From Rick Barry to the Splash Brothers: Warriors Championship History

A 1975 upset that nobody saw coming, then a modern dynasty that changed how basketball is played. This is Golden State's championship story.

For a long time, Warriors basketball in the Bay Area meant heartbreak, lottery picks, and the occasional loud, doomed playoff cameo. Then everything changed, and the franchise went from a punchline to the defining team of an entire era. But the championship story does not start with Stephen Curry. It starts in 1975, with one of the biggest upsets the sport has ever seen.

1975: the upset that started it all

The 1975 Warriors were not supposed to win anything. Led by the brilliant and famously fiery Rick Barry, with his signature underhanded free throws and his relentless competitiveness, they walked into the NBA Finals as heavy underdogs and swept a heavily favored opponent in four straight games. It remains one of the great upsets in league history, and for a generation of Bay Area fans it was the shining memory they held onto through a lot of lean years that followed.

And there were lean years. Decades of them, really. The franchise had flashes, memorable players, and the occasional wild playoff moment, but the mountaintop stayed out of reach for a very long time. That is what makes what came next feel almost impossible.

2015: the Splash Brothers arrive

The modern dynasty was built around a slight, baby-faced guard who scouts once worried was too small and too fragile to carry a team. Stephen Curry rewrote that scouting report and then rewrote the sport itself. Alongside Klay Thompson, the other half of the Splash Brothers, and the do-everything intensity of Draymond Green, Curry turned the three-point shot from a weapon into a philosophy.

In 2015 it all came together. The Warriors won their first championship since 1975, and they did it playing a joyful, fast, unselfish brand of basketball that the rest of the league soon scrambled to copy. The Bay had a winner again, and this time it did not feel like a fluke. It felt like the beginning of something.

2017 and 2018: back-to-back

After a historic regular season that ended in a painful Finals loss, the Warriors added former MVP Kevin Durant, and the result was as dominant as anything the modern NBA has seen. They won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018, steamrolling through the playoffs with a lineup that could score from anywhere and defend every position. Love them or resent them, that version of the Warriors was a machine, and it cemented the franchise as the team of the decade.

2022: the last dance of the core

Then came injuries, roster upheaval, and a couple of lost seasons that had plenty of people writing the dynasty's obituary. The core answered in the best way possible. In 2022 Curry, Thompson, and Green climbed all the way back and won a fourth title together, beating the Boston Celtics in the Finals. Curry was named Finals MVP at last, silencing the one lingering critique of his resume, and the championship felt like a victory lap for a group that had already given the Bay Area more than it ever expected.

Five titles now hang in the rafters of the franchise, in 1975, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2022. The through line from Rick Barry's underhand free throws to Curry's logo-range threes is a reminder that greatness can arrive when you least expect it, disappear for years, and come roaring back. For a fan base that spent so long waiting, the modern Warriors were worth every minute of it.

• 1975Rick Barry leads a stunning Finals sweep as heavy underdogs
• 2015First title of the Curry era, a new style is born
• 2017Back-to-back begins after adding Kevin Durant
• 2018A second straight championship, at peak dominance
• 2022The core returns, Curry wins Finals MVP over the Celtics

• Rick Barry’s 1975 Finals sweep, one of the great upsets ever
• The Splash Brothers turning the three-pointer into a philosophy
• Back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018
• Curry finally winning Finals MVP in 2022

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