Giants collapse reminder of darker times

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This Giants thing is insane.

Never has a Bay Area team collapsed from championship contender to potentially the worst team in the league so utterly, so completely, so swiftly.

Or has it happened before?

The 2017 Giants, complete with the shock factor, the feeling that a long winter is coming and the sense of general panic gripping fans reminded me of a couple of Bay Area moments like this.

For example:

— THE 1999 49ERS: Kids today probably don’t realize how dominant the 1980s and 1990s 49ers were, but a review of the 1999 season and what was lost may educate them. After starting 3-1 in Steve Mariucci’s third season, disaster struck when Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young suffered the concussion that would end his career, in a Monday Night loss to Arizona.

As Young lay prone on the turf, nobody could foretell the disaster that would await the franchise. The team would lose 10 of their final 11 games and finish 4-12, their worst record since 1979. It would be their first losing season (in a full season) since 1980. They would miss the playoffs for only the second time in 19 years.

While the team had a brief spurt of life under Young’s replacement, Jeff Garcia, with playoff berths in 2001 and 2002, it was short-lived and the team, without fired coach Mariucci, without a Hall of Fame QB, without a consistent front office, missed the playoffs for the next eight years.

— THE 1994-95 WARRIORS: Under Don Nelson, with the talent of a young Latrell Sprewell, and with NBA Rookie of the Year Chris Webber coming off a 50-win season in 1993-94, the Warriors thought they were launching a golden era.

Instead, the Bay Area was stunned when Webber clashed with Nellie’s use of him, and demanded a trade. Nellie obliged, shipping him to Washington for Tom Gugliotta. Not only that, but the Billy Owens-for-Rony Seikaly trade never panned out, and Chris Mullin missed significant time with injuries. Nellie resigned midway through the season.

The Warriors won 26 games, and darkness engulfed the Bay Area.

But not to worry, it didn’t last very long — only TWENTY YEARS*.

(* = Apologies to the brief ray of sunshine the 2007 ‘We Believe’ team created.)

So, we’ve been stunned before by Bay collapses from jewel franchises. Questions are: Will the Giants find their Jeff Garcia in the next couple of years? Will Bruce Bochy stick around, or go the Nellie/Mariucci route? Will the Giants front office founder and flounder, like the 49ers in the 2000s?

One thing’s for sure — there’s no way the Giants can replicate that Warriors-like two-decade deep freeze.

Right?