NSANE Golden State Warriors Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

Do you know who the first ever NBA superstar is? Now, I know most of you would probably say it's Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell, and the older folks out there might say it's Bob Pettit or George Mikan, and um, some might even throw a wild card like Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, or Bob Cousy. Well, I hate to break it to you guys, because the true and first ever superstar of the NBA was this guy. Joseph Franklin Fulks, or more commonly known as Joe Fulks, was the first NBA superstar in league history. Now, I know the name might not be familiar to most NBA fans, but let me tell you guys, this guy was legit. Standing at 6 foot 5, Joe Fulks was a shooting machine, and I mean that, literally. I mean, this dude once attempted a whopping 56 shot attempts to score 63 points in a single game. This dude was so good that in the inaugural season of the NBA back in 1946, he led the league not only in scoring, but he also led his team to capture the first championship in NBA history. Well, the team that Joe Fulks played for was the Philadelphia Warriors, a team that later moved to the Bay Area and became the San Francisco Warriors, and eventually the team we now know as the Golden State Warriors, who uh, also have a shooting machine, and who also just won the latest NBA championship. Crazy, huh? On the night of the 2003 NBA draft, the Detroit Pistons picked an unknown international prospect named Darko Milicic. After 17 years later, the Golden State Warriors drafted James Wiseman in the 2020 draft. Now, you might be wondering, what's the connection here? Well, you see, for starters, both players have an identical frame, standing at 7 feet tall with about a 7 foot 5 wingspan. From there, both of them were also drafted as the second overall pick of their respective draft classes. Then, to make things even weirder, a certain Mello was picked right after them, and oh, before I forget, they were both lefties too. Now, the strange coincidence doesn't stop there. See, both Wiseman and Milicic were hobbled by injuries in the rookie season, and the number of games they played were almost identical, with Milicic playing only 5 games fewer than Wiseman. And finally, here's one more thing. They both won a championship before they played 82 games. Now, I hope this is where the similarities stop, because for the sake of the Warriors' future, James Wiseman needs to have a much better NBA career than Milicic had. Anyway, here's another wild fact that will blow your mind. On the night of December 13th, 2021, the Warriors just came off a hard-fought victory against the Indiana Pacers. In that game, Steph knocked down 5 three-pointers, and because of that, he only needed two more in the next game against the Knicks to surpass Ray Allen's record to finally become the all-time three-point leader in NBA history. Well, it seemed that the New York front office was trying to prevent Curry from having another epic performance at Madison Square Garden, because, uh, right before Golden State players were about to make this trip from Indiana to New York, the Warriors' plane broke down for mechanical issues. Luckily, they were able to leave the very next morning, but what this meant was that on the day where Steph Curry broke the all-time three-point record, his schedule was all off. His daily routines, like breakfast, shoot-arounds, media sessions, post-practice conditioning were all in shambles. But there he was, just inches away from the finish line, with a broken plane. Anyway, despite everything that led up to this moment, Curry finally hit the most important three-pointer to seal the deal. The day ended in all smiles for the Warriors, and that's all she wrote. However, back in 2016, the mood was completely different for the Dubs. The Warriors were one way away from being back-to-back champs in the 2016 NBA Finals, and in line with that, Steph was also on the verge of getting his first-ever Finals MVP trophy, or was he? We're not here to discuss their monumental collapse, but instead, I want to point out that, even if the Warriors did beat the Cavaliers that year, Steph Curry still probably wouldn't have been named Finals MVP. I know you might think I'm crazy, but based on the statistics, that award would have gone to Draymond Green. I mean, check this out. Although Steph averaged more points per game, Draymond actually performed better all across the board in other major statistical categories. And what's even more surprising here is the fact that Draymond actually shot more efficiently than Steph from both the field and three-point range, with 48.6 and 40.5%. In addition, Draymond was the Dubs' main man on defense, and he was mainly guarding LeBron, Kyrie, or Kevin Love in constant rotation. Sheesh, wouldn't that be something? For a unanimous MVP to win the championship twice as the best player on the team, but missing out on both Finals MVPs. Anyways, I want to turn the attention now to Klay Thompson, and what he did in Game 6 of the 2019 Finals. Yeah, we all know that he was on fire that game until he tore his ACL on that dunk attempt, but it's what he did after he got injured that was insane. I mean, returning to the court to knock down two free throws was giving me Kobe vibes from 2013, but man, did you all know that after swishing two free throws on a torn ACL, Klay actually ran back to play some defense? I mean, look at him here. He's looking like he's about to match up again with Danny Green for Pete's sake. Here's what Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said on the matter. I think we took a foul right after the free throws, and I went out onto the court and told him. I said, Klay, you've got to get it checked out. He said, I'm fine, coach. I'm fine. And I said, no. Go in. Go in and let our doctors make sure you're okay. And he said, okay, but I'll be fine. I'll be back. Give me two minutes. I'll be back. And that was from a guy with a torn ACL. Anyway, if you think that story was crazy, wait till you hear this next one. To most Warriors fans, I'm pretty sure that you're aware that Steph's younger sister, Seidel, is married to Damian Lee, which effectively makes him the Splash brother-in-law. But aside from Steph and Damian, did you know that there were other Warriors teammates that also shared a family bond? See, K'Vaun Looney and former Warrior Nick Young are actually first cousins, and this was confirmed by them in separate interviews back in 2017. Actually, that's my cousin, too. I'm related to him. That's my first cousin. Really? Yeah. Little K'Vaun Looney. My cousin. Little cousin. You know? Yeah. Well, as it turned out, Swaggy P is Looney's mom's sister's son, and so it was fun to see that two cousins were able to share the court together at least for one season while playing for the Dubs and winning a championship. Now, if your mind was blown with that fact, I'm not sure how you'd handle this next one. I don't know what the 2K developers were smoking at the time, but this photo right here was the actual face of Steph Curry in NBA 2K10. I mean, sure, Steph's nickname is the Babyface Assassin, but I think the developers kind of went too far by doing what appears like an actual face swap between Steph and a real baby. And to add more disrespect, the 2K creators gave Steph an overall rating of 69 despite the chef averaging 18.6 points per ballgame while shooting 44.2% from three during that season. Sheesh. The 2K people really did Steph dirty right there. And speaking of Steph, did you all know that the greatest shooter of all time was once beaten by a 200-pound 49-year-old man in a three-point contest? Yes, you heard me right. During one of the practice sessions of the Warriors back in 2014, then-coach Mark Jackson decided to have a little fun with Steph by challenging him to a three-point shootout. Now, Mark Jackson was only a 33% career three-point shooter, so there's no way he's beating Steph, right? Well, as the contest went underway, Steph began to miss a couple of shots while his coach kept making them. And in the end, Jackson didn't only beat Steph, he swept him in all three locations, whether it was from the corner, in the wing, or right in the middle.