|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
What can you say when trading Wilt Chamberlain is only the second-worst deal in franchise history? Here's what CNNSI.com dredged up from the Bay Area: the 1980 trade with Boston that brought Joe Barry Carroll; the trade of Wilt; the Latrell Sprewell fiasco; the trade of Nate Thurmond; the Bernard King-for-Micheal Ray Richardson deal; and finally the trade of Chris Mullin that conceded Mullin would get his championship there.
At the time of the trade, Golden State was lauded for its bravado. Parish was an unspectacular fifth-year player and the Warriors weren't the only team to think Carroll was a can't-miss. Indeed, the Warriors began the 1980-81 season 11-6. A Nov. 18, 1980 headline in The Washington Post trumpeted: The Happy Warriors A Rebuilt Wonder; Warriors Can Give Stumbling Bullets Lesson on How to Rebuild; Bullet Opponent Improved by Taking Risks Of course, hindsight offers us a much better view of the deal.
Wilt was in his prime -- 28 years old and having led the league in scoring in each of his first five seasons. He made it six in a row at 34.7 points per game. The Warriors, 48-32 the year before the trade, plummeted to 17-63. In his first full season with Philadelphia, Wilt picked up his seventh straight scoring title. In his second full season there, the 76ers won a then-record 68 games and Wilt claimed his first NBA title ... beating the rebuilt Warriors in six games.
Shaffer never played a game for the Warriors, and Dierking was traded before the next season. Neumann, a Stanford product, put in 2 1/2 seasons with the Warriors.
Just over a year later, Sprewell was traded to the Knicks for John Starks (no teacher's pet, either), Chris Mills and Terry Cummings. Carlesimo was relieved of his duties in Golden State 11 months after that. Sprewell was back in the All-Star Game in 2001. No Warriors were.
But that wasn't until May. In September, when the trade happened, Golden State fans howled in protest at the thought of watching another future Hall of Famer being shipped out in favor of the flavor of the month. Thurmond had played his first 11 seasons with the Warriors, and he was the heart and soul of the team while averaging at least 16.3 points in every season except his first and last there. By the time he got to the Bulls, his knees were shot and he averaged only 7.9, 4.4 and 5.5 points in his three seasons in Chicago. Ray, meanwhile, put in seven productive seasons with Golden State.
After the Knicks went from 50 wins in 1980-81 to 33 in '81-82, Richardson made his famous assessment of: "The ship be sinkin'." In October, the Knicks shipped Richardson to Golden State for the equally mercurial King. Richardson lasted only 33 games for the Warriors and ultimately was banned from the NBA for repeated drug offenses. King got himself together long enough to become one of the league's most dangerous scorers and earned two All-Star appearances. He lead the league with 32.9 points per game, the only Knick ever to top the charts.
For all that, he played in 33 playoff games.
In a last-ditch effort to get Mullin a ring, the Warriors sent him to Indiana for a couple of big bodies before the 1997-98 season. Mullin played mostly off the bench as the Pacers lost in the conference finals twice before losing to the Lakers in the finals last year.
When the Pacers started to retool this past offseason, Mullin once again was at a crossroads. But instead of a long-awaited homecoming to New York, he opted return to Golden State this season. Rare loyalty indeed.
|
Carroll's best season in Golden State was 1982-83, when he averaged 24.1 points.
Long before Wilt starred in SoCal, he played in the Bay Area.
Can't we all just get along? The friction between Sprewell and Carlesimo tore the Warriors apart.
Bernard King was still scoring 28 ppg for Washington five years after Richardson was exiled. 
Chris Mullin played 787 games in his first stint with Golden State ... but only 33 playoff games.