A trip down memory lane... the 1993/1994 Golden State Warriors

[GSWFan1994]

* This was posted on the GB board; just decided to post it here too because I know many folks don't browse there.

Howdy folks,

Here's a thread I've always thinking about making, but somehow ended up forgetting to open... till now.

So, back in the 1993/1994 season, my beloved Golden State Warriors had a ressurgence.

After a disappointing 1992/1993 season (34-48 record), we got the 3rd pick in the draft and did that trade with Orlando for the 1st pick (Penny Hardaway + 3 picks for Chris Webber). Webber went on to winning the ROY award, averaging 17/9/4 + 2 blocks and playing mostly center for us.

We also had a then 2nd year Latrell Sprewell, who averaged 21/5/5 with strong defense, hitting a then-unimaginable 140 3's in the season (a record back then, IIRC), and was named an All-Star and All-NBA 1st team member (!).

Alongside a nice core of a 20-year old Webber and a 23-year old Sprewell, we still had:

- a then 30-year old Chris Mullin who, despite not being anymore a surefire All-Star and All-NBA level player (in the previous 5 seasons), was still a very good starter, coming back from injury in the previous season and averaging 17/6/5;

- a 24-year old Billy Owens (yes, the same one who the team got back from the much maligned Mitch Richmond trade), a really good supporting player, who average 15/8/4 as a 4th option on offense, which a playstyle very similar to Lamar Odom;

- a 28-year old Avery Johnson replacing Tim Hardaway as the starting PG, averaging 11/2/5, giving us steady play; Johnson later on was the starting PG for 1999 title winning San Antonio Spurs;

- a 26-year old Chris Gatling, then in his 3rd season and on the way to being one of the best reserves in the league; just 3 seasons later he was named an All-Star, averaging 19/8 as a bench player for Dallas;

... and, most importantly, we play the entire season without a then 27-year old Tim Hardaway, who was out with a torn ACL, and had been named an All-Star 3 times and All-NBA 2 times in the previous season. A surefire top 15 player, I'd say. Even after returning from the injury in the subsequent season, and being traded to Miami, he still was named an All-Star 2 times and even got an All-NBA 1st team nod in 1996/1997.

With this team, we had a 50-32 record, good enough for 6th in the West, and lost 3-0 in the 1st round of the playoffs to the 3rd seed Phoenix Suns, led by Charles Barkley, who had a 56 pts / 14 boards performance on the series-clinching game.

That was the season in which Michael Jordan had retired to play baseball. The league was up for grabs. We had a Houston/New York Finals.

Hakeem Olajuwon's brilliance was on display. He carried Houston all the way to the end. He had one of the all-time greatest season in NBA's history, winning MVP, Finals MVP, DPOY and being an All-Star, All-NBA 1st team and All-Defensive 1st team. He took your lunch and got sure you knew about it.

Anyways, going into the 1994/1995 season, we had a core of:

Webber
Owens / Gatling
Mullin
Sprewell
Hardaway / Johnson

... plus other spare parts, obviously. But the main 7 players were these ones.

But you guys know what happened:

- Webber got into a fight with Don Nelson for not wanting to play C full time and was eventually traded to the Wizards (for Tom Gugliotta + 3 1st round picks; and Gugliotta was not a bad player, he later went to Minnesota to those early KG teams and was even an All-Star, but he surely was not an all-time talent like Webber);

- Nelson, burned out, ended up resigning;

- Sprewell went into full "**** it" mode and started sabotaging the team, with that infamous choke episode on then coach PJ Carlesimo;

- all in all, the team imploded, many bad trades were mad, many bad picks were made in the subsequent drafts, and there were phenomenally awful teams for roughly two entire decades (except for a couple of years of those "We Believe" squads), until we somehow got Stephen Curry... and the rest is history.

Even up till nowadays, I get myself thinking about what this team could have been, if things were done in a different way regarding the Webber/Nelson feud, and if some injuries didn't happen too.

Would we have had a chance to be a dynasty? A contender year in, year out for the better part of a decade? Or simply a middle of the road playoff team?

I still don't know the answer to this day.

But I know that's the team that got me hooked on the NBA since then.

And that, my friends, is how I met your mother.

[Scoots1994]

If they stayed together and were a TEAM they'd have been good. I don't know that that was possible.

[shazam_guy]

You never know about chemistry. But I remember a distinct feeling in those years that we were literally throwing our potential away.

Nelson was an innovative coach and a very, very good eye for draft talent. But I was never crazy about his work with the Warriors, where he often seemed more interested in proving his theories about the game than getting the most out of the players he had. Yes, he pioneered what we now think of as "small ball", but his two crash-and-burn engagements with the Ws did as much harm as good, or so I believe.

[Stern]

Don Nelson don't know how to coach bigs or defense (Bob Lanier came on board to help). I don't think the roster would be tough enough to play that 90's slow down post up game in the playoff. Even though they traded Billy Owens for Rony Seikaly, I think they still would not have gone too far in the playoff with Nelson's game plan.

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

Webber did not want to play center but also did not want his friend Billy Owens traded for a center. Webber was a prima donna at that stage of his life and was the opposite of a good leader.
The young guys hated Tim Hardaway because Hardaway took Nelson’s side in the fights.
Chris Mullen just got along with everybody and would not take sides.

Warriors got Billy Owens for Mitch Richmond because Owens refused to sign withthe Kings.
Owens was drafted above Dikembe. Imagine if the Warrior traded Mitch Richmond for the Dikembe draft pick and Hardawy and Surunas don’t get injured and Ellie and Askew get resigned. That would be a contender but the Jordan Bulls were an obstacle to chamionships.

[shazam_guy]

Would have been fun to see Dikembe on the Warriors, no doubt.

[shazam_guy]

Would have been fun to see Dikembe on the Warriors, no doubt.

[migya]

That was a big disappointment what followed after that season. Had Hardaway and Marciulionis not gotten injured that team could've gone as far as the wcf. Webber was a sensation, Sprewell broke out and Mullin was still a very good player. They could've been a top 4 team in the West for the rest of the 90s.

[SpreeS]

It was my team, I started from here. Need to have very special abilities to blow up team with this huge amount of talent

Richmond
Sprewell
Hardaway
Mullin
Webber

for

Owens
Cummings/Mills/Starks
Gugliotta/Jamison
Coles/Willis
Dampier/Ferrell

14 time ALL-STAR for others teams/ 0 time ALL-STAR for GSW.

[Quazza]

I started to become interested around the runtmc era but it was the sprewell/Webber combo that really locked me in as a kid.

I was crushed when I bought my weekly copy of Pro Basketball Today (a weekly basketball news paper we got here in Aus ) and Webber had been traded. God that trade wrecked us for years

[CM17]

Didn't they go 8-0 in preseason in 94/95?

I thought they had a chance to become one of the best teams in the league before the Webber trade

[KevinMcreynolds]

probably a WCF ceiling like the Nash/Stat Suns

[shazam_guy]

They would have had to beat the Rockets. Even if Houston benefited from Mike's baseball vacation, that was still a damn good team.

The more I think of it, though, yeah -- that would have been a kick ass WCF if the Ws made it.