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Report: Warriors faced meningitis scare before 2017-18 playoffs

Nathaniel S. Butler / National Basketball Association / Getty

Shortly after the Golden State Warriors won their third NBA championship in four seasons, David West left fans with a lingering thought going into the offseason.

"We're so tight, people don't even know what we went through," West said after the team's championship-clinching Game 4 victory. "They trying to find out. ... Y'all got no clue. No clue. That tells you about this team that nothing came out."

West's ambiguous comment was actually alluding to a team-wide meningitis scare in March, just over one month before the playoffs began, league sources told The Athletic's Sam Amick.

An outside vendor responsible for the team's daily food service reportedly caught and nearly died from a contagious form of the disease.

"It was the entire team (that was affected). It was crazy," said West. "It was the heart of the season. It was something that, again, it showed the strength of the organization."

In response, the Warriors took all necessary precautions, from getting vaccinated to sanitizing all of the team facilities.

Former Warriors center Zaza Pachulia recalls the situation being initially tough and "kind of scary."

"Of course in the beginning, everyone was freaked out," said Pachulia. "But after hearing from professionals, (when) doctors talked to us and the team did all the necessary (things), they responded really well, and right away."

"They also told us that the (chances of contracting it were) minimal, where basically we wouldn't get it unless we had physical contact with the (vendor), and we never did. So everything turned out fine."

While some may have panicked, not everyone on Golden State was worried about the possible health crisis.

"I grew up in the hood," said then-Warriors center JaVale McGee. "Meningitis isn't something I'm scared of."

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