The Warriors Come out to Play- and Help Basketball in the Process

I’ll admit before I begin that I don’t have a tremendous amount of connections to the Bay Area. A few of my friends live there, sure – but can’t everyone say that? I’ve developed a drinking buddy as a result of the area’s pro hockey team, as detailed in my post about San Jose’s demise in these NHL playoffs. One time, as I wrote on Larry Brown Sports, I went out there to visit a girl with the full intention of something physical happened; I think that might have died when we checked into a hotel and she said “separate beds.” Or perhaps it was six hours later, when she started making out with another guy at a bar we were at. Regardless, I don’t know the Bay Area very well, or – come to think of it – have a good amount of positive memories from my times there. But here’s what I will say: out of any place I could be in the world right now, contextually speaking, I think I’d pick Oracle Arena in Oakland. It’s not a stretch, mind you – earlier tonight I was at a bar in central CT, bored out of mind, and happened to notice the guy next to me was wearing a Seahawks hat, which is something of a rarity in these parts. I asked him casually, “So, you a Seahawks fan?” and ended up with a 21-minute diatribe (I timed it) on the recent history of the franchise.

I ain’t playing with much, but I’d still throw it all on red to get out to Oracle. The place seems so exciting – Ronnie Lott hobnobbing with Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson! – and rightfully so. While people are quick to call what the Warriors did in Round 1 “the greatest upset in NBA playoff history” (I’d still take Nuggets over Sonics in ’94, personally), calling it just that almost limits what the Warriors are doing.

I mean, consider how long this team suffered (13 years). Consider that during the same period, the 49ers were in the tank, the Giants made a World Series they should have won and ultimately lost it to a team embodied by a monkey and a dead cowboy, the A’s lost another series of first-round playoff appearances, and the Sharks got to the threshold but nothing more. The Bay Area wasn’t relevant, honestly, as a sports site – and the Warriors came to embody that. In 2002, they had Gilbert Arenas, Antwan Jamison, and Larry Hughes. Somehow in 2006, those three players were on the Wizards, and that resulted in a playoff berth and six games with the Cavs. In Golden State? 60 losses.

During the Musselman years, ignore Rusty LaRue and Popeye Jones. This team was seemingly always on the brink of something; they had an athletic Jason Richardson leading the way, a playoff-weary Clifford Robinson offering important points when they were needed, Brian Cardinal burying clutch three after clutch three, and Mike Dunleavy trying to live up to his supposedly massive pedigree. What did all this get them? Another sub – .500 season.

The Warriors are interesting because they defy the old adage about not being able to go home again. Again, consider: the head of the organization, for all intents and purposes, is Chris Mullin, the “M” in “Run TMC” from the psuedo-glory days of this franchise. The GM is another former Bay Area Banger: Rod Higgins. Mario Elie is an assistant, and the man he offers advice to periodically is Don Nelson, who happened to be the Warriors coach the last time they made these playoffs.

All these reasons are why I want to go to Oracle, or at least why I think Oracle right now would be an experience to utterly defy convention and logic. This is a team playing for a city, yet playing against their past; a team relying on previous heroes yet crafting new ones; a team whose coach drinks beer at post-game press conferences yet who displays more athletic ability than virtually every fivesome and beyond in these playoffs; and a team that, when everyone says “No” just steps up and buries a three, ostensibly saying “Yes” right back in the face of society. And isn’t that what playoffs are all about? Isn’t that why we’re supposed to love this game?

So hell, I mean – maybe that girl out west will never love me – but in terms of my impressions of the Bay, I’ll always have this Warriors run to appease me: the hobbled Baron Davis, Stepen “John Starks with a gun rack” Jackson, the enormously athletic Biedrens, Matt Barnes (whom no one seems to be able to identify the college placement of), and now, above all this, another epic battle – this time with the Jazz.

A team of “thugs,” (if you will) led by a Bud Light swilling coach trying to make good in ostensibly his final stop vs. the whitest team in the NBA. If Game 1 is any indication, this isn’t your momma’s Jazz team – they don’t just run the pick – and this definitely isn’t your momma’s Warriors team. See, your momma’s Warriors team would suck, and have 45-60 losses. This one doesn’t. It’s enthralling, powerful, tangible, tantalizing. Here we go now. Warriors, COME OUT TO PLAY.