Top 25 Golden State Warriors in franchise history

16. Latrell Sprewell

Latrell Sprewell is one of the most polarizing figures in Golden State Warriors (and probably NBA) history. His negative reputation precedes him. His choking incident with head coach P.J. Carlesimo will forever remain as one of the craziest stories in league history.

But if we look beyond that, we can really see how spectacular Sprewell was during his time as a Warrior. While the advanced metrics don’t necessarily support calling his Warriors’ tenure successful, he was very solid in his six seasons in the Bay Area.

He was a three-time All-Star. He was also named to the All-NBA First Team, alongside John Stockton, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone, and Hakeem Olajuwon in 1993-94. That same year, Sprewell was also selected to the Second Team All-Defense.

For his career as a Warrior, he averaged 20.1 points, 4.7 assists, and 4.3 rebounds per game. He played 40 minutes per game on average and, in ’93-94, played all 82 games while spending 43.1 minutes per game on the court. In the playoffs during that season, he played 40 minutes per contest and posted averages of 22.7 points, 7.0 assets, and 3.0 rebounds.

He led Golden State to the playoffs once, but the team had a lot of turnover during his time with the team and they couldn’t find continued success. Individually, he was excellent. Unfortunately, his attitude and incident with Carlesimo have overshadowed Sprewell’s talent and strong tenure with the team.