Category: Golden State Warriors

    I am the Bizarro Chicken Little.  The sky is actually growing.  After 8 games, my basketball team has failed to post a single losing record.  They’ve now had 8 chances to take that familiar plunge into the lottery pool, the shallow end of the NBA where also-rans bob around in their floaties and learn how to hopefully make it to the deep end one day.  Over the past decade, the Warriors have been the kid who simply refuses to get out of the lotto pool, closing hours and pruned fingers be damned.  But this year, the Warriors haven’t so much as dipped a toe into the lottery waters, instead sprinting for the deep end and diving in headfirst.  And the only thing more surprising than seeing the Warriors in the deep end for the first time in 12 years?  They’re keeping their heads above water.

         NBA training camps don’t open for a few more weeks, but Chris Mullin wasn’t about to let that stand in his way.  His  Golden State Warriors ended last season on a positive note, lending more promise to the 2005-06 season than any before it in the past decade.  But to reestablish the chemistry of last year’s team, Mullin knew his players would need as much time as possible together.  So he decided to round all of them up in person, several weeks early, and he recounted his efforts to me so that I could publish them on my website.  Why me, you ask?  Well, Mully and I have shared a special bond ever since my 7th grade season in CYO basketball, when I was voted “Player Most Likely to Make Chris Mullin Gag in Horror”.  That kind of bond doesn’t just fade away with time.

        The Golden State Warriors are the best sports team in the Bay Area.  There, I said it.  The 49ers are ready to make Aaron Rodgers the least celebrated #1 pick in NFL history, the Raiders are apparently only too happy to field a defense a Pee Wee League team would be ashamed of, and both the A’s and Giants are suddenly looking very ordinary.  For the first time in longer than anyone can remember, the Golden State Warriors are the toast of the Bay.  At least, they will be, once word reaches the masses that B. Diddy now runs the city.

        Now that the champagne bottles are all empty, and all the guests have gone home, the Golden State Warriors and their fans can now go back to living their normal lives.  As is the case every year, Warriors fans worked themselves into a frenzy over which player their team might acquire before the trade deadline, all based on some hot rumor they received from their mailman who knows someone who knows someone’s cousin.  But today is different from every other post-deadline Friday: there’s no hangover.  Warriors fans woke up Friday morning and the hottie was still in their bed.  This wasn’t just some dream we had about a 6-foot bowling ball of a point guard who would dunk over his own mother if she was guarding the lane.  No, this really happened.  The Warriors made a franchise-altering trade in February, and for once, we’re not the ones who took it on the chin.

       Ever since Chris Cohan took over as owner of the Golden State Warriors, the team has strictly adhered to a kindly old fisherman’s rule: you can catch stars, but always be sure to throw ’em back.  If you happen to be a fan of the team, you can probably recite the list of ex-Warrior stars faster than you can recall your own address.  Precious few players are given long-term contracts around these parts, and even fewer live up to the expectations that come with their deals.  This summer, Adonal Foyle and Derek Fisher each signed 6-year deals worth the equivalent of Master P’s bicuspids, which is no small chunk of change.  Apparently the names Danny Fortson and Bimbo Coles mean nothing to the people running this franchise.

For the 11th consecutive year, the Western Conference playoffs will narrowly elude the grasp of the Golden State Warriors.  For a fan of any other team, missing the playoffs brings a small element of excitement, because it brings with it a chance at the #1 overall pick in the draft lottery.  But for Warriors fans, there is no such feeling.  There is only dread, knowing that if the Warriors did indeed win the right to draft first, they would somehow manage to screw it up.  However, this general dread of NBA Drafts is becoming an outdated sentiment in the Bay Area, as the Warriors have quietly begun evaluating talent as though they were actually running a team.

Sometimes, it isn’t easy to root your team. Sometimes, you love a team that continually fails you, fails to make the playoffs, fails to reach .500, whatever the case may be. It’s not easy to stick with rooting for such a team. This is why, as a tried-and-true Golden State Warriors fan, I felt it my duty to come up with 10 rock-solid reasons why everyone should be a Warriors fan. Without further adieu…