Now that Kevin Durant will be donning a Warriors uniform next season, Golden State is the heavy favorite to win the title in 2017.
Although there are still many people outside the Bay Area who will be rooting for the Warriors, a large number of basketball fans will be passionately hoping Golden State falls short of a championship.
Can Steph Curry and his teammates handle being hated?
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"In most arenas, we had a strong contingent of Warriors fans," Curry told Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group. "But as far as being hated, all the noise stays out of our locker room. We focus on what we have to do.
"We have experience dealing with it. We were the villains (in the Finals) so we will be more prepared. But all that matters is what goes on in our locker room."
At his introductory press conference on Thursday, Durant explained how he felt a "genuine, organic, real, authentic" connection during his meeting with the Warriors last Friday in The Hamptons.
Golden State Warriors
"We were just ourselves," Curry told Thompson. "All we did was pretty much talk. We told him how things would be, how we operated and how he would fit in. He would fit right in. He’s a team guy. That’s who he really is. We told him he wouldn’t have to change anything and we wouldn’t have to change anything for him. He just fits right in.
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"We just told him to do what is best for you. We wanted him, that’s why we were all there. But we wanted him to do what was best for him. At the ed of the day, he made a decision that he thought was best for him."
This won't be the first time Curry, Durant and Andre Iguodala are teammates. The three played together for Team USA during the summer of 2010. They formed a strong bond and it lasted over the past six years.
"In 2010, playing on the world team in Turkey, I always admired the way he (Curry) moved, the way he approached the game, the way he loved the game and the way he approached his teammates and no ego involved," Durant told CSN Bay Area's Jim Kozimor. "It drew me to him -- him and Dre (Iguodala) -- that summer we were kind of together all the time.
"We either found our way to eat at the same table, or go shoot at the same court, or go to chapel. It just felt like that relationship was so natural and felt good to be around great people like that."
What about the whole "villain" thing?
"We live in this superhero, comic book world, where you're either a villain or you're a superhero in this position, and I know that," Durant explained. "I know I haven't changed as a person. I don't treat people any different because I made a decision to play basketball in another city."