Draymond Green Graces Cover of SportsIllustrated, Was Game 1 The SI Cover Jinx?

WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green is now gracing the cover of the June issue of SportsIllustrated (“SI”), with a great in-depth must-read from Lee Jenkins.

“It’s pretty dope,” Green told reporters at practice the day after Game 1 against the Oklahoma City Thunder. “It’s pretty amazing. I sit back and look at that, like, wow, who would have ever thought that this was gonna happen?”

However, being on the cover sometimes has to be taken with a grain of salt. There are dozens and dozens of documented SI “cover jinxes,” although the frequency of jinxes happening to NBA players after appearing on covers has been less than that of other major sports.

So, was the jinx Game 1, or is there something lurking around the corner?

According to a source at SI, the cover issue probably went to print at around the third quarter of Game 1. Ironically, that’s about when the Warriors blew a 14-point lead and turned a 60-47 halftime score into 88-85 heading into the fourth quarter.

“I wouldn’t put too much stock in yet,” said Harrison Barnes when we asked him about it.

On the flipside, Barnes’ idol, Michael Jordan, has been on the cover about fifty times and for all intents and purposes, has remained unscathed from the cover jinx (not counting “Crying Jordan” memes).

And there’s always Stephen Curry to fall back on. He graced the cover twice last Spring, and the Warriors went on to win the 2015 NBA Finals.

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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @sportsillustrated)