Before they signed Kevin Durant, before they reached back-to-back NBA Finals, before they were bought by a Joe Lacob-led group of investors, the Warriors were unheralded, run-and-gun upstarts trying to lift the franchise out of irrelevance.
With Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson and Jason Richardson leading the way, Golden State topped Dallas in six games in 2007 to become the first No. 8 seed in NBA history to outlast a No. 1 seed in a seven-game set. It galvanized a long-suffering fan base and halted the club’s 15-year drought without a playoff-series win.