(By e.Chang)
This Week
Wed: home against the Lakers
Thu: at L.A. against the Clippers
Sat: home against the Kings.
*****
Before the 49ers' homecoming to the Super Bowl earlier this year, before the Giants swept their way to their second World Series championship in 2012, before Alex Smith hit Vernon Davis in the end zone against the Saints in the NFC Divisional Game, before 2010, when San Francisco erupted as the Giants won their first World Series since 1954, there was 2007—the year that We Believed.
If there is one sports team in the last 20 years that could have fallen into a crevice in the earth's crust and disappeared forever without a single soul having noticed, it would have been the Golden State Warriors. For the past two decades, one cared about the Warriors. No one, that is, except the 20,000 inside the Oracle that rocked every game like it was a Game 7, futile year in, futile year out.
And then there was the year that wasn't.
In 2007, the Warriors, for the first time in 13 years, somehow, someway, made it to the NBA playoffs, breaking the second-longest playoff drought in NBA history. For Warriors' fans, it was ecstasy. The Warriors were huge underdogs-- the 8th seed up against the 1st seed Dallas Mavericks--but not a single fuck was given in the Bay. A restaurant owner in Alameda told us to Believe, and we did. And we were rewarded. Never before had an 8th seed won a best-of-seven NBA playoff until the Warriors took Dallas down in six. God damn it felt good to be a gangsta.
Sadly, Warriors lost in the next round of the playoffs to the Utah Jazz, but not before Baron Davis showed Andrei Kirilenko what dreams and posters were made of. And not before the nation learned what it meant to be a Warriors fan.
*****
The Warriors surprised everyone in 2007, but in 2013, they're waiting for us. The Warriors returned to the playoffs last year, but unlike 2008, everyone expects us to be back this year. Hell, people think the Warriors will win it all. But with the Miami Heat being the Miami Heat, and with the Oklahoma City Thunder possessing the best player in the NBA, and with the Clippers and Spurs and Nets and Bulls and Rockets standing in the way, that may be a tall order.
But! The Warriors have Steph Curry, who is playing the NBA like a video game with a cheat code. He is unreal. Surrounding him on the court will be current All-Star David Lee, newly acquired Andre Iguodala, Andrew Bogut from Oz, and Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes. That, my friends, is a very decent squad and one that will make a run for the playoffs and maybe, possibly, beyond.
Whichever way this season plays out for the Warriors, this column will provide a weekly review and preview throughout the campaign. The season starts tonight, at home, at the Roaracle, against the team from L.A. No, the other team — the Lakers.
And with that let's go Dubs!
