We're partying like it's 1996

by BlueInTheFace on Dec 3, 2008 10:31 AM PST

Even for someone who's seen a lifetime of disappointing Warriors teams, this year has been surprising downer. I look at the roster, and I might not see a playoff team, but I just don't see an 0-for-a-road-trip doormat. Sure, without Baron, we don't have anything close to a superstar, and that's what it takes to actually be good in this league. But with talented, if flawed, vets like Jax, Maggette, Beans, and Crawford, solid role-players like Turiaf and Watson on the bench, and two potential studs in Wright and Randolph learning the ropes, you'd at least think they'd be hovering around .500. Yes, there is an air of chaos surrounding the team. But Don Nelson--Nellie, our beloved savior--is still running the show. There's hope!

But then a thought struck me. I've seen this movie before. The year was 1996. You had three talented, if flawed, vets--All-Star-level players, even--in Mullin, Hardaway, and Sprewell (yes, Hardaway battled injuries that year). You had solid enough role players (BJ Armstrong, Kevin Willis) on the bench. And you had two potential studs (Joe Smith, still in his rookie-year glow, Donyell Marshall, who at the time was considered a hot commodity)--learning the ropes. Yes, there was an air of chaos surrounding the team (the name Chris Webber comes to mind). But we still had Don Nelson, our beloved savior, as coach.

But there was no hope. The team won 36 games that year. And then instead of getting better, they got worse. Then they got much worse. And then they continued to be awful for ten years.

I guess what I'm saying is, if we had to jump into a time machine, how come we couldn't go back to 1971 instead?

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!

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Comments

All you got to do is hoop in the Delorean and gun it 1971.

Monta needs to grow a beard.

by monta needs a beard on Dec 3, 2008 11:43 AM PST reply actions

The future....

sure was bright. Clifford Rozier. Adonal Foyle. (pardon my language) Andrew DeClercq. Todd Fuller. Marc Jackson. I don’t see our young players being quite as bad as that list but there are some eerily similar parallels to that foregone era. It’s good to see someone else remembers what it feels like to be a fan through one of the worst eras to ever transpire in professional basketball. And that’s why we should, as we always have, keep our heads up.

by SinceRunTMC760 on Dec 3, 2008 12:15 PM PST reply actions

A lot went into that too.

Horrible…and i mean horrible to epic proportions of bad drafts. Sideways trades and place where FA’s didn’t want to sign with.

hmmm….actually now that you mention it, it does sound a lot like 96’. Boo

Warriors, Stupidest franchise in the league.

by kenntoe on Dec 3, 2008 1:44 PM PST reply actions

kevin willis had such short arms...

by HoLdEmUP on Dec 3, 2008 2:17 PM PST reply actions

Team artist's official 1995-96 portrait of Kevin Willis:

OBAMA AMABO

by Sleepy Freud on Dec 3, 2008 3:12 PM PST up reply actions

Can prince do he remix to make it say 1996

So I don't have a signature well these words would do! Who knew that upgrades can have downgrades too!

by 24k state fan since 87 on Dec 3, 2008 2:19 PM PST reply actions

ugh...

The year they traded Hardaway and Gatling for Willis and BIMBO. Seikaly and Kersey were on the team too. Bad memories.

by faust10 on Dec 3, 2008 2:59 PM PST reply actions

Memories like that

Remind me that having these ten guys

Monta
Watson
Crawford
Morrow
Azubuike
Maggette
Randolph
Wright
Turiaf
Biedrins

Ain’t half bad. No Seikalys, no Fullers, no Kerseys, no Roziers, no Bimbos, no Muggsys, no Vonteegoes, no THuds. Basically everyone we bring in can ball and is damn good at least one thing.

I’m partying like it’s 2007-08. Plus, Obama > Clinton. ;-)

OBAMA AMABO

by Sleepy Freud on Dec 3, 2008 3:22 PM PST up reply actions

I hope you're right

It’s kind of an academic question if a five-man scrub squad consisting of the ‘96 versions of Seikaly, Coles, Kersey, Rozier, and Bogues would take an ’08 scrub squad comprised of Watson, Morrow, Wright, Turiaf, and Azubuike. God, what ugly basketball that would be. Like the NBA version of the Visigoths versus the Vandals. But I guess I’ll end this on an optimistic note and agree that our scrubs of today are probably better than those scrubs of yesteryear (I’m not sure I’d take today’s “stars” over yesterdays, but who knows….). In a way, agreeing with your point takes the same leap of faith it does to say that Obama’s already > than Clinton after minus two months in the White House. Hope he is. We’ll see.

Besides, I’d love to be proven wrong. I’ve certainly been off base before. I mean, I wrote off the Warriors for good, in March ‘07, the night I saw them get crushed by the pathetic Knicks at the Garden and fall, what, ten games below .500 with seemingly no end to the misery in sight. One week later, they started the most enjoyable run I’ve witnessed in sports. Let’s pray for another miracle, I guess.

by BlueInTheFace on Dec 3, 2008 10:46 PM PST reply actions

Damn you, Blue!

You’ve succeeded once again in stomping on my perpetually rose-colored Warrior glasses. And tearing down my life-size Obama HOPE and Elvis Costello TRUST posters. And shattering my Christmas chocolates into tiny little pieces. But yeah, you’re totally right that great teams are measured by their #1,2, and 3 studs (who in the Ws’ case, in the absence of Monta, are below NBA average) and not by the #7-8-9-10 scrubs off the bench, “promising” as they may be.

But then, that’s kind of the nature of our Ws discussions, since the early ‘90s: me with the “but look at our promising young core!!!” you with the “dude, wake me when we get over .500.” If it were any other way, you wouldn’t be BlueInTheFace and I wouldn’t be Sleepy Freud.

For me the perfect way to deal with rooting for the Warriors is more or less the Alvy Singer approach:

This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, ‘Doc, uh, my brother’s crazy, he thinks he’s a chicken,’ and uh, the doctor says, ‘well why don’t you turn him in?’ And the guy says, ‘I would, but I need the eggs.’

Well, I guess that’s pretty much now how I feel about [the Warriors]. You know, they’re totally irrational and crazy and absurd and, but uh, I guess we keep going through it…because…most of us need the eggs.

OBAMA AMABO

by Sleepy Freud on Dec 4, 2008 8:28 AM PST up reply actions

Hardaway and Willis were not on the team at the same time

Timmy got traded by (!) BIMBBBBBOOOOOOOO Coles and Kevin Willis

this trade was even worst than that Richmond x Ownes swap. They should have traded that bad boy spreewell (who ignited the feud against Hardaway) for anything in return.

=Gaucho=

by Gaucho! on Dec 4, 2008 10:04 AM PST reply actions