THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, May 27, 2016

When I grew up in Redlands, Calif., located roughly 50 miles northeast of Disneyland in Anaheim, there was this undersized but fast break and 3-point-happy team who played in the NBA called the Golden State Warriors, a team that’s played since 1972 way up north in Oakland.

Before that, they were the San Francisco Warriors and earlier than that, the Philadelphia Warriors from 1946 to 1962.

They were fueled by a trio nicknamed “Run TMC”, nicknamed after the then-popular rap group “Run DMC.” Run TMC consisted of point guard Tim Hardaway, shooting guard Mitch Richmond and a guy that was then known as the Larry Bird of the West Coast, left-handed Chris Mullin, a great player with the butch-blond haircut who I darn near idolized.

This 6-foot-7 small forward from St. John’s in the Queens part of New York City had a sweet-shooting left-handed stroke, especially from 3-point land, a big reason I shot left-handed during my eighth-grade basketball season in 1992-93, whether he knew it or not. For some odd reason, I could not shoot free throws — perhaps it was nerves — or especially 3-pointers, so during those situations, I’d switch to my right hand. Mullin is now the head coach at St. John’s. One of his assistants is Richmond.

HARDAWAY, THE barely 6-foot ring leader with a big round head who looked like a shorter Brahma bull, had that funky type of shot, where he turned his right hand diagonally instead of facing straight up, then he’d shoot a sort of knuckleball-style jump shot with no real rotation. But awkward or not, it worked.

Hardaway is the Warriors’ all-time assist leader at 9.3 assists per game and is second on the total assists list. Mullin is their all-time steals leader and Richmond is fifth on their all-time scorers’ list for points per game. So yeah, they were pretty good — though the core group of guys never advanced past the Western Conference semifinals, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1987 and 1991, plus the Phoenix Suns in 1989.

FAST FORWARD to today, where the Warriors are led by the best 12-year-old in the league, Steph Curry. OK, he’s actually a 28-year-old married father of two girls, and not many can complain about his results though, as he led Golden State to last year’s NBA championship and at least got to reach the Western Conference finals. He helped Golden State to a runaway 73-9 record, which is the most wins in NBA regular season history. Oh and by the way, coach Steve Kerr is a nice, laid-back yet tough-as-nails coach who has implemented a sort of run-and-gun philosophy as well.

Curry won the NBA MVP, the second in team history and first for the current post-Philly team, scoring an NBA-leading 30.1 points per game and 6.1 assists per game. The guy never met a 3-pointer he didn’t like, it seems, nailing 45 percent of his threes and 50 percent of his overall field goals, both in the regular season. Those are darn near video-game numbers and it’s pretty ridiculous he shot at that clip. But the playoffs have brought him down a bit, as he’s scored 25.3 points per game, 48 percent from the field and 40 percent from three, still pretty crazy numbers.

Of course, the Robin to Curry’s slight-framed Batman is former Washington State star and shooting guard Klay Thompson. And our power forward, Draymond Green, is kind of like our Swiss Army knife.

I’ll just wrap this up with the appreciation Golden State fans should have with this current crop of Warriors. Consider this — from 1994 to 2006, we never reached the playoffs, chalking up 12 consecutive losing seasons. Ouch.

Our front office made brilliant moves (or not), like drafting Todd Fuller in the 1996 NBA Draft over Kobe Bryant, although yes, 11 other teams passed on the recently retired “Black Mamba.” I stuck by them, although I did not exactly see any point in watching their games, which often were hideous defeats. They’d actually score more than enough points to win, but their defense? Yikes, easy buckets galore.

So there you have it, from the late 1980s’ three-man group of “Run TMC”, to today’s even better squad which is trying to win back-to-back titles, to the Dark Ages.

Warrior Ball — it’s fantastic!

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at [email protected]