Derek Fisher’s swift transition from a player in the National Basketball Association to the head coach of the New York Knicks left little time to look back on his fantastic career on the court. So before his first season on the sideline begins, DerekFisher6.com is taking a trip back through time to celebrate D-Fish’s career as a point guard on teams across the league.

Part I focused on Fish’s time at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and how he entered the league in the loaded 1996 draft class. Part II, covered his place in the Los Angeles Lakers early 2000s dynasty.

Now in Part III D-Fish is moving upstate to become a Warrior.

After spending eight years and winning three NBA titles with the team that drafted him, Derek Fisher moved on to the next chapter in his career, transitioning from Southern California up to the San Francisco Bay Area with the Golden State Warriors.

Golden State hadn’t logged a winning season since 1993 when Fish joined the club, but he was enthusiastic about his new squad and eager to see where they could go together.

“I’m really excited about this new opportunity with the Warriors,” Derek said upon his signing. “I was very impressed with the overall pursuit by Chris Mullin and the organization, which certainly helped me make this decision. I think the Warriors are a team headed in the right direction, have a nice young nucleus and I’m glad to be a part of a club on the rise.”

While the Warriors did have a strong young core group, particularly in the backcourt, they lacked the star power that the Lakers had in the form of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

As with many newly formed squads, Fish and Co. struggled in the early stages of his career in Oakland. The team hit a low point when it won just one game through the month of January in that first season.

However, the veteran D-Fish kept working, and so did those around him. In January, the Warriors met up with Derek’s former squad twice. Fish amassed a career-high 29 points at home and dropped 23 at the Staples Center, but both came in heartbreaking losses. After the defeat in L.A., Fish identified his team’s defensive deficiency as its downfall.

“We are scoring enough to beat anybody, but defensively, we aren’t making enough plays,” Fish said. “We are letting people score too easily and too consistently, so that’s where our focus has to be.”

Over the final two months of the season, those lessons finally began to take hold. Golden State had a much improved March, winning 10 of 16 games. The high point of the season came March 25 at home against Milwaukee. Fish was stuck to the bench with five fouls for much of the game, but he entered on the final play with his squad down two.

Fish inbounded to Jason Richardson from the wing, and after the Warriors shooting guard drew a double, he tossed back out to D-Fish, who buried a long triple at the buzzer to give his squad a 118-117 win.

That triumph started an eight-game winning streak and sparked Golden State to win 11 of its final 14 games.

“We’re working hard this time of the year,” Fish said after his buzzer-beater. “It’d be easy for us to mail it in because we aren’t making the playoffs. But our coaching staff is working hard everyday trying to prepare us. As a team we’re working hard, we’re getting better, and we’re looking forward to improving as a team and moving toward next season.”

The Warriors were able to bottle that attitude and use it the following season for one of the best starts in franchise history. Golden State topped rival Sacramento 113-106 to close the month of November with 11 wins for the first time since 1974.

Early in December, the Warriors made the short trip to Seattle and escaped with a wild 110-107 win over the SuperSonics. D-Fish led the way with 26 points—three shy of his career high—along with five assists and three rebounds. But afterward, he revealed what was ultimately the downfall of the young team: unpredictability and inconsistency.

“Every night is going to be an adventure for us, because we’re a young team,” Fish said after the overtime win. “We like to just get out and play basketball.”

For the remainder of the season, Golden State was streaky. Whenever it strung together a few wins, a slump inevitably followed. After 82 games, the Warriors found themselves on the outside of the playoffs again and at exactly the same record as the previous season: 34-48.

In two years with the Warriors, Fish notched his highest career scoring averages, including 13.3 points per game in Season 2. But more so than seeing his numbers rise, Fish longed for another playoff run.

Over the ensuing offseason, D-Fish was swiped up by the Utah Jazz—a playoff-caliber team in need of veteran leadership, beginning another memorable chapter in his career.