15 players you forgot played for the Golden State Warriors
8. Jermaine O’Neal (2013-14)
By the time Jermaine O’Neal arrived in the Bay Area, he was long past his days of averaging north of 20 points a game and regularly making All-Star teams.
He was 35 years old and had already bounced around a couple of teams before signing on to back up Andrew Bogut. In 20.1 minutes — across 44 games — the former six-time All-Star averaged 7.9 points and 5.5 rebounds a game.
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Come playoff time, it turned out O’Neal’s services would be more valuable than previously thought. Bogut was done for a while with a broken rib and the Golden State Warriors needed a body to combat DeAndre Jordan in their first-round matchup with the LA Clippers.
O’Neal only started the first three games before Golden State went small and cut his minute significantly. Still, he was crucial in a Game 1 victory, where he put up 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting at Staples Center.
That hard-fought seven-game series — that the Golden State Warriors wound up losing — turned out to be all O’Neal had left in the tank. He retired that summer after 18 incredible NBA seasons right before the Warriors broke through to win a title.