The Golden State Warriors Franchise History

There is a lot of histroy behind this amazing team throughout the years.  The most famous players that played for the Warriors include some of the greatest players of all time. These players include Wilt Chamberlain, Tom Meschery, Al Attles, Rick Barry, Nate Thurmond, Chris Mullin, Adonal Foyle, Guy Rodgers, Jason Richardson, Larry Smith,  Paul Arizin, Mitch Richmond and Chris Webber.  Most of these players still hold franchise records and none of them currently play for the Warriors. The Warriors were founded in Philidelphia Pennsylvania in 1946 as the Philidelphia Warriors. They played for about 6 yearsin Philidelphia until they got relocated to San Francisco and were renamed the San Francisco Warriors and were playing most of their games in the Cow Palace in Daly City.  Then in the 1963-64 season they won the Western Conference title but then losing to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, four games to one. Durng the 1965-66 year they traded Wilt Chamberlain away and got Rick Barry as the first round draft pick and was named Rookie of the Year during his first year in the NBA and then led the team to the NBA Finals were they lost to the team that had replaced them in Philidelphia, the 76ers.  During the 1971-72 season the San Francisco Warriors had now changed their name to the Golden State Warriors and had moved in to the Oaklnad Coliseum Arena were they are also currently located. The Warriors made the playoffs from 1971 to 1977 (except 1974), and won their only championship on the West Coast in 1974–75. In what many consider to be the biggest upset of all time against the very heavily favored Washington Bullets in a four game sweep. Because of the loss of key players such as Barry, Wilkes and Thurmond, to bad trades and retirements, the Warriors would struggle to put a competitive team on the court from 1978-1987 following their time as one of the NBA’s dominant teams during the 1960s and throurgh most of the early and mid 1970s. They would, however, through the draft acquire such standout players such as high-scoring forward Purvis Short (1978), former Georgetown Hoyas point guard Eric “Sleepy” Floyd (1982) (who would later become an All-Star before being traded to the Houston Rockets), and former Purdue University standout center Joe Barry Carroll, (1980) whose once promising career would be short-circuited because of injury, as well as center Robert Parish(1976), whom they would trade to the Boston Celtics in 1980. But then a resurgence came when the Warriors drafted the stand out sharp-shooting small forward out of St. John’s University out of the 1985 NBA Draft, Chris Mullin. Then the Warriors made the 1987 Western Conference Semifinal Match agains Magic Johnson’s Lakers which is still shown on TV on the show “NBA’s Greatest Games” series. Webber, Sprewell and Nelson soon left the team after this and their leaving set the organziation into a tail spin and during the 1994-95 season they struggled to a 30-52 finish. After the Gary St. Jean GM era Chris Mullin took his spot at GM and helped to start rebuilding the broken organization. Chris Mullin made key trades and pickups and hoped to build the team around Jason Richardson, Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy Jr.. Also complementing these three players were Derek Fisher, Calbeart Cheney, Adonal Foyle, Andris Biedrins and Baron Davis who was the first superstar on the Warriors since Chris Mullin himself. They entered the 2005-06 season with a winning percentage for the first time since 1994, but lost their first five games of 2006 and managed to win only 13 more games through the end of March. Star Baron Davis often found himself at odds with coach Mike Montgomery. Furthermore, Davis failed to remain healthy and played in just 54 games. He suffered a sprained right ankle in mid-February and did not return for long before being listed as an inactive player the remainder of the season. The injury-prone Davis had not played a full season since the 2001–02 campaign until the 07–08 season in which he played all 82 games averaging 21.8 points a game (incidentally a contract year). On April 5, 2006, the Warriors were officially eliminated from playoff contention with a 114–109 overtime loss to the Hornets, extending their playoff drought to 12 seasons. Entering the 2006-07 season the Warriors had a strong team wth Don Nelson a healthy Baron Davis,  an ever-improving Jason Richardson, and future stars Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins. Also Mullin had traded for sharp shooting forwards Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson.  On April 18, 2007, the Warriors clinched their first playoff bid since 1994 with a resounding 120–98 victory in their season finale at Portland. The Warriors closed out the regular season (42–40) with a 16–5 ending run. During the run, they beat Eastern top seed Detroit Pistons 111–93, snapping their 6-game losing streak and notching their first win on the tail end of a back-to-back. The Warriors also ended the Dallas Mavericks’ 17-game win streak with five players recording double digits. “We Believe” became the Warriors’ slogan for the last couple months of the season and the playoffs. The Warriors first playoff series was aginst the very heavily favored Dallas Mavericks. The Warriors  eliminated the Mavericks and became the first #8 seed to beat a #1 seed in a seven-game series. This was the Warriors’ first playoff series win in 16 years. The Warriors went on to play the Utah Jazz in the second round of the 2006–07 playoffs. In the end, the physical play of the Jazz simply wore down the smaller Warriors. In the end, the physical play of the Jazz simply wore down the smaller Warriors and the Warriors were eliminated from the playoffs. During the 2007-08 season the Warriors traded away Jason Richardson and with Jackson’s suspension the Warriors had a tough year and did not make the playoffs. During the offseason the Warriors lost Baron Davis to the Clippers and signed 19-year-old center Anthony Randolph, strong forward Corey Maggette, and shot blocking center Ronny Turiaf.  During the 2008-09 season the Warriors traded Al Harrington to the Knicks for Jamal Crawford. As the youngest team in the NBA, the Warriors were ranked second in the league in scoring averaging 108.6 points per game. The Warriors had a disappointing 2008–2009 season, finishing 29–53. Now we are in the midst of the 2009-10 season and the Warriors have drafted Stephen Curry, signed Acie Law and Speedy Claxton,  traded Marco Bellineli for Devon George, and Stephen Jackson and Acie Law were traded for Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmonovic. As you can see the Warriors have a very great history behind them and ab bright future ahead of them.

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