57 Fun Facts About Golden State Warriors

In which city were the Warriors founded in 1946?

Philadelphia was home from the franchise's 1946 birth in the Basketball Association of America until the 1962 move to the Bay Area; the Philadelphia Warriors won the BAA's first title.

What is the name of the San Francisco arena the Warriors have played in since 2019?

Chase Center opened in the Mission Bay district in September 2019 after an earlier plan for Piers 30 and 32 on the waterfront met with vocal opposition.

In which year did the franchise change its geographic name from San Francisco to Golden State?

1971 brought the switch to Golden State, a name meant to claim the whole of California, as the team moved its home games across the bay to the Coliseum Arena.

Which early star led the Warriors to the BAA's inaugural championship in 1946–47?

Joe Fulks, 'Jumpin' Joe', led the league with 23.2 points a game and powered the 1946–47 Warriors past the Chicago Stags 4–1 in the first BAA Finals.

Which team did the Warriors beat four games to one to win the 1956 championship?

Fort Wayne Pistons fell 4–1 to a Warriors side led by Paul Arizin, Neil Johnston and rookie Tom Gola; the Pistons moved to Detroit the following year.

In which Pennsylvania town did Wilt Chamberlain score 100 points for the Warriors on March 2, 1962?

Hershey's Sports Arena hosted the Warriors' 'home' game against the New York Knicks, a 169–147 win in which Chamberlain made 36 of 63 field goals and 28 of 32 free throws.

Which team received Wilt Chamberlain when the Warriors traded him in January 1965?

Philadelphia 76ers sent three players and $150,000 for Chamberlain in January 1965; the Warriors slumped to 17–63, and Wilt's 76ers beat them in the 1967 Finals.

Which owner bought the Warriors in 1962 and moved them to San Francisco?

Franklin Mieuli, a radio and television producer, headed the group that bought the team from Eddie Gottlieb for $850,000 in 1962 and moved it west.

Which 1965 draft pick won Rookie of the Year and later Finals MVP with the Warriors, with an ABA stint between?

Rick Barry won Rookie of the Year in 1966, jumped to the ABA and sat out 1967–68 under a court order honouring his option year, then returned in 1972 and was Finals MVP in 1975.

Which heavily favoured team did the Warriors sweep in the 1975 NBA Finals?

Washington Bullets, 60–22 in the regular season and heavy favourites, lost 4–0 to a Warriors team that had won just 48 games, one of the great Finals upsets.

Who coached the Warriors to the 1975 championship and won 557 games with the franchise?

Al Attles, a Warriors guard for 11 seasons before he took the bench, coached the team across 14 years, winning 557 games and the 1975 title, then served as general manager.

In 1980 the Warriors traded Robert Parish and the McHale pick for the pick used on which centre?

Joe Barry Carroll, the Purdue centre taken first overall, was the Warriors' prize; Boston used the third pick on Kevin McHale and paired him with Robert Parish, two Hall of Famers.

Which Warriors guard set playoff records with 29 points in a quarter against the Lakers in 1987?

Sleepy Floyd scored 29 of his 51 points in the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the 1987 Western semi-finals, a playoff record, as the Warriors beat the eventual champion Lakers.

The 'Run TMC' trio of the early 1990s consisted of Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin and which guard?

Mitch Richmond was the M: the trio, nicknamed after Run-D.M.C., lasted two seasons before Don Nelson traded Richmond to Sacramento for rookie Billy Owens in November 1991.

Which player did the Warriors take first overall in 1995, the season Chris Cohan took over as owner?

Joe Smith, the Maryland forward, went first overall in 1995, ahead of Antonio McDyess and Jerry Stackhouse; Chris Cohan's ownership produced a single playoff trip, in 2007.

Which coach did Latrell Sprewell choke at a practice in December 1997, earning a season-long suspension?

P. J. Carlesimo was grabbed by the throat by Sprewell at practice on 1 December 1997; the NBA suspended Sprewell for the rest of the season, and the Warriors traded him to the Knicks in 1999.

Which centre did the Warriors draft in 1996 over Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Jermaine O'Neal?

Todd Fuller, a centre from North Carolina State, was the Warriors' lottery pick in 1996, taken two spots before Kobe Bryant and six before Jermaine O'Neal.

What became the Warriors' slogan during their late-2007 surge to the playoffs?

We Believe began as a fan's T-shirt slogan and swept the arena as Don Nelson's team went 16–5 down the stretch from 26–35 to reach the playoffs at 42–40.

Which top seed did the eighth-seed Warriors upset in 2007, a first in a seven-game series?

Dallas Mavericks, 67–15 and led by MVP Dirk Nowitzki, lost in six games to Baron Davis's Warriors, the first No. 8 seed to win a best-of-seven series.

What was the Warriors' 2007–08 record, which left them two games short of the playoffs?

48–34 fell two games short in 2007–08, when all eight Western playoff teams won at least 50 games and Denver took the final spot at 50–32.

Monta Ellis was suspended for 30 games in 2008 after injuring himself doing what?

Riding a moped in Mississippi in August 2008, Ellis tore ankle ligaments; because his new six-year contract barred such activities, the team suspended him for 30 games without pay.

With which pick did the Warriors select Stephen Curry from Davidson in the 2009 draft?

7th overall was the slot in 2009, after Minnesota passed on Curry twice at 5 and 6 to take Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn; he finished second to Tyreke Evans for Rookie of the Year.

For what then-record price did Joe Lacob and Peter Guber buy the Warriors from Chris Cohan in 2010?

$450 million was the price Joe Lacob and Peter Guber agreed in July 2010, then the most ever paid for an NBA franchise, beating a rival bid fronted by Larry Ellison.

Which Harvard guard signed with the Warriors in 2010, the first Taiwanese-American in the NBA?

Jeremy Lin, undrafted out of Harvard, signed a two-year deal with his hometown Warriors in July 2010; 'Linsanity' erupted with the Knicks in February 2012.

Draymond Green's 2012 draft pick reached the Warriors in the trade that landed which forward?

Troy Murphy arrived from the Nets in February 2011 together with a 2012 second-round pick; it became No. 35, which the Warriors spent on Draymond Green in the draft that also brought Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli.

With which pick did the Warriors take Klay Thompson in 2011?

11th overall in 2011 was where the Warriors took Thompson out of Washington State; his father Mychal had gone first overall to Portland in 1978.

How big was the 'risky' rookie-scale extension Stephen Curry signed in 2012?

Four seasons, $44 million was the October 2012 extension, signed after two ankle surgeries; it became the league's biggest bargain as Curry won two MVPs on that deal.

Which team employee coined the nickname 'Splash Brothers' for Curry and Thompson?

Brian Witt, then the team's web content manager, coined 'Splash Brothers' in a December 2012 tweet; the pair's 483 threes that season broke the duo record of 435 set by Orlando's Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson.

Whom did the Warriors hire in May 2014 to replace Mark Jackson, in his first head-coaching job?

Steve Kerr, a five-time champion as a player with Chicago and San Antonio, took the job in May 2014 after turning down the Knicks, and won the title in his first season.

Stephen Curry's 2015 MVP made him the first Warrior to win the award since whom?

Wilt Chamberlain in 1960 took the award in his rookie season with the Warriors, winning Rookie of the Year the same year; no Warrior won it again until Curry 55 years later.

Who won Finals MVP in 2015 after being inserted into the starting lineup for Game 4?

Andre Iguodala replaced Andrew Bogut in the starting lineup for Game 4, sparking the small-ball 'Death Lineup', and his defence on LeBron James earned him Finals MVP despite not starting a regular-season game.

How many points did Klay Thompson score in one quarter against Sacramento in January 2015?

37 points came in the third quarter on 23 January 2015, when Thompson made all 13 of his shots, including nine three-pointers, setting the NBA record for points in a quarter.

How many games did the Warriors win to open the 2015–16 season, the best start in NBA history?

24 straight wins opened 2015–16, beating the 15–0 starts of the 1948–49 Washington Capitols and 1993–94 Houston Rockets; the run ended at Milwaukee on 12 December 2015.

How many three-pointers did Stephen Curry make in 2015–16, obliterating his own single-season record?

402 three-pointers shattered Curry's own record of 286 from the previous season; he also became the first unanimous MVP, taking all 131 first-place votes.

What record did the Warriors' 2015–16 team set with its 73–9 mark?

Most wins in a regular season was the record, at 73–9, beating the 72–10 of the 1995–96 Chicago Bulls; the season ended as the first Finals lost from a 3–1 lead.

How many consecutive regular-season home games did the Warriors win between January 2015 and March 2016?

54 straight regular-season home wins ran from 31 January 2015 until Boston ended it on 1 April 2016, eclipsing the 44 of Michael Jordan's 1995–96 Bulls.

Klay Thompson became the first to score 60 points in under 30 minutes in a 2016 game against which team?

Indiana Pacers were the victims on 5 December 2016: Thompson scored 60 in 29 minutes of a 142–106 rout while holding the ball for barely a minute and a half all night.

Draymond Green's 2017 triple-double was the NBA's first without double figures in which category?

Scoring was the missing column: on 10 February 2017 against Memphis, Green posted 12 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 steals alongside five blocks while scoring only 4 points.

What was the Warriors' 2017 playoff record, the best winning percentage in NBA history?

16–1 in 2017 came after a 15–0 start, the only loss being Game 4 of the Finals in Cleveland before the title was sealed in Game 5.

For how many straight years had the Warriors and Cavaliers met in the Finals by 2018?

Four consecutive Finals between the same two teams, 2015 through 2018, was unprecedented; the Warriors swept the last one, the first Finals sweep since San Antonio beat Cleveland in 2007.

Which team beat the Warriors in the 2019 Finals, where Durant tore his Achilles and Thompson his ACL?

Toronto Raptors won in six games for Canada's first NBA title, with Kawhi Leonard as Finals MVP; Durant then left for Brooklyn in a sign-and-trade that brought D'Angelo Russell.

Whom did the Warriors receive from Minnesota in the 2020 trade of D'Angelo Russell?

Andrew Wiggins came from Minnesota in February 2020 along with a protected 2021 first-round pick; he became a first-time All-Star starter in 2022 and a key defender in that season's title run.

Whom did the Warriors select second overall in the 2020 draft?

James Wiseman, a centre who played only three college games at Memphis, went second behind Anthony Edwards; the Warriors traded him to Detroit in February 2023.

Which team did the Warriors beat in the 2022 NBA Finals?

Boston Celtics lost in six games, with Curry named Finals MVP for the first time; Curry, Thompson, Green and Iguodala each collected a fourth ring.

The Warriors' 2023 first-round win over Sacramento was marked by what incident?

Draymond Green stomping on Domantas Sabonis's chest in Game 2, after Sabonis grabbed his ankle, brought a one-game suspension, and the Warriors went on to win the series in seven games.

The 1966–71 'The City' uniform features a cable car and a silhouette of which landmark?

Golden Gate Bridge was drawn in the circle behind the player's number on the 1966–71 'The City' jersey, with a cable car on the front; the 2010 logo swapped in the Bay Bridge's eastern span.

The Warriors' 1997–2010 navy, gold and orange identity was built around which motif?

A lightning bolt ran through the logo and down the shorts of the 1997–2010 kit, matched by the mascot Thunder, who was retired in 2008 when an NBA rival adopted the same name.

The Warriors' 'The Town' uniforms honour which city?

Oakland's oak tree emblem sits on 'The Town' jerseys, introduced in 2017 to honour the city where the Warriors played 47 seasons before moving to San Francisco in 2019.

The nickname 'Dubs' is a shortening of what?

W's is the root: 'dub' is slang for the letter W, so Warriors fans' Dub Nation simply means W-Nation.

Where did the Warriors play their 1996–97 home games while their East Bay home was being renovated?

San Jose Arena, home of the NHL's Sharks, hosted the Warriors for 1996–97 while the Coliseum Arena was rebuilt; they went 30–52 and traded Chris Mullin to Indiana that summer.

Which cryptocurrency exchange, later bankrupt, paid the Warriors as spokespersons in 2021?

FTX became the Warriors' official cryptocurrency platform in a December 2021 sponsorship deal; after the exchange collapsed in November 2022, investors named the team in a class action.

With their 2022 title the Warriors reached seven championships, behind which two franchises?

Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics each had 17 titles when the Warriors won their seventh in 2022, following 1947, 1956, 1975, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Which Warriors player was named Finals MVP in both 2017 and 2018?

Kevin Durant was named Finals MVP in both 2017 and 2018, averaging 35.2 points against Cleveland in the first of those series.

Original owner Peter A. Tyrrell also owned which American Hockey League club?

Philadelphia Rockets, the AHL club Tyrrell ran at the Arena on Market Street, shared that building with his new basketball team, whose first coach and general manager was promoter Eddie Gottlieb.

The name was borrowed from an earlier Philadelphia Warriors team of 1925 that played in which circuit?

American Basketball League, the first major pro circuit, launched in 1925 with a Warriors club from the same city among its founding members; the 1946 BAA team revived the name.

Which team did Kevin Durant leave to sign with the Warriors on July 4, 2016?

Oklahoma City Thunder had just blown a 3–1 lead to the Warriors in the 2016 West finals; Durant announced his move in a Players' Tribune essay on 4 July 2016.

Which forward did the Warriors select seventh overall from the G League Ignite in the 2021 draft?

Jonathan Kuminga, a Congolese forward who skipped college for the G League Ignite, went seventh with the pick obtained from Minnesota; the Warriors added Moses Moody at No. 14.