June 22, 2017 Page 3 A Warriors Dynasty Has Officially Arrived in the NBA By Adam Serrao The NBA has been a league that is full of dynasties. In fact, since the 1980 season, only 11 different teams have taken home the championship. That’s 11 teams in 37 years. Professional basketball may not necessarily offer the most parity out of all of the other sports, but teams do figure out ways to simply dominate their opponents. Whether it is the people who work in the front office, the MVP players on the roster, or just a little bit of good luck in the air, the National Basketball Association is a league full of teams that create dynasties. This year, the Golden State Warriors proved that they have what it takes to become the league’s next great dynasty. With Kevin Durant now in the fold and as a team that now has a second championship title in the last three years, it won’t be long before the Warriors add their names to the list of greatest basketball teams ever--if they haven’t done so already. One way to tell that Golden State has a truly great and dynamic team is by looking at their opponents’ play in the NBA Finals that just ended last Monday night at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. In the final four games of the series, the Cavaliers finished by scoring 113, 113, 137 and 120 points in each game, respectively. Despite that massive total of 483 points, LeBron and his Cavs lost three of the four games and the entire series in five games to the Warriors. What this year’s NBA Finals has taught basketball fans is that they may currently be watching one of the most high-powered teams that the league has ever seen--if not the most high-powered. If it’s not Klay Thompson getting it done, it’s Steph Curry, Durant, Draymond Green or even one of the role players from off of the bench like Andre Iguodala, for instance. “Winning a championship is so hard,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “And when you do it, you just get nine months of all this work and you can finally let loose.” Two titles in three years is a remarkable feat and as Kerr says, is extremely hard to do. And as history has shown us all, the difficulty lies in a team’s ability to keep a championship roster intact over the long haul. If Shaq and Kobe actually liked each other, who knows how many championships the Lakers would have won together. Relationships, as well as many other things, go a long way in keeping a championship team together. Fortunately for Golden State, members on the roster can now look back on history--like that of Shaq and Kobe’s--and try not to replicate the mistakes that others have created before them. That starts with Kevin Durant, who already has said that he will refuse a max contract from the Warriors in order to keep the core group of guys together. Heading into next season, the only main players under contract on Golden State are Green and Thompson (and a few bench guys). That means that Durant and Curry will have to work something out in order for them and players like Iguodala and Shaun Livingston to return to the team. Durant has a player option that he will not exercise, giving the Warriors added flexibility under the cap. Curry, on the other hand, will most likely get a max deal in the range of $205 million, and deservedly so. With that huge deal on the books, Durant will have to be pretty unselfish and take a pay cut to get the majority of the team back next season. It has been widely reported that Durant is on board with that idea and as he learned from Shaq and Kobe’s feud in Laker Land, unselfishness can go a long way in terms of accumulating championship rings. Both the players and the front office of Golden State are intelligent enough to hold onto the key pieces of the roster in order to form a preeminent dynasty. That dynasty is in the works. The only question is, how long will it remain? As everyone learned from their recent Finals performance, the Warriors are far and away the best team in the league. Despite some games against LeBron’s Cavaliers being close near the end, Golden State has proven to be light years ahead of even Cleveland as far as talent on respective rosters goes. Cavaliers fans may think it’s a bit unfair, but like Draymond Green said during his team’s championship celebration, “You started the superteam, bro!” LeBron has been teaming up with other great players to win championships for the majority of his career. Durant simply followed suit to prove that he (and the Warriors) can be great too. Las Vegas oddsmakers have already made the Warriors overwhelming favorites to win it all again next year. The only thing that can theoretically stop Golden State now is someone like Thompson or Green getting their feelings hurt and wanting to prove that they can win with a different team, which they undoubtedly wouldn’t do singlehandedly. LeBron is certainly going to re-up in the Eastern Conference and try to recruit more All-Star caliber players to join the Cavaliers. If he can’t get that to happen, he’ll move on again and join another team full of superstars to chase another championship. If there’s one thing about LeBron James that’s certain, it’s that he never stands pat. With a highpowered team like the Golden State Warriors that performs so well on both the defensive and offensive sides of the ball, though, it may not even matter what James tries to do in the future. Golden State’s dynasty has arrived. The only players who can stop them now are each other. Asixlion@earthlink.net • Builders Can’t Find Enough Workers as Construction Surges By Rob McCarthy The Southern California construction business is booming with major improvements at Los Angeles International Airport expected to take years to complete and the Los Angeles Rams football stadium project in Inglewood is breaking ground after a rain delay. Now, comes word the Los Angeles Clippers and their owner Steve Ballmer plan to build his team its own arena nearby in Inglewood, adding to the South Bay’s pro-sports presence. The basketball arena, which Ballmer says would be built near Century Boulevard and Prairie Avenue, could seat 20,000 fans and be finished in time for the 2023 season, according to published reports. The Clippers currently play at Staples Center, but they are the third pro sports tenant there behind the Lakers and the Kings of the National Hockey League. Having an NBA team in Inglewood again could save South Bay basketball fans the drive into downtown Los Angeles to see a game. It could also get the ball rolling on more vocational training, which contractors say is needed because they can’t find enough workers to meet current projects in the area. May employment in the construction trades was the highest in nine years, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. The trade group reported a spike in hiring nationally with 11,000 more construction jobs added ahead of the summer. Southern California is the epicenter for the construction boom that is raising workers’ take home pay as union and non-union tradespeople find themselves and their skills in demand again. The building boom has created a labor shortage, which the construction industry says could be alleviated by more emphasis by local school officials on career and technical training programs. Jobs at construction sites in California and elsewhere are going unfilled, and many offer good salaries and require only a high school diploma or the equivalent to land them. Lawmakers and labor and education officials can do something to address the shortage of qualified construction workers by funding and reinvigorating career and technical education programs, the leader of the nation’s building trade group says. “It is time for elected officials to get the world out to students that construction offers high-paying jobs with upward mobility,” said Stephen E. Sandherr, chief executive officer for the Associated General Contractors of America. With more major building projects in the pipeline in the Los Angeles area, his group is worried that high school and middle school students aren’t aware of the career opportunities in carpentry, drywall installation, concrete and other skilled labor for home and commercial construction jobs. Construction officials said construction labor shortages were becoming more severe in many parts of the country after years of under-investment in career and technical education programs, formerly known as vocational education. They are urging the Congress and the White House to take steps to increase funding and flexibility for the Perkins Act, which provides federal funds for career and technical education. They also urge state and local leaders to make it easier for construction companies and local trade associations to create regional recruiting and training programs. The heaviest demand for builders is in California, pushed by the LAX modernization work and the start of the NFL stadium and entertainment complex in Inglewood. California contractors added 38,000 jobs in a year, according to the latest figures from April. Here in Los Angeles County, 5,800 tradesmen and women were working again in the spring as building projects got underway--a sign that the region has shaken off the economic drag of the 2007 housing crisis. Contractors are creating jobs faster than the overall U.S. jobs economy, according to recent government data. Foremen are working their crews longer hours, but paying overtime is only a temporary solution for now. Contractors kept employees on the job longer because firms couldn’t find enough skilled and qualified people for their projects, according to the building trade association’s economist. But, more projects such as the newly announced Inglewood arena for the Clippers would make the labor shortage even The LAX modernization project started in 2009 and the work is expected to last through 2023, creating more than 120,000 construction jobs per year. (Photo Provided by Los Angeles World Airports) worse and likely cause delays and scheduling headaches for project managers and their clients. “If the labor market remains tight, firms may have to adjust their business practices as they shift limited personnel from one project to the next,” said Ken Simonson, the trade association’s chief economist. California construction companies could look out-of-state for skilled labor. However, there will be competition for experienced tradespeople. Thirty-nine states, including ours, are experiencing their own construction booms and doing more hiring, according to government labor reports. Two states experiencing sharp downturns in construction hiring are Illinois and Mississippi, where the sector lost 6,600 and 3,600 jobs, respectively, in April. The Illinois state government is dealing with a massive budget crisis, which has idled all non-essential activities and state-funded construction projects. There are other state labor pools ripe for cherry-picking by Southern California contractors. The largest construction job losses are happening in the Houston metro area (7,600 jobs), followed by St. Louis (4,000 jobs) and the Chicago area, which is down 3,800 jobs in the latest data. Skilled labor also can be found in the West near Casper, Wyoming, which experienced a 21 percent drop in employment. Double-digit job losses are happening in the Midwestern states of Michigan and to the East in Trenton, New Jersey and Charleston, West Virginia, the data shows. Construction workers are averaging nearly 40 hours per week, and hourly pay had climbed to $28.55 as of May. The building industry says pay in the trades is typically nine percent higher than what people earn in the private sector. Demand is highest for homebuilders, where employment nationwide was up nearly five percent in May. Demand for labor in nonresidential construction and heavy and civil engineering work is increasing, but at a slow rate of 1.7 percent in a year-over-year comparison. Private sector projects have triggered the building boom. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California (14,600 jobs, 16 percent) added the most construction jobs over the past year, followed by Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida (8,900 jobs, 13 percent), data shows. Other construction hot spots are Las Vegas- Henderson-Paradise, Nevada (8,500 jobs, 16 percent); Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia (6,800 jobs, six percent) and San Diego-Carlsbad, California (6,300 jobs, eight percent). Association officials cautioned that public See Construcion, page 7 Do you or a loved one struggle on the stairs? AN ACORN STAIRLIFT IS A PERFECT SOLUTION FOR: Arthritis and COPD sufferers Those with mobility issues Anyone who struggles on the stairs ü ü ü THE PURCHASE OF A NEW STAIRLIFT! 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