a one-off look back at the team that won the NBA championship,” said Dion Kokoros, the director of “Gold Blooded.” “For us to be able to break this down into seven parts, it allowed, so be innovative in how we tell the story. So it was exciting not only to tell the story of the Warriors, which is an incredible journey to the title, but also to do something different and innovative at the same time.”
After two seasons of failure and struggle, the Warriors are healthy again, with high hopes heading into training camp.
NBA Entertainment has been documenting basketball greatness for decades. They have captured the best moments, players and teams in the NBA and told the stories of many championship teams. What was once a VHS tape has become a DVD; what was DVD became Blu Ray; then it moved to TV and streaming services and the distribution changed a bit. The Last Dance was a 10-episode series chronicling the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls that aired over five weeks in 2020 and became a hit during the pandemic as the world was starved for new content. And now the story of the 2022 NBA champion Warriors will be told in a similar way.
“Our goal is to give the fans an individual enough look at some of their individual stories about the team, but overall tell the story of the team’s journey,” Kokoros said. “So it’s like two parallel stories. This is the continuing journey of the Warriors’ quest to win the title. But then there are these separate chapters: let’s look back at how Klay got back on the court; here is andrew wiggins, a new player in the team, what is his role? Steph broke the 3-point record while we were there in New York. How do we weave that into the storyline?’
The first episode looks back at the devastating end to the 2019 NBA Finals for the Warriors and the string of setbacks they suffered over the next two seasons, while at the same time the 2022 team returns to open training camp with a sense of renewed hope and purpose.
The second episode not only covers the first 20 games of the season and recaps Golden State’s unexpectedly hot start, but also focuses on Draymond Green’s play and how his energy is as crucial to Golden State’s success as any 3-point shot from Curry and Thompson.
Future episodes will focus on Curry’s pursuit of Ray Allen’s record for most three-pointers in NBA history; Klay Thompson’s 941-day journey back to the court after a tough recovery from both a torn ACL and torn Achilles tendon; the Warriors’ return to the playoffs, starting with Curry coming off the bench as the big three played just 11 minutes combined all season; the Warriors’ return to the NBA Finals stage; and ultimately how they overcame a 2-1 deficit to beat the Boston Celtics and win their fourth title in eight seasons.
“I think fans are going to have an amazing viewing experience because of how we’ve broken it up,” Kokoros said. “That was also the biggest challenge, because where do you end an episode? Where does it stop and where does it begin? We tried to make sure there were cliffhangers at the end of every episode and not for any other reason, but that’s how their season went.”
Just as Thompson returned to the court in January, Green was sidelined for an extended period of time; just as Green returned in March, Curry suffered an injury that sidelined him until the playoffs. “There were these natural obstacles that the team had to overcome and fit perfectly into each episode. So each episode hopefully makes you want to come back for the next one to see how it plays out,” Kokoros said.
The Warriors have opened the doors to NBA Entertainment cameras, microphones and producers all season long to document the team as it strives to return to its championship standard established over the past decade.
“You can’t make a story like this without two key factors: an incredible NBA Entertainment archive, which we obviously had because the team won four titles in the last seven years; and team collaboration,” Kokoros said. “I can’t stress enough how this only works if the Warriors give us season-long access like they did to document the trip.” So they played a huge part in not only winning the title but also allowing us to have access to the team to tell the story.”
Not only did the Warriors sit down for interviews after winning the title, reflecting on the previous nine months and the journey from training camp to the championship, but they also let the cameras record the journey in real time throughout the season.
When NBA Entertainment went behind the scenes with the Warriors in December, February and May, there were a lot of question marks about their chances to win the title, and the cameras and microphones were able to capture those moments authentically in the moment, not through the pink championship cups after the trophy has been raised and the champagne has run dry.
It’s not just fans getting incredible access to this championship season — behind the scenes with Curry at Madison Square Garden when he broke the 3-point record, on the boat with Captain Clay as he discusses his relationship with the water that served as therapy for him during the his long return to court; Draymond discusses how his kids motivate him to keep playing at his best – and there are great flashbacks using the NBA’s extensive vault of content.
Not only do we see Curry’s 2,974th career three-pointer to break Allen’s record, but it also goes back to Curry’s first three-pointer on Oct. 30, 2009, when he was a baby-faced rookie out of Davidson, long before he changed the way he played basketball plays today and for generations to come.
This goes back to embracing the new docu-series format and using each episode to not only stay within the chronological timeline of the season, but also go back in time to highlight an individual player’s timeline and show where they started and how he got to this point in his championship season.
Guiding fans through this remarkable story is Warriors veteran/forward Andre Iguodala, who serves as the narrator of “Gold Blooded.” Iguodala was a part of Golden State’s first three titles this season — winning Finals MVP in 2015 and being a key contributor in 2017 and 2018. However, Iguodala was traded after Golden State lost to Toronto in the 2019 Finals .After spending two seasons with the Miami Heat, Iguodala returned to the Warriors for the 2021-22 season.
The idea for Iguodala to be the narrator came to Kokoros while watching the Warriors play the Celtics in the NBA Finals from his seat in the arena.
“I noticed that even though he wasn’t playing as much, he was just as involved, if not more involved, off the bench,” Kokoros said. “I noticed that every time there was a timeout, he would grab one of the young guys — whether it was [Jordan] Poole, or Wiggins, or [Jonathan] Kuminga – and really, really motivate them and train them.
“I thought there were other ways to contribute to the team than just points and rebounds and assists on the floor. And I said, here’s a guy who came back, probably because he wanted one last run, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. And there it is, in the finals, it completely opens up for the younger guys who had experience for the first time. And I said if they win, he’ll make a great storyteller.
Kokoros’ instinct was right, as Iguodala shines as the docuseries’ narrator, offering his unique perspective on the story and guiding fans through the ups and downs of not just this season, but this entire Warriors championship window.
There is a unique challenge in building a documentary series around an event where the series’ target audience already knows how the story ends. It’s like watching Titanic and knowing before you hit play that the ship is sinking at the end. Or hearing Aaron Burr’s character close the opening song of “Hamilton” announcing that he’s the one who shoots Hamilton at the end. Drama isn’t about the end result, it’s about the journey of building up to that end result.
“Our surprise opener to the show is Steph Curry telling you this is the number four title, we’re not hiding it, the first thing you see is the Warriors winning,” Kokoros said. “Now let’s go back seven episodes and tell you how we got here.”
Every championship season has its trials, tribulations and ultimately its triumphs. With “Gold Blooded,” fans will be able to recount each of these moments in greater detail than ever before.
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