A story about a Golden State Warrior and his quest to fight an entire NBA team and their bus driver.
It’s a dead time in the NBA schedule. Jonathan Kuminga and the Golden State Warriors are locked in a stalemate over guaranteed money and option years. EuroBasket is taking place with zero members of the Warriors involved and none of the Warriors’ Australians are playing in the Asian Cup. Even “The Draymond Green Show With Baron Davis” hasn’t released a podcast since July 3.
So instead, we’ll look at a seminal moment in Warriors history, from the Chris Cohan Era, aka, the Dark Ages. After a 50-win season in 1993-94, Cohan bought the team and things immediately fell apart, with Chris Webber and Don Nelson’s feud sending both men out of town. A year later, Cohan inexplicably decided to trade Tim Hardaway and future All-Star Chris Gatling for Kevin Willis and Bimbo Coles. Ugh.
The low point came after Latrell Sprewell choked P.J. Carlesimo in December of 1997 and the Warriors attempted to void his contract. Spree won reinstatement on appeal after the season, though he was still out his 97-98 salary, which he’s trying to recoup through Priceline commercials. He has to feed his family!
A lockout delayed the NBA season until January of 1999, at which point Golden State traded Sprewell to the Knicks. Usually, when an NBA team deals an All-Star, they get young players or salary relief back. Sometimes both! This was the Warriors, so instead they got 33-year-old John Starks, 38-year-old Terry Cummings, and 29-year-old Chris Mills – who had six seasons left on his $34 million deal. That’s Jason Caffey money!
As a side note, Jason Caffey being able to sign a seven-year contract may have been the single transaction most responsible for NBA contracts being limited to five years now.
Mills was still on the Warriors in December of 2002, when Portland came to town. This was the apex of the “Jail Blazers” era. Rasheed Wallace and Damon Stoudamire had just been arrested for marijuana possession. Bonzi Wells was suspended weeks earlier for spitting on Danny Ferry. And registered sex offender Ruben Patterson had been arrested for spousal abuse. Somehow, Chris Mills was crazier than all of them that night.
The Warriors blew a late lead, as was their habit, and Wallace hit a buzzer-beater to win. Afterward, Wells and Mills started shoving each other. Wells threw a punch. Troy Murphy threw a punch. Fans threw plastic bottles at Sheed, and one fan got arrested after hitting him with gum. But Chris Mills was the angriest.
Based on jail time alone, this Portland squad was one of the worst possible teams to brawl with. They had Trayce Jackson-Davis’s father, tough guy Dale Davis, a young Zach Randolph, and Qyntel Woods, who was literally running a dogfighting ring at the time. Not only did Mills try to get into the opposing locker room, he also parked his SUV in front of the Portland team bus. The Blazers couldn’t leave, while Mills and his friends pounded on the windows and challenged the entire team to a fight.
Eventually the Oakland police got involved to restrain Mills, and the Blazers bus went on its way. We can’t find documentation online, but there were rumors that Mills followed the bus to the airport – admittedly not that far from the Oakland Coliseum. It’s reminiscent of the time in 2023 when Ja Morant’s father and his friend, Davonte Pack, both got involved in altercations between the Indiana Pacers and Memphis Grizzlies, and after the game, someone in an SUV that Morant happened to be riding in pointed a laser, or a laser sight, at the Pacers bus.
Mills remained on the Warriors for the rest of the season, then got traded three times in six months. He eventually did help a team to a title, when his salary was used as ballast in the deal that sent his nemesis, Rasheed Wallace, to the Detroit Pistons. As far as we can tell, Mills never achieved his dream of fighting a passenger bus.
Category: General Sports
