Warriors
The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in Oakland, California. They are part of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was first established in 1946, as the Philadelphia Warriors, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the franchise won the championship in the inaugural season of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), the league that would eventually become the National Basketball Association after a merger with the National Basketball League (NBL).
In 1962, the franchise was relocated to San Francisco and became known as the San Francisco Warriors until 1971, when its name was changed to the current Golden State Warriors. Since 1966, the team has played home games in the building currently known as the Oracle Arena and exclusively since 1972, with the exception of a one-year hiatus during which it played in San Jose, California, while the Oracle Arena was being remodeled. Along with their inaugural championship win in the 1946–47 season, the Warriors have won two others in the team's history, including another in Philadelphia after the 1955–56 season, and one as Golden State after the 1974–75 season, tying them for 5th in the NBA in number of championships
2011–present: The Stephen Curry Era
The Warriors couldn't improve in the 2011–12 NBA season under coach Jackson, finishing the lockout-shorted season at 23–43 record, 13th in the conference. The team suffered several injuries to key players, and due to the lockout, Jackson could not establish his system in training camp. They then entered into another chaotic rebuilding phase.
Team leader Monta Ellis was traded in mid-March 2012, along with Kwame Brown and Ekpe Udoh, to the Milwaukee Bucks for center Andrew Bogut (out injured for the season) and former Warrior small forward Stephen Jackson, who without playing a game for the Warriors was quickly traded to the San Antonio Spurs for Richard Jefferson and a conditional first round pick on March 15. These moves saw the rise of Stephen Curry and David Lee to team co-captains, and saw off-guard Klay Thompson, the 11th overall pick of the 2011 NBA draft, move into a starting role. On July 11, they acquired point guard Jarrett Jack from the New Orleans Hornets in a three-team trade also including the Philadelphia 76ers,who received Dorell Wright from Golden State. On August 1, they signed swingman Carl Landry on the termination of his one-year contract with the New Orleans Hornets. In the 2012 NBA draft, they selected small forward Harrison Barnes with the 7th overall pick, center Festus Ezeli with the 30th pick, small forward Draymond Green 35th overall, and 7 foot 1 Center Ognjen Kuzmic 52nd Overall. In early November, swingman Rush was lost for the year with a torn ACL after falling awkwardly on the court early in the second game of the season, and less than a month later the team announced that Andrew Bogut was out indefinitely with a foot injury that was more serious than originally reported.
Coming out of this maelstrom of trades and injuries with a team starting two rookies (Barnes and Ezeli), the Warriors surprisingly jumped to one of their best starts in decades, earning their 20th win before hitting the 30-game mark for the first time since 1992. The Warriors also made history by completing their first ever 6–1 road trip in franchise history, including a 97–95 win over the defending champion Heat in Miami. On April 9, 2013, with a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Golden State Warriors clinched the playoffs for the second time in 19 years and the first time since the 2006-2007 "We Believe" Warriors. With the season coming to an end, locals revived the "We Believe" saying, originally used as the 2006–2007 Golden State Warriors playoff theme, but re-dubbed it "We Belong".
The team finished the season with a record of 47-35, earning the sixth seed in the Western Conference, and defeated the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs winning 4 out of 6 games. They lost in the second round to the San Antonio Spurs four games to two. This was the first playoff experience for all of the starters of this group except for Andrew Bogut.[18
Other highlights of the year included Stephen Curry's 272 three pointers to set a NBA single-season record, and the naming of forward David Lee to the 2013 NBA All-Star Game as a reserve, ending the team's 16 year drought without an all-star selection, dating back to Latrell Sprewell in the 1997 season.
The Warriors have proposed building a 17,000-to-19,000-seat waterfront arena on Piers 30 & 32 in San Francisco, a 13-acre site near the Bay Bridge they hope to finish in time for the 2017-18 NBA season, when the team's lease at the Oracle Arena in Oakland expires.[19
Golden State Warriors Roster
| Player | # Number | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Stephan Curry | 30 | Point guard |
| Klay Thompson | 11 | Small forward |
| David Lee | 10 | Power forward |
| Andrew Bogut | 12 | Center |
| Harrison Barns | 40 | Small forward |
| Jarrett Jack | 2 | Point guard |
| Draymond Green | 23 | Small forward |
| Carl Landry | 7 | Power forward |
| Kent Bazenore | 20 | Shooting guard |
| Richard Jefferson | 44 | Small forward |
| Festus Ezeli | 31 | Center |
| Andris Biedrins | 15 | Center |
| Scott Machado | 1 | Point guard |
| Brandon Rush | 4 | Small forward |
| Dwayne Jones | 27 | Power forward |