BROKEN PROMISE
The 1993-94 Warriors had it going -- briefly
Jake Curtis, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Billy Owens had a simple recollection of the Warriors' 1994 playoff run.
"All I remember is, Chris should not have done that commercial," Owens said.
Owens was joking about a TV ad that aired that season featuring Chris Webber and Latrell Sprewell at a barber shop reminiscing about Webber going behind his back and dunking on Charles Barkley earlier in the season. The humorous spot finished with Webber saying Barkley told him that he was Barkley's role model.
Maybe it's just coincidence, but Barkley scored 56 points, the fourth-highest playoff total ever, in the Suns' 140-133 victory that completed a 3-0, first-round sweep of the Warriors. It also completed postseason basketball in the Bay Area, because no playoff game has been played at the Coliseum Arena (later renamed the New Arena of Oakland, then the Arena in Oakland, and now Oracle Arena) since that May 4, 1994 loss to the Suns.
Since then, the Lakers have played 138 playoff games and the Warriors none, although on May 4, 1994, one might have predicted the opposite because the young Warriors seemed destined for greatness.
The demonstrative Webber was just 22 and had been named rookie of the year after signing a 15-year, $74 million contract.
"He was the one that brought it all together -- the brash rookie," said key reserve Keith "Mister" Jennings.
Sprewell, 23, became the first and only Warriors guard to be named to the All-NBA first team in 1994. His 3,533 minutes of playing time that regular season were not only tops in the NBA that year but remain the most in a season since 1978.
"An iron man," said Jim Barnett, the Warriors' TV analyst then and now.
The versatile Owens was only 24, and the entire team, which included Chris Gatling and Chris Mullin as its playoff starting five, seemed to have a blast every time out.
"We wanted to win and look good doing it," Owens said. "It was the best one year of my life when it comes to teammates. It was just fun."
Though fuzzy on the specifics of the season, those Warrior players had a clear recollection that it had been a particularly close team.
"It was one of the best groups I have been with," Webber said. "I had great veterans on that team, and they took care of me. I don't think I paid for a meal that whole season."
They were woven together by Don Nelson.
"His X's and O's, wow," said reserve Jeff Grayer. "The moves he made to put players in position to do their best was amazing."
Don Nelson's son Donn, now the Mavericks general manager and then a Warriors assistant coach, called it one of his father's best coaching jobs because so much had to be changed in preseason after 1993 All-Star Tim Hardaway and high-scoring sixth man Sarunas Marciulionis had been lost for the entire season because of injuries. Mullin missed the first 20 games as well, yet the Warriors, with Avery Johnson brought in to replace Hardaway, went 50-32, still the Warriors' second-best record since 1976.
"It was a smoke-and-mirrors miracle," Donn Nelson said.
Much like this season's Warriors, their most productive starting five -- Sprewell, Webber, Gatling, Mullin and Owens -- was not assembled until late in the season, and, also like the current Warriors, they were hot at the end, winning eight of their last nine regular-season games.
The defending Western Conference champion Suns brought that run to screeching halt in the playoffs by sweeping the Warriors.
Owens, Mullin, Webber and Sprewell all were productive in the best-of-five series, and the brash Warriors did their share of woofing.
"We weren't intimidated at all," Jennings said.
But they were outplayed by Kevin Johnson (38 points in Game 2) and Barkley, who had 36 points and 19 rebounds in the opener and poured in 56 in the final game.
"I remember I was interviewing Charles before Game 3," said Greg Papa, then the Warriors' radio voice, "and he was exasperated that the Warriors were not double-teaming him. He said, 'If they don't double team me tonight, I could go for 50.' "
That ended the Warriors season, but with Hardaway and Marciulionis back to join the young stars in 1994-95, it seemed the Warriors were headed for years of success.
"We were expecting big, big, big things," Hardaway said.
"I think everyone did," Mullin said.
It unraveled with frightening speed.
Soon after the season, assistant Gregg Popovich, who had helped shape the Warriors' defense, became the Spurs general manager.
Then Webber said he wanted out because he and Nelson did not get along.
"If they didn't, they hid it from us," said Owens, one of Webber's closest friends on the team. "I didn't know it was that bad."
In October, Chris Cohan became the Warriors' majority owner, and two days before the 1994-95 opener, Owens was traded to Miami for Rony Seikaly.
"I thought he was calling me in to say I would be playing the (small forward) spot," Owens said.
Two weeks after that, Webber was traded to Washington for Tom Gugliotta and draft choices. After a 7-1 start, the Warriors lost 22 of their next 25 games, and Nelson stepped down as coach and general manager in February.
"It went from great to bad in an instant," Hardaway said.
The Warriors finished 26-56 and did not have another winning season until this year.
Owens says he and Sprewell and Webber still talk about what might have been.
"If we had stayed together, we would have had the city of Oakland sewed up," he said. "Golden State would have been an elite team."
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THE LAST TIME ...
... the Warriors made the playoffs, in April 1994:
-- Netscape and Yahoo had recently been founded.
-- Snoop Dogg had hit Billboard's top
10 with "Gin and Juice."
-- The Bills had lost their fourth straight Super Bowl, to Dallas.
-- The L.A. area was recovering from the Northridge quake.
-- Cal's Jason Kidd and Lamond Murray had decided to go pro.
-- Kurt Cobain had recently committed suicide.
LATER IN THE YEAR ...
-- O.J. Simpson was charged with two counts of murder.
-- Baseball's players went on strike, and the World Series was canceled.
-- George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas in November.
-- The 49ers began their last Super Bowl-winning season.
-- "Friends" and "ER" debuted in September.
-- "Pulp Fiction" was released, and "Forrest Gump" became the year's No. 1 movie.
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Remember when?
-- In '93-94, Latrell Sprewell led the team in scoring (21.0).
-- Chris Webber led in rebounding (9.1).
-- Avery Johnson led in assists (5.2), with Sprewell, Billy Owens and Chris Mullin also contributing 300+ assists each.
-- Sprewell, 23, was All-NBA first team and All-NBA defense second team.
-- Webber, 21, was Rookie of the Year.
-- The Warriors lost their first-round playoff series 3-0 to the Suns of Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson.
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Where are they now?
Members of the '93-94 Warriors.
Chris Webber -- Starts for the Pistons.
Latrell Sprewell -- Has not played since 2005. Owns Sprewell Motorworks in San Gabriel (Los Angeles County).
Chris Mullin -- Is Warriors' general manager.
Billy Owens -- Living in Blue Bell, Pa., works with NBA prospects, hopes to become an NBA coach.
Keith Jennings -- Coaches boys team at the Highland School in Warrenton, Va.
Jeff Grayer -- Works for the Flint, Mich., board of education.
Chris Gatling -- Lives in the Houston area.
Byron Houston -- Works in private business in Oklahoma City after recently graduating from Oklahoma State.
Avery Johnson -- Coaches the Mavericks.
Don Nelson -- Coaches the Warriors.
Gregg Popovich -- Then-assistant is head coach of the Spurs.
Donn Nelson -- Then-assistant is Mavericks' general manager.
Players who spent some time with the team but are not mentioned above: Victor Alexander, Todd Lichti, Felton Spencer, Josh Grant, Jud Buechler, Dell Demps, Tod Murphy. Tim Hardaway and Sarunas Marciulionis did not play in '93-94 due to injury.
E-mail Jake Curtis at [email protected].
Great article and absolutely brutal for Warriors fans. How painful that so much potential was never realized due to selfishness and, well, stupidity. None of those guys ever got any rings...except for Avery and Pop. ha ha
My goodness how it must be lame to be a fan of Golden State or some other team who has not even sniffed the playoffs in so long. Unbelievable that the last time they were in the playoffs before this season, In Utero was blasting the airwaves.
And look at those trades - Owens for Seikaly, Webber for Gugliotta - what the were they thinking? Talk about buy high sell low!
thats very interesting
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