History of the Golden State Warriors
On March 2, 1962, in a Warriors game played on a neutral court in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks, a single-game record that the NBA ranks among its finest moments.
Angered by management's failure to pay him certain incentive awards he felt he was due, Barry sat out the 1967–68 season, joining the Oakland Oaks of the rival American Basketball Association the following year.
After a subpar stretch in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the team had a brief resurgence with coach Karl, culminating in a famous 1987 Western Conference Semifinal match against Magic Johnson's Lakers, which is still shown on TV in the NBA's Greatest Games series.
Most notably, the Warriors twice achieved first-round playoff upsets as a seventh-seeded team, first in 1989 when they eliminated Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz, and in 1991 when they took down David Robinson's San Antonio Spurs.
However, coach Don Nelson wishing to get frontcourt players to complement his run-and-gun system, made a trade that broke up the Run TMC core by sending Richmond to the Sacramento Kings for Billy Owens.
The Warriors earned the first overall pick in the 1995 NBA draft, but chose Joe Smith over future all-stars Kevin Garnett, Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse and Antonio McDyess.
After spending two years in the Warriors front office as a special assistant, Chris Mullin succeeded Garry St. Jean and assumed the title of Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations.
Mullin hoped to build the team around Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy Jr., and Troy Murphy—complementing them with experience in Derek Fisher, a free agent signed by Golden State after playing a key role on three championship Lakers squads, Calbert Cheaney, a playoff-tested sharpshooter and Adonal Foyle, an excellent shot-blocker who is perhaps better known for his off-court work as founder of the campaign finance reform organization, Democracy Matters.
Despite the poor play of newly re-signed Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the broken hand of first round draft pick Ike Diogu, the Warriors enjoyed a great start to the 2005–06 season.
They also traded Derek Fisher to the Utah Jazz for guards Devin Brown, Andre Owens and Keith McLeod, and signed training-camp invitees Matt Barnes, Anthony Roberson and Dajuan Wagner.
Fans hoped that the Warriors will eventually find themselves among the NBA's elite with Don Nelson leading a healthy Baron Davis, an ever-improving Jason Richardson, and future stars Monta Ellis and Andris Biedriņš.
Monta Ellis's rise, Baron Davis's solid injury-free season (21.6 points, 8 assists, 4.6 rebounds per game),[14] and an overall improvement in chemistry, led to the good play of the team after Jackson's return.
Days before July 9, when teams were officially allowed to sign free agents, he had verbally agreed to a five-year, $65 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Their record can be largely attributed to the absence of Monta Ellis in the beginning of the season, injuries and the minimal experience of the young players such as C. J. Watson, Rob Kurz, Anthony Morrow and Brandan Wright.
Nelson stated at the beginning of the year that the 2008–09 season would be difficult, but saw tremendous growth among his young players, especially in rookie Anthony Randolph (14th pick in 2008 NBA draft from LSU).
The Warriors were granted another injury exception and signed Reggie Williams from the Sioux Skyforce to a 10-day contract on March 2, 2010, making it their fifth D-League call up this year, tying an NBA record.
They also introduced a modernized version of their "The City" logo depicting the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and switched to a simplified color scheme of royal blue and gold.
The Warriors made an off-season trade that sent Turiaf, Randolph and Azubuike to the New York Knicks in return for star high-scoring power forward David Lee via a sign-and-trade.
The Warriors continued their signing spree by adding Harvard guard Jeremy Lin to their roster with a one-year partially guaranteed contract containing a second-year team option, the first Taiwanese-American player in NBA history.
On July 11, they acquired point guard Jarrett Jack from the New Orleans Hornets in a three-team trade also including the Philadelphia 76ers, who received Dorell Wright from Golden State.
The team finished the 2012–13 season with a record of 47–35, earning the sixth seed in the Western Conference, and defeated the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs by winning four out of six games.
Curry and Klay Thompson, dubbed the "Splash Brothers" by team employee Brian Witt for their backcourt shooting prowess, combined for 483 three-pointers during the season, easily besting the prior record of 435 set by the Orlando Magic's Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott in 1995–96.
The Warriors lost free-agent guard Jarrett Jack, who departed for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and free agent power forward Carl Landry, who went to the Sacramento Kings.
Thanks in part to the improved effectiveness of their backup squad, boosted by the additions of Blake and Crawford and the play of 35-year-old Jermaine O'Neal (who returned sooner than expected from wrist surgery), the Warriors were one of the winningest teams in the NBA after the all-star break.
However, just one day earlier in a loss against the Portland Trail Blazers, Andrew Bogut suffered a cracked rib that would keep him out of the postseason, a big blow to the sixth-seed Warriors' playoff hopes.
It was a first-time head-coaching position for Kerr, 48, a five-time NBA champion point guard who holds the all-time career record for accuracy in three-point shooting (.454).
Kerr formerly served as president and general manager for the Phoenix Suns basketball team (2007 to 2010), and had most recently been working as an NBA broadcast analyst for Turner Network Television (TNT).
The Warriors broke a 131-year-old record of 20–0 set by the 1884 St. Louis Maroons baseball team, to claim the best start to a season in all of the major professional sports in America.
On February 27, 2016, Curry also tied the NBA record of twelve three-pointers made in a single game, jointly holding it with Donyell Marshall and Kobe Bryant.
After the 2019 NBA Finals, the Death Lineup and the "Hamptons Five" era ended when Kevin Durant left the Warriors for the Brooklyn Nets and Andre Iguodala was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies.
