Editor’s Note: We’re introducing a new series at SFGATE, tentatively titled “What if ...” The premise is short and sweet, and has long served as the backbone of unknowable, unprovable, endlessly arguable sports debates: What if just one thing (a play, a controversial public comment, a trade, anything) had gone differently for Bay Area sports teams? A split-second juke, a last-minute jump shot, an ill-timed free agent signing — if you erased it or changed its outcome, what sort of butterfly effect would ensue?
The goal of this exercise isn’t to troll other fan bases and platform the sour grapes takes of, for instance, aggrieved Warriors fans who are certain the Dubs could’ve beaten the Raptors in the 2019 Finals had Klay Thompson not gotten injured.