Honorary Warriors For Life? Mitch Richmond and Alfonzo McKinnie
Relax, this is just for reminiscing.
Honorary Warriors For Life
The concept is simple. There are some players who are not in the Warriors organization, but Warriors fans will still pull for anyway (as long as no Warriors interests are at stake). So they are not a part of Dub Nation, but they still are welcomed into Dub Nation. This is very often because they are former Warriors players, but not always.
More details are included in our master list of all those voted Honorary Warriors For Life so far. More details are included in our master list of all those voted Honorary Warriors For Life so far. In short, getting >75% support achieves Honorary Warrior For Life; >50% support of voters who know them achieves Honorary Warrior.
Mitch Richmond
Mitch Richmond was the M of Run TMC, joining Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullin to form the Warriors lineup from 1989-1991 that sent shockwaves through the league. Drafted by the Warriors in 1988, he was a sharpshooter who immediately averaged 22+ points per game from the start.
Naturally, because (until recently) Warriors fans couldn’t have nice things, Richmond was traded early in his third year, in a shocking swap for Billy Owens. Mitch promptly went on to be one of the leagues best 3 point shooters for the Sacramento Kings and a six-time All-Star.
Here are the poll results.
Well 82.1% / Poorly 3.6% / Don't care either way 8.9% / Don't know who they are 5.4%.
Dub Nation still loves Mitch Richmond, and he is awarded Honorary Warrior For Life status!
However, the Don’t Know vote, the third highest so far after Antawn Jamison (6%) and Šarūnas Marčiulionis (25%), shows he’s become somewhat forgotten over time.
Alfonzo McKinnie
I love McKinnie’s story and how he beat the odds to make it to the NBA.
He came out of nowhere to grab the last spot on the Warriors roster in 2018-19 and provided some three-point shooting, hard work on defense, and outstanding offensive rebounding.
I have a soft spot for Zo because of all the above, and also because he served me a smoothie in one of my favorite articles I ever wrote: Draymond Green and Alfonzo McKinnie’s true fake adventure at Oakland’s End.
McKinnie was thrust into a big role in the 2019 NBA Finals because everyone else on the team was injured, against one of the best playoff defenses ever, so that may have left some of Dub Nation with a sour taste. Let’s go to the polls:
Well 69% / Poorly 4% / Don't care either way 26% / Don't know who they are 1%
A majority of Dub Nation is still pulling for Zo and we award him Honorary Warrior status!
To support this content, this site and this community, please mash this button:
Respect to Mitch and Zo, but I just want to chime in about that "True fake adventure at Oakland’s End" article. It didn't seem to get a lot of attention at the time, but it really stayed with me. One of the best pieces of sports journalism I ever read. I always wondered if Draymond liked it too.