Golden State Warriors named Sports Illustrated's 2018 Sportsperson of the Year

The Golden State Warriors were named Sports Illustrated's 2018 Sportsperson of the Year on Monday.

In this Friday, June 8, 2018, file photo, the Golden State Warriors celebrate after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-85 in Game 4 of basketball's NBA Finals to win the NBA championship, in Cleveland. The three-time NBA champion Golden State Warriors are the fourth team to be honored as Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year, the magazine announced Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. [File photo: AP/Carlos Osorio]

"There are multiple individuals whom Sports Illustrated could have selected as the 2018 Sportsperson of the Year and few would have argued," Chris Stone, Editor-in-Chief of Sports Illustrated, said.

"But it was impossible to overlook the influence that the Warriors, as a collective group, have had on their sport and the broader culture over the last half-decade. They are a generational phenomenon, the likes of which we might not see again for decades."

The Warriors are the fourth team ever and the first since the 2004 Boston Red Sox to win SI's Sportsperson of the Year award. The US men's Olympic ice hockey team in 1980 and the US women's soccer team in 1999 were the other two teams to win the award.