Only three franchises remain from the NBA's original 11, and the Golden State Warriors are one of them. Their story began in Philadelphia in the BBA in 1946–47, alongside the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks. The other eight franchises would not stand the test of time.
The Warriors have a rich history and will forever be remembered as the first champions, winning the title during the league's inaugural season. The following year, they returned to the Finals but lost to the Baltimore Bullets, who had just joined the league that season.
The Warriors would have to wait another eight years before returning to the Finals. When they finally got there, they captured the 1956 championship, becoming two-time champions during the league's early years.
In 1962, the franchise moved to San Francisco, and thanks to a seven-foot phenom named Wilt Chamberlain, the Warriors returned to the NBA Finals in 1964 and again in 1967.
They lost both times. In 1964, Chamberlain and the Warriors fell to Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics, while in 1967, it was Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers who knocked off the Warriors.
In 1972, the Warriors moved across the bay to Oakland and adopted the name they still carry today: the Golden State Warriors. It didn't take long for Rick Barry and company to bring another championship to the franchise, as they won the 1975 title, giving the Warriors their third.
From that championship season until our simulation began with the 1983–84 season, the Warriors made the playoffs just twice. In fact, entering our timeline, Golden State was already in the midst of a six-year playoff drought, one that continued until the 1987 season in reality.
Here in our universe, things immediately changed.
The Warriors made the playoffs in the very first season of our simulation and advanced all the way to the Conference Semifinals, where they eventually fell to the Showtime Lakers. They returned to the postseason the following year as the No. 8 seed, only to once again have their season ended by the Lakers.
In fact, the Warriors made the playoffs in each of the first seven seasons of our simulation, reaching the Conference Semifinals two more times, in 1988 and 1990. Unfortunately for Golden State, both runs ended against the same opponent: the Los Angeles Lakers.
During that same period in reality, the Warriors also managed to reach the Semifinals with young stars such as Chris Mullin. They would make one more Semifinals appearance in 1991, but after that, the real-life Warriors would make the playoffs just twice over the next 11 years, failing to advance beyond the first round either time.
Things weren't much different in our universe after 1991. The Warriors made the playoffs just twice and failed to advance beyond the first round.
Then everything changed during the 1997–98 season.
While the real-life Warriors were in the middle of a 12-year playoff drought, the same could not be said for Golden State in our timeline. The Warriors signed four-time MVP Len Bias in free agency, pairing him with homegrown star Ben Wallace.
The result was spectacular.
Golden State finished with the best record in the NBA at 66–16 and cruised through the playoffs on the way to an NBA championship. Just one season after being a lottery team, the Warriors had gone all the way to the top of the basketball world—a transformation reminiscent of the 2008 Boston Celtics in reality.
The following year, Golden State added even more talent, signing free agents such as Grant Hill and Roy Tarpley. Once again, the Warriors finished as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
They cruised through the first round, but their championship defense came to an unexpected end against a feisty Dallas Mavericks team led by Gary Payton and Dirk Nowitzki. Dallas defeated Golden State in six games, and it certainly didn't help that Ben Wallace was sidelined for these playoffs.
In 2000, the Warriors finished first for the third consecutive season. With Wallace healthy, they once again cruised through the playoffs and returned to the NBA Finals.
Waiting for them was a Boston Celtics team hungry for a championship of its own. Chris Webber, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen had been knocking on the door for years, and this time they finally broke through.
The Celtics defeated the Warriors in six games to capture the championship.
That defeat would mark the beginning of Golden State's decline. The Warriors missed the playoffs in each of the next two seasons, bringing an end to a remarkable three-year stretch.
For those three seasons, the Warriors were among the NBA's elite, something that certainly could not be said about the real-life Golden State franchise during this same period.
Check back for future updates as we continue to rewrite the history of the Warriors and discover what comes next in this alternate basketball universe.
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