There was a night last spring when the Warriors made some people very unhappy by not playing either of their star guards, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, in a game at Denver. One fan took to Twitter to say he'd spent $250 on tickets; the game was the site of a birthday party for his son. Another fan reportedly said he'd driven his family eight hours from South Dakota for Curry's one-and-only appearance in Denver.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr felt bad enough about the whole thing to write emails to three unhappy customers. He offered his sympathy, but no apology.
Curry and Thompson needed a break, Kerr said, and he wasn't acting on a whim. He had hard evidence that led him to his unpopular decision. Resting Curry and Thompson that night, as well as Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut, was backed by data culled from new technology employed by the team.
The Warriors lost that night in Denver. But they won the war. In their first championship season since 1975, the Warriors had fewer minutes lost to injury than any other team in the league, according to an ESPN study.
The correlation between health and technology is less clear, but the Warriors don't see it as mere coincidence. They swear by the devices they wear.
"All those things played a role in our team being rested going into the Finals, no one being hurt all year, which you could say helped us win a championship," Iguodala said.
Tech devices cannot be worn by players during games, in accordance with the current labor contract between players and owners. But practice is fair game.
One tool used by the Warriors is a wireless GPS device. Small (about the size of a car remote) and lightweight, the device is worn inside a compression shirt, positioned between the shoulder blades. Manufactured by an Australian company called Catapult Sports, the device tracks micro-movements in real time, providing instantaneous monitoring of accelerations, changes in directions, heart rates and force applied on knees and ankles. The Warriors use the data to measure the practice workload of players and monitor fatigue that could increase the risk of injury.
