Warriors Trade History When They Weren’t Blue-Chip: A Look Back At Terry Cummings And Ralph Sampson (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
Decades-long Golden State Warriors fans almost have to pinch themselves to believe the franchise is in the running for a marquee player now in consecutive years, related to impending free agency.
The Warriors are in legitimate/serious hot pursuit of Kevin Love, only a year removed from signing Andre Iguodala against all odds and even being one of the few that courted Dwight Howard with an in-person meeting.
Let’s take a trip back to memory lane and take a look at two of the Warriors’ past roles as vagrants trying to get into the VIP line outside the party…
Terry Cummings
Drafted by the San Diego Clippers in 1982 at No. 2, sandwiched between No. 1 James Worthy and No. 3 Dominique Wilkins, Cummings was averaging around 23 points and 10 rebounds in his first two years for the Clips when he got traded to the Milwaukee Bucks. As a Buck, he was named to the 1985 and 1989 All-Star teams. He finished his career with the San Antonio Spurs.
The jockeying for Cummings became a priority for the Warriors after losing Bernard King (check out our story on King earlier this year) to the New York Knicks as a free agent, as well as the Clippers’ own miserly ways in signing its stars to lucrative contracts.
As a microcosm of Golden State’s front office ineptitude and inability to let go of the past, the Dubs finally managed to obtain Cummings well past his prime, as part of the Latrell Sprewell trade with the Knicks, which also sent John Starks back to the Bay and brought in Chris Mills, who has plenty of Warriors anecdotes to warrant a separate post in the future.
Ralph Sampson
The Warriors always coveted a big center after the Joe Barry Carroll era, which might also be considered, equivalently, the Robert Parish debacle, as Parish was traded to the Boston Celtics along with a draft pick that became Kevin McHale — forming two-thirds of the Hall-Of-Fame frontcourt that led the Celtics championship run after they drafted Larry Bird — for the rights to draft Carroll.
Sampson appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated an incredible six times in a span of four years before he was even drafted into the NBA. In 1982, a coin flip would determine if the aforementioned Clippers got the No. 1 pick (against the Los Angeles Lakers). To avoid the risk of landing with San Diego, Sampson stayed another year at the University of Virginia and was subsequently drafted by the Houston Rockets in 1983.
The thought in a lot of circles was that the Rockets would trade Sampson and keep Olajuwon, as both were 7-foot centers. Golden State was one of the many teams looking at the situation as an opportunity to obtain Sampson, albeit never a serious contender, but in the end the Rockets kept both players and spurned all offers, moving Sampson to power forward, while keeping Olajuwon as the center to form the short-lived “Twin Towers”.
Just a few years later, as Sampson struggled to get healthy, he was traded to the Warriors for Sleepy Floyd and Carroll. Golden State fulfilled its lust for a centerpiece, but it was too late as Sampson never played a full season, laboring through knee and back problems.
It was another example of the Warriors not getting the guy they wanted and, in the end, finally getting him when his career was going downhill.
Thankfully, Golden State is now a “blue-chip” franchise in the NBA, has access to the front of the VIP line, and will for the foreseeable future be in play with some of the league’s most sought-after players.
[NOTE: Jason Woron contributed to this report.]
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