This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

You may not like the way the Golden State Warriors became the glorious thing that they are, much of which was achieved through acumen, terrific draft picks and just plain smart decisions by management. It was that last move, though, that got you. The signing of Kevin Durant was the one that transformed the Warriors from a remarkably beautiful specimen into the most beautiful specimen, not just in this particular pageant, but perhaps in any and all pageants ever held.

That final bit of enhancement was legal and all. The Warriors lured in the great free agent, following the NBA's rules. It just didn't seem fair, competitively speaking, to add one of basketball's top three talents to a group that would have won its second straight title last postseason were it not for a strange confluence of happenings that prevented it.

Nothing's preventing anything this time around.

The Warriors are the most comely thing seen on the court in a long, long, long time. And that kind of beauty sometimes begets resentment, especially from those who don't possess it.

There's gorgeous, and then there's too gorgeous.

And that's exactly what the Warriors are.

They're so good that the only time they're not is when they get bored with standard ball and start doing risky-stupid things simply to scintillate their own senses.

Steve Kerr said it right when he attributed his team's second win, after the Warriors took a 2-zip lead over the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, to unadulterated talent. The execution wasn't perfect, but man, that talent was.

So what is there to do about a team that won't win a championship on the court over the next week or so, rather it won that championship last summer, when Durant came aboard a ship that already floated better than any other?

There are two choices, dressed out in various garb: Envy it or appreciate it. Hate it or marvel at it. Cry about it or watch it and remember.

The latter is the way to go.

This is a team you'll be telling your grandkids about one day: Gather 'round, you young'uns, and hear the tale of Durant, one of the NBA's best-ever players, and Curry, one of the NBA's best-ever shooters, and Draymond Green, one of the NBA's best-ever defenders, and Klay Thompson, one of the NBA's best-ever two-way players. This is a team by which to mark the posts of the path of your existence.

Like a great song heard over and over on the radio, etched into the far reaches of your brain, you will look back and think on where you were in life when the song played, when the Warriors won the 2017 NBA title. How old you were, who you were in love with, what station in life you were at, how old the kids were, the specific pets you owned, where you lived, how you lived, how you felt.

That's what the greatest of teams in sports do: They are the mileposts of our lives.

And when some youngster or group of youngsters in the future, the ones too early on to have witnessed these Warriors, not with any discerning eye, talk about how spectacular the team of their time is, how it's the absolute best of the best, filled with a bunch of kids who haven't yet been born, you will look at them like the nitwits that they are, and say, "Let me tell you about what I saw back in June of '17."

You'll say it. You will.

And you'll say it with pride, like you saw something extraordinary. And you did.

That's the thing about bona fide great teams. Somewhere, at some time, they go from being despised, envied, loathed to being absorbed into our own experience. Right now the Warriors belong to the Bay Area and to a bunch of Lakers fans who can't bear the sight of their own team, so they go with the champs. In time, these Warriors will belong to all of us.

They'll belong to the ages.

They are going up against one of the two best players ever to bounce, pass, shoot and rebound a basketball. To eyes that have been watching the game for more than half a century, eyes that saw Bill Russell play, Wilt Chamberlain play, Oscar Robertson play, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar play, Magic Johnson play, Larry Bird play, Michael Jordan play, Kobe Bryant play, LeBron James stands alongside MJ in singular abilities.

And the Cavaliers are the defending champions, the ones who took advantage of those weird circumstances last year, a worthy test for Golden State. They may yet put up more of a challenge. We'll see.

But the Warriors are something else. They are something not to hate, rather something to remember.

Not that every basketball fan of other teams should run out, like those Lakers fans have, and buy a Steph jersey. That crosses over from appreciation to betrayal. No need for that, unless you are feeling so low about yourself and your team that you desperately must associate yourself with a winner. Only if your dauber is that far down.

Otherwise, watch and etch into your memory banks the greatness on display here. It is most rare.

It's worth noting, worth acknowledging, worth appreciating, worth remembering, and, ultimately, in some small measure, worth owning.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM. Twitter: @GordonMonson.