Ending the Curse of '94
When was the last time we Golden State Warriors fans had any hope? I submit that it was during the beginning of the '94-'95 season. It was Chris Webber's second season. The team had acquired Rony Seikaly in a trade. Latrell Sprewell and Tim Hardaway were in the back court. Chris Mullin was the other starting forward. What a lot of firepower! After all of those years of only getting into the second round of the playoffs (with Don Nelson as coach) it looked like maybe we had a contender. One of the basketball magazines even picked the W's as the favorite to win the NBA championship! Heady times!
The '94-'95 W's got off to a hot start, winning something like seven out of their first ten games. And they had done this without CWeb (NBA Rookie of the Year the previous season)who was sitting out the first part of the season because he wanted to renegotiate his contract, right? No? Actually, he wanted coach Don Nelson to be fired or himself traded. He put this ultimatum before the new owner (why? Nelson yelled at him a lot. Hey, maybe Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan could get their coaches fired, but not you, C Web). The owner ultimately sided with Nelson and traded Webber to Washington for the I-didn't-ask-to-be-in-the-middle-of-this Tom Gugliata (sp?). The W's are ripped apart. Some players rebel against Nelson, some say nothing and quietly seethe. An emotionally exhausted Nelson leaves the W's. The team goes on a so-far ten year tailspin. And how many championships has CWeb won since then? (a big, fat zero)
I recall all of this because the first game where it was evident that the W's were screwed was a Thanksgiving (1994) night matchup against the Indiana Pacers. The W's were shellacked, and went on to lose many, many more games that season. I also remember that game because Thanksgiving dinner turned out to be without doubt one of the most traumatic nights of my life, thanks to various insane members of my family behavin insanely. I'll write about that somewhere else...
My ultimate point is that ever since the traumatic Thanksgiving of '94, I've tied in the W's demise with my own fall and rise. The thing is, I've made the playoffs of life since '94, but the Warriors haven't. With an older and wiser Nellie back as coach will the W's rebound? Pun intended.
The '94-'95 W's got off to a hot start, winning something like seven out of their first ten games. And they had done this without CWeb (NBA Rookie of the Year the previous season)who was sitting out the first part of the season because he wanted to renegotiate his contract, right? No? Actually, he wanted coach Don Nelson to be fired or himself traded. He put this ultimatum before the new owner (why? Nelson yelled at him a lot. Hey, maybe Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan could get their coaches fired, but not you, C Web). The owner ultimately sided with Nelson and traded Webber to Washington for the I-didn't-ask-to-be-in-the-middle-of-this Tom Gugliata (sp?). The W's are ripped apart. Some players rebel against Nelson, some say nothing and quietly seethe. An emotionally exhausted Nelson leaves the W's. The team goes on a so-far ten year tailspin. And how many championships has CWeb won since then? (a big, fat zero)
I recall all of this because the first game where it was evident that the W's were screwed was a Thanksgiving (1994) night matchup against the Indiana Pacers. The W's were shellacked, and went on to lose many, many more games that season. I also remember that game because Thanksgiving dinner turned out to be without doubt one of the most traumatic nights of my life, thanks to various insane members of my family behavin insanely. I'll write about that somewhere else...
My ultimate point is that ever since the traumatic Thanksgiving of '94, I've tied in the W's demise with my own fall and rise. The thing is, I've made the playoffs of life since '94, but the Warriors haven't. With an older and wiser Nellie back as coach will the W's rebound? Pun intended.
posted by ken at 5:31 PM
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