Famous FC Barcelona Tactic Influenced Warriors, Steph Curry Says
The Golden State Warriors have become a dominant force, led by star player Stephen Curry. The team clinched NBA titles in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022, proving nearly unbeatable at their peak.
Steve Kerr's Coaching Impact
Much of the Warriors' success is credited to head coach Steve Kerr, who joined in 2014. Kerr introduced subtle changes to their offensive approach, drawing inspiration from FC Barcelona's tiki-taka style under Pep Guardiola. This method focuses on quick ball movement and fluid positioning to create opportunities.
"He was like, 'I just wanna make a couple of tweaks to the way that we're creating shots,'" Curry explained on the Mind the Game podcast with LeBron James and Steve Nash.
During training camp, Kerr shared a video of Barcelona's tiki-taka, describing it as a philosophy for generating shots by keeping the defense under constant pressure, forcing them to make multiple decisions.
"So, once we got in training camp, he showed a clip of Barcelona tiki-taka, and he was talking about that as a philosophy of how we're gonna create shots, how we're gonna keep things simple, make the defense have to make a million decisions in a possession, so that you can find the right shot," Curry said.
The team initially found it challenging to adapt, especially learning to play without set plays and instead letting the ball movement guide their positioning.
"It took a minute to be comfortable with not calling a play and just letting the ball kind of dictate where you're supposed to be," Curry added.
Summary
The Warriors’ outstanding success under Steve Kerr incorporates FC Barcelona’s tiki-taka philosophy, emphasizing fluid ball movement and spacing to outsmart the defense and create high-quality shots.