Golden State Warriors History (original) (raw)
Golden State Warriors HISTORY
Quick facts:
Founded: 1946
Arena: Oracle Arena
Division Championships: 12 (1948, 1951, 1956,1964, 1967, 1975, 1976, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
NBA Titles: 7 (1947,1956,1975, 2015, 2017, 2018)
1947 Championship
1956 Championship
1975 Championship
2015 Championship
2017 Championship
2018 Championship
2022
Playoffs: 36
Best Season 2015-16 73-9 (.890) Worst Season 1952-53 12-57 (.174)
Founding of the NBA:
The Warriors were instrumental in the founding of the NBA. In 1946 the Warriors owners Steve Kim and Peter Tyrrel helped convince other owners to fund a new league to compete against the NBL. So in 1946 the BAA was born.
The Warriors would go on to win the first BAA title in 1947 and would return to the BAA finals in 1948 but lose to Baltimore.
The Warriors and the BAA would merge with the NBL following the 1949 season and rename their league the NBA.
First multi-year deal:
The Warriors signed the first NBA draft pick to a multi-year deal when they signed Arnie Gardner to a three year deal following the 1948 draft. Gardner, a star power forward from Utah, played three injury plagued seasons with the Warriors.
Road Trip from Hell
Think modern day road trips are tough? back-to-back games then a day rest to play a third game. Well the 1953 Warriors had a road trip that puts all road trips to shame. Nine games in nine days in nine different cities.
The Warriors road trip started out on Saturday February 21, 1953 in New York City. The Warriors were coming off a three point loss to the Olympians in Indianapolis 3 days prior, and dropped their second game of the trip to the Knicks. The next night they were in upstate New York to face the Nationals, where they lost again. Than they went to Cincinnati to face the Milwaukee Hawks before heading to New York City again to face the Nationals for a second time. Than on the 25th of February they headed to Boston to face the Celtics and quickly caught a flight to Minneapolis to face the Lakers. They faced the Lakers again the next night, but this time in Cleveland. Another quick flight had them facing off against the Hawks again this time in Milwaukee and then finally again to face the Lakers in Saint Paul.
The Warriors did get a day off on March 2nd, but on the third were back in Indianapolis to take on the Olympians and then to Baltimore to face the Celtics. They headed to Trenton, NJ, to face the Royals and back to Baltimore to face the Nationals again. They had a few days off before flying to Louisville, KY to face the Hawks and their road trip came to an end on March 11th in Pittsburgh after playing the Hawks again.
The Warriors finally got to play at home on March 12th against the Knicks, but than went back on the road to finish the season playing the Bullets in Washington and Baltimore before ending the season vs the Celtics in Boston on March 15th.
All-in-all the Warriors played from February 14th until March 15th with only one game in Philadelphia. They went 4 and 18 during that span, which is terrible but the 4 wins in a month was a third of their total season wins that season. The Warriors went 12-57 and missed the playoff for the first time in their franchise history
Wilt Chamberlain:
Wilt Chamberlain revolutionized the NBA and the Warriors. He was a member of the Warriors when he scored his NBA record 100 points. He moved wit the Warriors to San Francisco in 1962 but would leave shortly after.
Denise Long:
In 1969 the San Francisco Warriors made a weird pick. They selected Denise Long, a female high school basketball player, in the 13th round. Long thus became the first high school player picked in NBA history and the first woman picked in the NBA. NBA Commissioner Walter Brown immediately vetoed the pick however.
Long was an accomplished basketball player from Union-Whitten High School in Whitten, IA. She was a prolific scorer who is rumored to have scored over 100 points in several games. However, this cannot be collaborated as she is not listed in the official 100 point games listing for American basketball players.
Long did play for the Warrior Girls Basketball League which the Warriors organization sponsored for one season.
Due to her pick being voided she is not considered to be the first woman NBA draft pick, that honor goes to Lusia Harris who was drafted in 1977 by the New Orleans Jazz.
73 Wins:
The 73 wins by the Warriors in the 2015-16 season is the most wins in a season in NBA history, surpassing the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls record of 72-10 and is only the second time in league history that a team won 70 or more games in a season.
However, unlike the 1996 Bulls, the 2016 Warriors did not win the NBA championship. Losing to the Cavs in 7 games. The 73 wins is also the highest number of regular season wins for a team that did not win the NBA championship, surpassing the 1973 Boston Celtics.
All-star Curiosities:
The Warriors have had their share of weird all-star occurrences. They are the only team who had their head coach be back-to-back all-star head coaches. This happening with Al Attles in 1975 and 76.
The Warriors have also sent 4 all-stars to the same game on 3 different occasions. First doing it in 1968 when they sent Jim King, Clyde Lee, Rudy LaRusso, and Nate Thurmond, and more recently in both 2017 and 2018 when they sent Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson. In both 1968 and 2017 the Warriors sent a fifth member in their head coach as well. Sending 4 all-stars is exceedingly rare, it has only happened 10 times in NBA history and the Warriors make up 30% of those occurrences.
Of those 10 teams, only the 68 Warriors and the 15 Hawks did not win an NBA title either that season, the season before or the season preceding.
The Warriors are on the bad end of a few all-star occurrences as well. Most notably the longest drought for having an all-star in league history. The Warriors went from 1997 when Latrell Sprewell made an appearance at the game until 2013 when David Lee was added as a substitute by the commissioner.
The Warriors have also not had an MVP of the midseason classic since Rick Barry won it in 1967.
First Year Success:
Three of the Warriors five NBA championships have been won by first year head coaches with no other NBA coaching experience. Eddie Gottlieb lead the Warriors to the inaugural BAA championship in 1948. George Senesky would lead the Warriors to their second title in his first year coaching in 1956. Finally, Steve Kerr would guide the Warriors to the 2015 NBA title in his first year.
The Warriors two other titles where won by coaches with experience coaching the Warriors. Al Attles won the franchises third title in 1975 in his sixth year of coaching, and Kerr won his second title and the franchises 5th in 2017 in his third year of coaching.
Back-to-back streak:
The Warriors set a pretty amazing NBA record when they won 146 consecutive games without having back-to-back losses, or two loses in a row. This shattered the previous mark of 95 held by the Utah Jazz. The streak lasted from the middle of the 2014 season until the end of the 2017 season.
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Game advertisement from Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/19/1946, for a game vs the Cleveland Rebels. The Warriors won the game 58-44.
2015 Warriors celebrate their title
1947 Warriors BAA championship ring
Paul Arizin vs the Nationals.
Early Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain and some fans
Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain
Al Attles drives by Gail Goodrich.
Stephen Curry
Steph Curry celebrates his first finals MVP and the Warriors 4th title since 2016.