The NBA’s new MVP Club hazing policy

Continuing in the vein of Warrior-obsessed blogging…

Revenge is sweet.

Charles Barkley is not in Golden State’s “five.” And he’s not sexy either.

To me, nothing epitomized the Warriors-Mavericks series better than the good ol’ Chuckster and his beef with the “city of Golden State.” Charles, no doubt, had good reasoning to be angry, as Baron Davis probably cost him several g’s with his bookie. (Anyone see how sad he was that he couldn’t go to Vegas this weekend?) The back and forth has been well documented, but what really stands out to me is how quickly, uniformly, and hilariously the majority of the “hillbillies from Sausalito” rallied against a common enemy (as absurd as he is).

 

When you think about it, being a sports fan in the Bay Area is all about choices. 49ers-Raiders. A’s-Giants. Stanford-Cal. Especially for fans that grow up in the area, loyalties run deep and unambiguously. You love Bonds, or you hate him. You reminisce about the days of the Montana, Young, Bono depth chart, or you paint yourself silver and black and wear spiked shoulder pads. You enjoy $1 hot dogs, or you enjoy chacha bowls. Period. This isn’t Lexington, KY, or Norman, OK, where there is no question in who the rooting interest is. When the Giants made the Series in 2002, as an A’s fan, I yawned. Meanwhile many of my friends learned to curse the name Scott Spiezio. As a 49er fan, I have just as much interest in how Russell does in Oakland as say Brady Quinn does in Cleveland. Meanwhile, many are praying that Lane Kiffin can just win baby. I was only 5 at the time, but I can imagine how polarizing the 1989 Battle of the Bay was. The fact that I’m throwing (not so) subliminals here should show you what I mean.

 

Then there are the Warriors, and to a lesser extent the Sharks (no offense, Sabercats). Candlestickers and McAfeers (McAfese? McAfeeans?) can come together over the boys in Oracle. A’s fans can wear their yellow, Giants fans can wear their orange, and both can fall in line behind Swan…er, Baron. This unity among every local sports fan in the area has always been refreshing, but the last few weeks have really shown how special it is. Baseball and football fan cliques have taken a backseat to the nonpartisan basketball fandom. Charles and Dirk had to learn the hard way. This is why anyone roots for the home team at all. The camaraderie amongst fans in a community transcends the box score numbers. That is the feeling the Warriors are giving everyone in the Bay Area right now, and the madness inside Oracle last night was simply a very loud thank you.

Gone Fishin!

111-86…

111-86…. 111-86… 25 points!

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That’s all I can muster right now, I’ll see you tomorrow… Go Warriors!

50-48

Has there been a half of basketball that I could write more about? Maybe not…. but it doesn’t even matter right now. I’m not gonna touch on Stackhouse playing like he’s still in NBA Jam (or was it Hangtime?), Dirk playing like he’s in Super Bass Masters (thinking about fishing, not making baskets), Monta showing us (all I needed was that first basket, right when he delivered it) that he has the fortitude to deliver under more pressure than his 21 year old mind and body should be able to withhold…

There’s a lot I could talk about, but all I can think of right now is B-Dizzle.

HEART

Maybe he can’t play “his” game, maybe he’s a defensive liability, whatever… The only thing that’s for sure is that he has the heart of a leader, the heart of a champion. He showed his team, and fans, that the Warriors were in it to win it. He showed us that our boys wouldn’t wilt in the face of adversity, but stare it right in the eye and proclaim that we aren’t going anywhere!

Alright… Time for the 2nd half…

Waiting for Tonight

As if I needed any help being unproductive at work…  This Warriors Mavs series has destroyed any vestige of productivity that remained for me after netvibes, facebook, espn, etc.

While I’ve been at work these last two weeks, I think I’ve literally spent close to half my time finding, reading, and re-reading anything I can about the team.  And now here I am posting about it… at work.

Anyways, here are some of the links I’ve been checking religiously throughout the series:

Golden State of Mind – This is one of the first places I check every day, they have pretty frequent blog posts, discussions going on, and provide a bunch of links to other Warriors-related content from around the web (keeps me busy for a while).

Warriors.com Playoff Central – The recap articles are longer, the playoff blog is pretty good (and has all the inside info), and there’s multimedia too.

Sports Guy’s Basketball Blog – I love SG, and he has always seemed to support the Warriors and Warrior fans, and this series is no different.  I wish he would start updating more often…

ESPN Daily Dime – Bite-sized info that I know is updated daily.

So obviously there are more sources of good info, but that’s where I start.

Can’t wait for tonight…

“We Believe”: The Rebirth of a Sports Fan(atic)

I have to be honest… The first time I saw that the Warriors were making “We Believe” the ubiquotous mantra for their current resurgence, I wasn’t exactly excited. It reminded me a little too much of the Red Sox World Series run from a couple of years ago, and while that turned out to be an incredible sports story, I definitely got tired of their “We Believe” theme. Personally, it just seemed way too corny to me, and almost a little desperate (like the BoSox fans really didn’t quite believe, but were all trying to convince themselves that they actually did).

So with that frame of mind, you can understand why I wasn’t too geeked to see crowds of Warriors fans waving “We Believe” signs during the team’s push to get into the playoffs. “Of course we believe we can make the playoffs,” I thought to myself, “why are we trying so hard to prove it?”

But that’s when it hit me… We weren’t proclaiming that we believed the Warriors could make the playoffs, we were proclaiming that we believed the Warriors would make the playoffs.

Then I came to the painful realization that I had hit my lowest point (in sports fanaticism) in my life. When I was younger (I’m talking early 90s), I didn’t believe that the 49ers could win the Super Bowl every year, I believed that the 49ers would win the Super Bowl every year. When the Giants made their run at the World Series, I didn’t believe that they could win it all, I believed that they would win it all. When Stanford went 32-2 a few years back, I didn’t believe they could win every game they played, I believed they would win every game they played. Regardless of what the “experts” said, or what “logic and reason” would conclude, or what anybody thought or said, I consistently believed that my teams would succeed.

I lost that somewhere… I think it was between the 13-year playoff drought for the Warriors, the steady nose-dive of the 49ers franchise, the last few dissappointing years for the Giants, or the fall to mediocrity for Stanford Basketball (I don’t even wanna mention Stanford Football….). Somewhere I lost my faith in the teams that I had always believed would win. I started believing that they could win, which means that I also started believing (and sometimes even expecting) that they could lose. So when the Warriors or the Giants missed the playoffs again, or the 49ers or Stanford Football team turned in another losing season, it was dissappointing, but not shocking, or heartbraking, or stomach-punching, etc. etc. etc.

Well… Over the last month, the “lowly” Warriors have brought me back from the dead. To be perfectly honest, I feel like they brought the entire Bay Area sports fanbase back from the dead. WE BELIEVE AGAIN. We don’t think that maybe, just maybe, we can beat the Mavs and make a run for the championship, we actually believe that we will. That’s why nobody can stop talking about the Warriors fans in the Oracle Arena. It hasn’t just been about them cheering on their team, it has been about them proclaiming their faith, and channeling that energy into the spirit of their team.

We Believe.

And that’s why the Warriors can’t wait to take the court tomorrow in Oakland, and why the Mavs don’t want any part of us…

“It’s Raining Game in Northern California”

With everything that’s been going on in the Bay Area sports world as of late (Warriors, Sharks, Giants/Barry, 49ers’/Raiders’ Off seasons, Swisher’s hair….), I think now is the perfect time to start up what will soon be the best Bay Area sports blog out there..

Why? Because, in the words of the legendary Mac Dre (R.I.P.), “It’s raining game in Northern California.”