Speaking of great players who left the Bay Area to win championships elsewhere (quite a departure from today, isn’t it?), we now get to Robert Parish.
Most know Parish from his time with the Boston Celtics as one-third of the Big 3 with Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, but Centenary standout first made his name as a pro with the Warriors. Well, as much of name as one could playing for that franchise in the late 1970s.
Golden State took the 7-footer with the No. 8 overall pick in the 1976 NBA Draft. Looking back, the Houston Rockets, the Chicago Bulls, the then-Kansas City Kings, the Portland Trail Blazers, the then-Buffalo Braves (who would eventually become the Los Angeles Clippers) and the Milwaukee Bucks would love to have a second crack at this draft.
Gifted with great footwork and a statuesque build that made him a fortress in the paint, Parish averaged a modest 13.8 points, 9.5 boards, and 1.8 blocks per game in four seasons with the Warriors, though those totals were bogged down by pedestrian rookie numbers.
Of course, this being the early 1980s Warriors, they decided to trade Parish to the Celtics along with a future first-round pick, which Boston used to select McHale in 1980, in exchange for two first-first round picks in the 1980 NBA Draft.
Golden State used those picks to take Joe Barry Carroll and Rickey Brown. Carroll was a mediocre, high-volume scorer and Brown was nothing to write home about. Yet another reminder that Red Auerbach was the fleece master long before Danny Ainge became an executive.
As for the Warriors, well, what can you say? They deserve credit for identifying the talent in a draft bereft of it, but that’s about it when it comes to Parish’s time with the team.