A Farewell to Oracle Arena
A Farewell to Oracle Arena
Re-broadcast on NBCSN Bay Area, Tue May 26, 8pm Pacific
The last regular season Warriors game at Oracle Arena will be re-broadcast on NBCSN Bay Area, Tue May 26, 8pm Pacific.
I attended the game live. For old times sake, I sat in the Golden State of Mind season ticket seats. Years ago, Atma Brother One grabbed lower bowl season tickets for We Believe and for a while, Vox Media covered the cost since the tickets were really cheap. Then Vox cut us off, but we pooled our money and kept the tickets. Then the tickets got really expensive and we just hung on, and then finally with the move to Chase Center and the personal seat licenses, a group of us went to the fancy season ticket presentation and then gave up the tickets for good. So this was the last game of our season tickets.
I was not expecting to have any nostalgic reflections at all for this game. After all, there were still playoffs to be played in Oracle. And yet, I did get quite reflective.
So here, you’ll get the notes and photos from the game, and then final reflections from right after the game.
Notes Live From The Game
Eric Apricot, April 7, 2019
I'm feeling more nostalgic than I thought I would.
KD has shot more in the first 5 minutes than the last week combined.
Haha KD grabbed Bogut *fast* before he could go after the ref on the Zubac foul call
NBA needs to have a rule that on every dead ball they throw it to Steph -- wherever he is -- and let him hoist a shot.
LAC not guarding Boogie at the arc, so I think/hope he's going to start screening for shooters since the 3 is just not there today
In Kerr's inimitable way, he specifically runs an ATO to get Steph curling off a Boogie screen, and then Steph passes out of an open free throw back to *another* Boogie 3 which finally falls.
I associate these jerseys with mostly crap basketball and being mad at the owner and management. But also cheap tickets.
Halftime show was I think the Oakland Symphony Orchestra live scoring a highlight reel from 47 seasons of Oracle.
I don't like it when they put Waaaaariors on the jumbotron. It's better when the crowd decides it's time.
There are all these little short films about Oracle during the breaks, but they aren't quite doing it for me. They have the enthusiasm of class book reports.
Oracle crowd noise power rankings tonight so far
Zo block to Steph layup
Dray foul bad call replay
Steph 3
Klay great D in post
Jerebko and Zo 3s
Racing to the #1 spot is the DMC "charge" along with subsequent crowd observation that the refs use mouth vacuum to draw objects toward mouth.
Steph just set a bone crushing screen to get KD a dunk. Best screening small in the league!
I've got to hand it to the Oracle crowd. Still screaming DE FENSE in a 27 pt game, still cheering loud for every basket in garbage time. I don't think anyone has left. Booing a close call on Klay in a 28 pt game.
A celebration of the last time we can afford to go to the game!
Final Words of Wisdom
I have complicated feelings about the Oracle Finale. Nostalgia is really about the feelings we wish we had in the past. My actual feelings following GSW 1991-2012 have been mainly anger and hopelessness with occasionally enjoying a Cheap (Not Great) Time Out.
Even We Believe got shutdown almost immediately after the season.
Then in 2012, I was excited to finally have a team that wasn't an embarrassment and my highest hope was for Steph to be healthy and make an All-Star team and for GSW to regularly make the playoffs.
The whole 2015 ring was a shocker. A miracle. But then when everyone kept calling it lucky, it was annoying. Then 73 and the whole 3-1 loss when the sporting world mob piled on. I was happy for KD to come and have every shallow commentator complaining the league was ruined.
GSW so quickly went from the jump shooters who could never win to the revolution that won.
And some fans definitely started having entitled expectations over the last couple of years. And fan energy definitely went down these last two seasons.
So tonight was a great throwback to how we'd like to imagine The Good Old Days.
Fans were positive, and were cheering all the baskets and yelling DeFense all game and enjoying the hustle and not taking for granted the blowout. And people stayed, enjoying an actual Great Time Out.
My Favorite Oracle Moment
So here is my favorite Oracle moment. It's nothing obscure. I wasn’t at We Believe live and I didn’t get to go with my parents to the arena.
2017 Finals Game 5. Before the game, we fans were really really worried. GSW was up 3-1 and we were emotionally scarred from the 3-1 bullying all year. I remember waiting at the metal detectors and the mood was neurosis.
A fan yelled, hey Warriors fans come on let's get hyped! Everyone shook their heads. We couldn't bear another 3-1 mess up.
The game was pretty smooth and it was great to just be jumping up and down with joy for the last 6 game minutes, hugging other fans.
So KD came to accept his Finals MVP. Naturally the crowd chanted MVP But there was a distinct feeling, looking at each other like, wait we usually reserve that for Steph.
But then Steph came to the mike to speak, and the crowd started chatting MVP again even louder. It’s like there’s enough love for everyone here. We don’t have to pull one of us down to lift the others up.
I don't want to over-explain the moment... if you get it, you get it. It's on video, and you can see those MVP chants for Steph really touched him.
Anyway, tomorrow isn't promised.
Don't get sucked into the Ring or Bust mentality. That's a passive aggressive trap by people trying to devalue the amazing run.
We are blessed to be able to share this historic streak, whether it ends this year or in 10.
Other Notes
A beautiful piece from our own Nate P on Oracle.
My dad was the stereotypical military man — I rarely saw that man excited. Just the thought of him being excited is enough to reduce me to a boyhood mess of emotions. And I was almost as emotional when I was able to describe to him what it was like to actually be in Oracle Arena for the first NBA Finals victory in 2015 while he was in hospice during the last few months of his life — there’s no way he comprehended any of that, but one of the strangest things about a disease like Alzheimer’s is how aggressively you cling to the idea that he might still be present somewhere in there. And I just couldn’t wait to share that with him, even if he only caught a few words.And also read his longform elaboration on this.
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