Warriors 127 – Clippers 87
Stephanie chose the Clippers because of her Southern California origins. She’s not a fan of basketball and the last time she saw a live NBA game was when the Clippers were still playing at the Arrowhead Arena. However, that’s not what Golden Season is about. It’s not about whether or not my guest enjoys basketball and has any loyalties to the Warriors, but it’s about me sharing something I’m passionate about. Whatever the other person takes away… they take away.
Leading to tonight’s game, Stephanie has been showing her enthusiasm since the beginning of the week. I’d walk by her in the office and she’d slap me five or do her trademark fist pump from across the hall. Since it was the first preseason game and a Friday, we both wanted to get out of the office a little earlier. I also found out today that Chris V, Mary and Ana also got the agency tickets and would be going tonight as well. As soon as we all found out that we’d all be going to the game, Chris and Stephanie were the first to coordinate a pre-game gathering at Cathy.
5pm rolled around and Steph and I headed down to visit Chuck. I was wearing my blue Warriors track jacket and EJ, a colleague and Cathy regular, immediately spotted it from across the room. The track jacket has the smallest logo hit out of any of the gear that is currently available, but he was still able to spot it from across the bar. That just goes to show how freakin awesome the new design is. For those of you who don’t know, Chuck, you need to know Chuck. He’s always seemingly drunk but somehow always able to remember what my drink is… although I don’t think he ever remembers my name. We hung out there for a while waiting for Chris to get back from dropping off his motorcycle and struck up some good conversation with Alan and Rob.
The Commute
5:45 came around and Chris finally showed up. As soon as he did we closed the tab, said goodbye to Chuck and the rest of the Goodby peeps at Cathy and met up with Ana and Mary out front and made our way to BART. I’m not sure how, but somewhere along the way Chris somehow ended up with a chocolate muffin that we all picked at.
We shuffled pretty quickly onto to BART and saw some new Comcast advertising that caught our eye. It was this needle stich looking print ad that that said “Love thy neighbor. Unless thy neighbor is a Laker”. Well said.
On our ride over, Steph and I had the chance to talk in a way that we never really have before. We’ve always hung out in groups or chatted at work, but none of those occurrences really allowed me to get to know Stephanie on a level where I could walk away and understand what makes her tick. Stephanie and I have known each other for a few years now and do feel like I am close to her, but history alone does not make us better friends.
In the 15 minutes we spent commuting across the bay, I already had a better grasp on who Stephanie is, where she came from and what motivates her. We connected over high school experiences and my assumptions around all girls schools were respectfully challenged. I could see how going to an all girls school would be awesome if you were the only guy, but my picture of all girls schools are painted with cattiness, drama and tears. In just my opinion, I think it would be ‘Mean Girls’ times a thousand. However, she proudly attributes a lot of who she is today to her experience at an all girls school. After listening to her, it all makes perfect sense. Stephanie began telling me about all the things she took away from her years in high school and I could see how they directly correlated with who she is today. She validated my assumptions that it could be catty and mean at times but quickly pointed out that every high school experience is… true. She also went on to describe how she was able to forge a more pure identity of herself because she didn’t have to get caught up in what she was going to wear that morning or if what she was did or said would have any bearing over boys or her popularity. In high school Stephanie became the woman that she is today.
We all got off BART and the walk over to Oracle was particularly beautiful. The sun was setting and it was darker than usual at 6:30, a solid sign that fall is coming.
As soon as we got to the Plaza Chris, Mary and Ana broke off from us and entered through the court side club entrance and Stephanie pulled me into the team store. She immediately spotted her shirt from across the store, b-lined right too it and swiftly made her purchase. And just as quick as she bought the shirt, she found the nearest bathroom and changed right into it. Stephanie rocked it and has already made vows that she’ll be wearing it around the office throughout the season.
Before heading to our seats we stopped off at concessions and grabbed a couple of hot dogs, nachos and beer. We both haven’t had arena food in a while so we were excited to binge. You can tell a lot of people have been a way from Oracle for a while because it seemed like every person waiting ahead of us in line had questions about the food. I don’t know how they do it, in particular our guy, but the concessions staff must have tons of patience to deal with some absurd questions. My message to folks attending the game, a burger is a burger and the chicken strips are chicken strips… pull the trigger and lets watch some basketball.
The Game
Stephanie and I made our way to our seats just in time to see the guys on the jumbotron make their way out of the locker room. Her first reaction, “They’re all so cute!” Mine? ”Damn those new uniforms look good!” Either way you look at it, it can be deduced that we both agree that the Warriors look good. But how about their game?
The crowd was at about half capacity and even though the arena was half empty, we could still feel the energy from all the fans. More importantly we could feel the energy from the guys on the floor. Monta looked more like a leader than ever rounding out the starting five announcements and firing up the guys in the huddle.
The starting line up as announced was David Lee, Dorell Wright, Andres Biedrins, Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis.
After starting lineups were announced it came time for the national anthem, I froze. The sight of the royal blue jumpsuits lined up in parallel with the candy apple red of the Clippers’ was a pretty amazing sight. And as the jumbotron switched back and forth from video of a waving flag to a run down the line of all the guys having their 2 minutes of calm before the game, I couldn’t help but key in on Jeremy Lin and David Lee. No two players this summer got more press around their decision to join the Warriors than these two guys.
There’s a world of expectation that will be on Lee’s shoulders and arguably even more so in Jeremy’s case. Lee is an All-Star and will be expected to perform like one. I have full faith in him and think that he will shine (out of all the players I got his player tee first). However in Lin’s case, even with the Warriors fan base behind him, he has to deal with the elephant in the room… and that elephant is being an Asian American. If you’ve seen him play, you can’t deny his talent. If you know his story, you’d cheer for him too if you haven’t already. But at the end of the day, I think the only thing people want are results. And in tonights preseason game, after a few errors on both their parts, they shined.
I can’t say enough how well Jeremy played tonight. He had a bad drive to kick of his debut, but after that he performed like everyone had expected. The crowd would erupt whenever he got the ball and he delivered by taking it hard to the hoop, finishing, playing great D, and making smart passes.
The Warriors ended up beating the Clippers by a solid 40 points and along the way showed that they are a fresh invigorated team that enjoys playing together. From the guys on the court and the guys on the bench, it was awesome to see Lee clap it up anytime he could. I even caught him in the 4th quarter nearly lose his mind jumping around like a kid in a candy store when the ball came to him out of bounds. That sight alone made me want to jump up and down like a kid in a candy store. And it was amazing to be there when Jeremy Lin kicked off his life long dream… and the thing about Jeremy I will remember most tonight is not how well he played but, the look on his face as he was watching himself on the introduction video on the jumbotron. I can’t even begin to imagine what was running through his head at that moment; all I know is that I can tell it was special.
This preseason game was just the perfect way to kick off this season. It was so great that I can now say that my Southern California guest, Stephanie, will be cheering for the Warriors.
Throughout the game we talked about everything and by the end of it I can firmly say that we’re closer now. Not only were we able to finally hang again, but we were able to connect over more than just basketball. It wasn’t about the stats and because it was a preseason game it wasn’t about the record… it was about me and her bonding over a shared experience. And even though Chris, Mary and Ana sat in an entirely different section than us and we didn’t reconnect until the end of the game and briefly during halftime… I too feel closer to them. Why? Because we were in the same place rallying around the same cause. Not only that, it brought all of us into an environment were we could really be ourselves around one another. I couldn’t be happier that the first game of this season was with the four of them. Even though it was a preseason game, being there with them made it feel just as important as any other.
-Nam
PS. Steph Curry, if you read this… Anna wants me to let you know she’s single and wants to take you on a date. She’s the one pointing at you on the program.
More photos from tonight:
