Chapter 7: The Fury of the Mad Man
In the 1992 All-Star Game, Tim Hardaway generously gave up the position of All-Star starter to Johnson, a Magic who was diagnosed with AIDS, and made a good story, before the 1993-1994 season began, the team came out with bad news, Tim Hardaway hit his left knee during team training and tore the cruciate ligament, surgery, and season reimbursement, which fully shows that good people are not good to repay this heavenly reason, China is like this, the United States is like this, this season the Warriors made a shocking deal, They gave Orlando the No. 3 rookie in 1993 Anthony Hardaway and a three-year first-round pick in 1996, 1998, and 2000 in exchange for 1993 No. 1 pick, Chris Webber.
Webb is 206 cm tall and plays power forward, he spent college at Michigan State University, and he formed a team with Juwan Howard, Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson and Jamie King to this day - the Michigan Five Tigers, and Chris Webber is the leader of the Five, he is a talented and talented player, he not only has a strong scoring ability, but also can dribble, pass, and even organize offense - whether it is fast break, silhouette or positional warfare. Webber is at ease, and this kind of player is exactly the kind of player that Nelson Sr. has been dreaming of, so he will use almost any cost to get Webber to his hands.
In his first season with the Warriors and the first season for Webb to start the NBA, he gave the whole league a taste of what it means to be dominant, averaging 17.5 points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.2 steals and 2.2 blocks per game, shooting 55.2% from the field! This performance earned him the Rookie of the Year trophy without any suspense, and for the Warriors, they finally have a big man to rely on, and Sprewell has become the team's attacking arrow this season. He averaged 21.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.2 steals per game, which is completely the level of the league's first-line guards, Chris Mullin began to gradually develop in the direction of mentor as he got older, he played 62 games this season, but only 39 starters averaged only 16.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game, and Avery Johnson, who was known as the "little general" from the Spurs, became the team's No. 1 choice. He is averaging 10.9 points and 5.3 assists per game.
The 1993-1994 season is known as the most difficult devil's season in history, with 30 teams in the NBA league, and 10 of them have won more than 50 games this season! The Warriors have a good 50-32 record this season, but such a record can only be ranked sixth in the West, and the first-round opponent is the Phoenix Suns, who won 56 wins in the regular season.
The Suns, who have Charles Barkley, played to the Finals last year, and lost six games with the Bulls led by Michael Jordan, and the Golden State Warriors at that time were still so far behind the Suns' lineup, and finally the Warriors were swept out by the Suns 0:3, Barkley averaged 33.3 points per game and grabbed 13.3 rebounds, completely blowing up the Warriors' interior line, including the third game Barkley blasted 56 points and 14 rebounds, this game was also selected by the famous American basketball channel ESPN as the top 20 wonderful games in 2000, and it was also the only game selected by the Warriors. Warriors star Chris Webber played dismal in three games, averaging only 15.7 points, 8.7 rebounds and a team-high 9.0 assists per game, Webber couldn't limit Barkley at all on the defensive end, which also made the young Webber have a shadow in his heart, after the end of the season, Webber no longer wants to fight against those muscles in the league, in other words, he doesn't want to play the No. 5 position anymore, so he decided to jump out of the contract to force the team to trade himself, the general manager of the Warriors is Nelson Sr., He noticed that Webber's best friend on the team was Billy Owens, so the old Nelson concluded that Webb's request for a trade was a bad idea from Owens, so the old Nelson sent Billy Owens to the Heat and got Heat center Ronnie Secoli, which means that Webb can play his favorite power forward next season, but when Webb saw that his good friend was traded away, he was even more angry, and he was incompatible with the old Nelson, with me without him, with him without me! In the end, the Warriors had no choice but to trade Webb, and they sent Webber to Washington in exchange for Tom Gugliotta and three first-round picks in 1996, 1998 and 2000, all three of which ended up in the lottery area, the 11th pick in 1996, the 13th pick in 1998, and the 7th pick in 2000, with one Webb, in exchange for three lottery rookies, the deal didn't look like a loss, and the Warriors' management was ecstatic, Then he used these three draft picks to fully prove to the world that he was not only mentally cloudy, but also blind.
In the 1994-1995 season, the Warriors still can't do without these two words - injuries, have you found it, this Warriors team is like being unlucky, whenever the team has enough personnel, enough running-in, and starts to produce results, it will always fall on injuries, and the blood mold that can't be poured for eight lifetimes will always be caught up by the Warriors, Chris Mullin only played 25 games, Trade Weber's chip Tom Gugliotta can average 10.9 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, but his style of play is soft, the Warriors did not keep him, but sent him to the Timberwolves, in exchange for Don Yell Marshall, compared to Gugliotta, Marshall is still good, this year is Marshall's rookie first year, this player was a jack-of-all-trades when he first entered the league, he could do anything but was not good at anything, and then he played more and more, practiced a good three-point shot, and had a three-point shooting rate of more than 40% for four consecutive seasons, and once completed the miracle of scoring 12 three-pointers in a single game, tied for the first place in history with Kobe Bryant and Curry, of courseIt was all afterward, and for the next five seasons, Marshall was the team's primary starting small forward. Matthew Leonis was sent to the SuperSonics, and the replaced star Ricky Pearce played only 27 games due to injury, while the main backup Ronnie Secali, who was poached from the Heat, played only 36 games...... The Warriors have only won 26 games and conceded 111.1 points per game to be at the bottom of the league, but the season lasted until February of this year, because of the poor record (14-31), the elder Nelson resigned, and assistant coach Bob Lannier took over and led the team to the final 37 games (12-25).
From a later interview with Sprewell, he admitted that Sprewell was in awe of the old Nelson back then, because the old Nelson found his own Bole, and no one wanted to make the people who discovered themselves ugly, after the old Nelson left, Adelman took office, and as a result, the mild-mannered Adelman couldn't control Spreville at all, which can be seen from the hairstyle, when the old Nelson was Spreville was the most common short-haired bald head in the league, After Adelman took office, Spreville immediately grew his hair and tied it in pigtails, and his personality was all in the hairstyle!
The poor record brought the Warriors the first pick in 1995, and they used this signing to select the talented forward Joe Smith from the University of Maryland, Smith had already made a name for himself in the United States as early as high school, and he was out of control in college, known as the NBA's pride in the world, tough defense, good footwork under the basket and an accurate mid-range jumper, Smith's first season with the Warriors, 82 games, Averaging 15.3, 8.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, second only to Damon Stoudemire in the Rookie of the Year rating, this season, the Warriors poached the Trail Blazers Meritorious Head Coach Rick Adelman, the head coach who reached 300 wins in just 468 games with the Trail Blazers gave the Warriors hope, Ratlier Sprewell is still the team's No. 1 attacking arrow, he can average 18.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, Tim Hardaway is back from injury, but the form is not the same as two years ago, playing in 52 games this seasonStarted 18 of those games, averaging only 14.1 points and 6.9 assists per game, Chris Mullin has completely turned into Uncle Chris Mu, starting only 19 of the 55 games he played, averaging only 13.3 points per game, and the Warriors have won 36 games this season, losing to the Sacramento Kings by three games and missing the playoffs. It is worth mentioning that this season's Warriors lineup, there is a special player, his name is Joan Barry, who was once the second son of the Warriors' former superstar Rick Barry, but compared to his father, Joan Barry is too inferior, this season is his fourth season in the NBA, playing 68 games, all benches, and an average of 10 minutes per game is also destined to be a standard player.
In the 1996 rookie conference, the first No. 11 pick of the Warriors chose Todd Fuller, who had a career of five years and averaged 3 points per game. Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Jermaine O'Neal, and Peja Stojakovic and Zai Ilgoskas, the Warriors only needed to get any of these players and the playoffs were fine, but the Warriors managed to avoid all the capable players and eventually drafted some super-big players back.
In the 1996-1997 season, Sprewell ushered in a big explosion, he averaged 24.2 points and 6.3 assists per game, the statistics became better and better, and at the same time, the temper became bigger and bigger, Joe Smith averaged 18.0 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, Mullin averaged only 14.5 points per game, and the Warriors only won 30 games this season. It has become the root cause of the team's sluggish performance.
After the end of the season, the position of head coach changed hands again, Rick Adelman left, P-J Quasimodo took office, three years ago in Portland, Adelman left here, P-J Kalesimo took over, three years later in Auckland, Adelman left here again, the successor is still P-J Carlesimo, this can not but be said to be a kind of ape dung, Adelman and Carlesimo are completely two styles of head coaches, the former has a more gentle personality, and once the players make mistakes, they will reason with them in chicken soup, and Carlesimo is not, He has a more aggressive and irascible personality, and if a player makes a mistake, Calesimo is scolded and scolded, as can be seen from the nickname given to him by his players - "Screaming Coach". Others are good to say, but Sprewell is a very disobedient player, in 1997-1998 only 14 games after the start of a team training match, Sprewell made frequent mistakes, Calesimo of course is not used to the problem, and began to chatter all kinds of abuse, sarcasm and accusations, the madman broke out completely, walked in front of Calesimo and stretched out his hand to pinch Calesimo's neck! You don't let go for up to 15 seconds! You must know that the strength of NBA players is not the same as that of ordinary people, these 15 seconds almost killed Calesimo, and Sprewell still did not get rid of his hatred after being set up by his teammates, and turned around and knocked over Calesimo with an elbow!
The next day, Sprewell was suspended, starting with a ten-day ban, and then changed to a ban for the remaining 68 games of the season, the Warriors signed Sprewell with Sprewell for the remaining 3 years of the contract worth $23.7 million was also invalidated, when Sprewell was only 27 years old, he became the sinner of the entire NBA, and all teams in the NBA were once unwilling to sign Sprewell, not that the general manager did not sign, but the head coach did not dare to ask for it, The fact that Sprewell pinched Callesimo by the neck showed that the atmosphere in the Warriors team was not very good at the time, and everyone was thinking about their future, starting with Joe Smith.
Smith relied on the level of close to 19+9 that he played last season, and clearly rejected a 4-year contract worth $36 million from the Warriors, note it, but Joe Smith's agent is the famous Dan Fagan, (he is also the agent of Yi Di in the future, fans and friends who don't know this brother can Baidu on their own, so I won't go into additional details here.) That's what Fagan said at the time, this little brother in my hand, talented, full of intelligence, this summer, no matter what you say, we are going to throw ourselves into the arms of the free market! As a result, in order to minimize the loss, the Warriors could only put Smith on the shelf and send it to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Jim Jackson and Clarence Witherspoon, this Jim Jackson is the most "wave" werewolf in the NBA, and has played for as many as 12 teams in his career. Averaging 18.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists per game this season, Jackson switched to the Portland Trail Blazers at the end of the season, Witherspoon also did not stay with the Warriors for long, and after the season went to the Miami Heat, the most amazing trade the Warriors made this season was to trade the team's meritorious veteran Chris Mullin to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for big centers Eric Dampier and Doon Ferrer, the latter is just an add-on, Dampier is the growth of the Warriors' interior pillar, this season 82 games full attendance, averaging 11.8 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
Here is a talk about Joe Smith who was sent away, because of Fagan's operation, the Warriors were forced to send Smith to the Philadelphia 76ers, and the first 49 games were when the Warriors were there. Smith averaged 17.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, such data is worth tens of millions of dollars in the free market, the sad thing is that at that time, Iverson and Coleman of the 76ers were both players who needed the ball, and two people were not enough to score a ball, let alone return it to Joe Smith, Smith played only 6 games in 30 games with the 76ers, averaging only 10.3 and 4.4 rebounds per game, and before he averaged 16.3 shots per game in the Warriors, now it is a pitiful 9.0 shots, signed a "yin and yang contract" with the Timberwolves, (at that time, the Timberwolves faced the problem of renewing the contract of Garnett and Marbury, and there was no time to open a big contract, Fagan turned his head and agreed with the Timberwolves to sign a two-year contract of $1.75 million for the first two years, and then give Smith a seven-year $86 million maximum salary contract two years later, which was written in black and white in the contract, and later the matter was known by the NBA president's office, and in addition to the high fine, the Timberwolves were directly deprived of five first-round picks).
Chris Mullin currently ranks first in Warriors history with 16,235 total points, fifth with 3,549 rebounds, third with 3,146 assists, first with 1,360 steals, and eighth in team history with 488 blocks, on August 15, 2011, Mullin was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame, and on September 15, 2011, Mullin's No. 17 jersey was honorably retired by the Warriors. To sum up, the Warriors were "lucky" and "unlucky" in the Mullin era, the so-called "luck" refers to the purely personal ability, Mullin is definitely the league's first-class scorer, a healthy Mullin determines the team's downline, "unfortunate" refers to the Warriors in the Mullin era, always in the heyday, the most expected time suddenly, without warning, the invasion of injury, and whenever the injury comes, it is like a strain, crackling down one by one, in the Mullin era, The Warriors have not broken through in the playoffs for many years, let alone won championships, and it just so happens that the number of championships is the most important thing that determines the greatness of a team and the greatness of a superstar.