In the summer of 1974, the Golden State Warriors were facing a rebuilding year. With the departure of beloved legend and Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond, Cazzie Russell, and Clyde Lee, and the injury of starter Jeff Mullins, the best prediction was for the Warriors to finish in fourth place in their division. So certain were they that the team would not make it to the postseason that their home arena booked the Ice Capades during that time.
Enter Clifford Ray, a largely undistinguished player who had been in the league a few years. Ray had a mission to win a championship and he knew how to do it: by changing the perception of the league’s most hated player, Rick Barry. Barry was well known for his subversive, iconoclastic, underhanded free throw and his arrogance. He was derided as a ball hog who would rather give blood than give the ball to a teammate.
Ray called a meeting with the team, had Rick leave and all the coaches leave. He asked how many guys thought they could score forty points per game. When nobody raised their hand, Ray said if Barry played forty-eight minutes a night, they could depend on him at least putting in thirty points. He suggested that instead of having jealously or resentment toward someone who was willing to commit so much every single night, they should try to do everything they can to collectively bring everything that’s needed for them to be competitive and see what happens.
The team agreed and from that day on, they started doing things like having breakfast at each other’s house and doing things together. This collective trust created a positive thing and they went on to win it all, alchemizing to pull off arguably the biggest upset in NBA Finals history. The Warriors had a 48–34 regular season record while their finals opponent, the Washington Bullets, had a regular season record of 60–22.
The Warriors came from behind in nine of their twelve playoff wins and three of their four finals wins. The average margin of victory in the 1975 finals was four points, still the lowest in NBA history. It was an incredible accomplishment that was met with shock and denial from the sports world, as they are the only NBA champions in the modern era not to meet the president or make the cover of Sports Illustrated.
But what may be even more remarkable is that Rick Barry was voted captain of this team—the only time in his high school, college, and pro career that his teammates and coaches voted him captain. This is a testament to the transformative power of human alchemy—the capacity to affect one another in ways that get us to “be the change you wish to see in the world” by becoming someone neither you nor anyone else knew you could be.
The 1974–75 Golden State Warriors experienced a remarkable confluence of internal and external factors contributing to their powerful alchemy. They were the first franchise in a major American professional sports league to have a full-time Black head coach (Alvin Attles) and Attles broke the unwritten league rule for how many Black players could be on a team and how many would start at home games. He also innovatively emphasized player interchangeability throughout the entire roster.
Rick Barry should also be credited as the pioneer of modern sports free agency for legally challenging the reserve clause in 1967 two years before Curt Flood did with Major League Baseball. As the first NBA player (and a superstar, no less) to jump to the rival ABA, Barry started a salary war between the leagues, increasing player salaries by 500 percent over an eight-year period.
The 1974–75 Warriors were in line with the zeitgeist of the changing nation and Bay Area—Hank Aaron incited Southern white anger by eclipsing Babe Ruth’s home-run record, Muhammad Ali stoked Black nationalism by beating George Foreman in Zaire, Jerry Brown became governor of California while dating Mexican American music star Linda Ronstadt, and President Nixon resigned while free agency began in Major League Baseball and US involvement in Vietnam ended.
The principle of human alchemy is how we combine with each other and the truth of the present world, transforming into what we need to be in order to make the world what it needs to be. The 1974–75 Golden State Warriors are an inspiring example of this principle in action—a team that achieved something greater than what any one individual could have done alone and changed the perception of one of basketball’s most hated players in the process.
