The Golden State Warriors’ Championship Offense Was Created on a Charcuterie Plate

Head coach Steve Kerr diagrammed early idea for team's offense for airport bartender.

Golden State Warriors Vote to Skip White House Visit

The Golden State Warriors celebrate with the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 129-120 in Game 5 to win the 2017 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 12, 2017 in Oakland, California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

By Will Levith

The Golden State Warriors’ offense is filthy good. That’s led the team to its most recent championship, and one more, back in 2015. After adding Kevin Durant to the team before the 2016-17 season got underway, many wondered out loud if they’d ever be beaten again.

Just how did the world’s best offense come to be?

As ESPN The Magazine‘s Baxter Holmes writes, it all started in the most surprising of places: an airport Italian restaurant and bar in Oakland, California, in 2014, where Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr and assistant Bruce Fraser sat down for some wine and a charcuterie plate.

The bartender that day was Kevin Ninkovich, a rabid Warriors fan. Ninkovich summoned the courage and asked Kerr if he was going to be tweaking the Warriors’ offense. Kerr then showed Ninkovich his rough plans by diagramming them on the charcuterie board, using cranberries and almonds to signify “two five-on-five teams in a half-court setting.”

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