OCT 27 | Opening Night vs Rockets – Stephanie S

Warriors 132 – Rockets 128

Outside of playoffs, opening night/week is my favorite days of basketball. Preseason gives you a taste, but opening night marks the start of a ’20oz steak’… it sounds good, looks good, smells good, starts off good… but can you finish it?

When I was passing around the schedule and casually looking for people to go to games with me, Opening Night was passed up for some of the games against ‘more exciting’ opponents such as the Heat, Celtics, Thunder and Lakers.

Whether she realized it or not, Stephanie came in and swooped up arguably one of the best nights of the season.

Tonight is a special night for Bay Area sports. The Giants are kicking off the World Series at home, Warriors are reintroducing themselves, and the Sharks embark on another playoff quest.

With the entire city decked out in Giants gear, I decided to rep the dubs with my David Lee shirt. I wasn’t sure if people would even remember that opening night was tonight because of the shadow of the fall classic, but they did. As soon as I walked out onto my front stoop, a man in a Giants jacket screamed to me, “Opening night!!! Go Warriors!”. I was cheesing.

The Warriors fans have not forgotten.

Throughout the day it was the same thing… shouts of “Opening night!” and “Go Warriors!”. Even though I thought that I was going to stick out walking around downtown like a sore thumb with my Warriors Blue and Yellow in a sea of Orange and Black, I’ve never felt more a part of something in this city.

The day dragged on as I was anticipating tip-off AND the first pitch. Stephanie and I decided to meet at 5 so we could get to Oracle early since the Warriors were going to let people in early to watch the game. With the exception of the cash registers throughout almost every screen in the place had the Fall Classic running.

The Commute

Stephanie meet me at the office and we walked down to the Montgomery BART stop to make our way to Oracle. As soon as we got there I noticed something… it was empty. Everyone was clearly already home or holed up at some bar watching the Giants game. The other great thing that I noticed was that the BART stations were decorated with orange and black streamers accompanied with “Go Giants!” signs. Between all the people in hats and gear running around the city and the decorations everywhere, it made me wish we celebrated teams like this all the time.

Because BART was empty, it was a quick and painless process to get on to the train. Again, I was with someone who didn’t have that good Clipper Card, so we had to make a quick visit at the fare machines. However, I can’t blame the lack of clipper on Stephanie. She rarely ever takes MUNI or BART, and in fact, it was her first BART ride under the Bay ever.

As soon as we got on and we got under the bay, the infamous ear popping started and that was the first thing that we talked about. Shortly there after she then got in to fear mode hypothesizing what would happen to us if we got stuck under the Bay or if an earthquake would hit and we were trapped. I assured her we would have at least an hour of oxygen before we all suffocated to death. She took little comfort in my made up statement.

After I was done trying to freak her out about the potential disasters BART can hold, we began catching up. We talked about her adventures in her journey of becoming a nurse and how competitive it is these days and why going to school in Wyoming would be one of the best options for her.

It’s funny for me to think about Stephanie in Jackson Hole, WY. She came to SF from a couple year stint there and if you would have asked me, based off my first impression of her, I would have bet against her ability to last out there. Stephanie is a California girl and at one point had a bronze tan with bleach blonde hair.

I didn’t know her then, but I believe it because there are Facebook photos…and I believe everything I see and read on Facebook.

Her ability to go from California girl to enduring the harsh winters of Jackson Hole say a lot about her and is only reinforced by what I’ve gotten to know about her these past few months. As the newest addition to our SF flat, Stephanie has been awesome. All of our schedules are so all over the place that we all never really hang out that much, but that’s okay. Because when you’re around Stephanie, it’s easy and comfortable to become good friends. She wears her heart on her sleeve and hides nothing, and these are the people I trust, because I know exactly what I’m getting.

In short, she’s a sweet, tough, resilient and an optimistic person and I couldn’t be happier that she’s one of my roommates and friend.

I was particularly excited to go to a Warriors game with a girl that grew up with a Lakers fan with season tickets. I was eager to see how a Laker fan would like our Warriors.

The Game

Without fail, for people who have never walked the land bridge to get to the arena liken it to what they would imagine entering a prison is like. Stephanie put it best when she said “It’s like something out of Shawshank Redemption”… Since I’m a movie dude, props for the reference!

We were both crazy hungry and eager to get in to watch the Giants game but we had to stop by the Team Store first so Stephanie could get a Warriors shirt.

I would see her at the apartment leading up to our game together and she would mention that she was surfing online to see which shirt she should get game night.

It was going to be a quick and easy process because she had done her homework, but it was even quicker because the Team Store was as hot as a sauna… AGAIN. I can’t remember one other time asides from Nibbles, Dribbles & Sips where it was normal temperature in that place. I was going to try on some hats, but didn’t want to leave my sweat all over a brand new cap.

After Stephanie bought a shirt we headed right in and she went to the ladies room to change into her shirt. She went in, I looked down at my phone, and she was already back out and changed… it couldn’t have taken more than 20 seconds.

Immediately after that we went and got food and beer and settled into my seats and enjoyed the Giants game on the jumbotron.

The energy in the arena was phenomenal. There was so much excitement over the Giants and that grew as the the Giants went on a hitting spree to force Cliff Lee to the dugout. Good thing too, because if it would have been a close game, my guess that Warrior fans would have spent more time watching the concourse TV’s than in their seats.

As the lights went out for player introductions, I got goosebumps. They lowered the mini Bay Bridge, the new player intro video came on, fire was shooting from the top of the backboards, the Warrior girls were in some awesome outfits, the kids dance crew killed it, players came running down the isles of the lower level and then…. lame ass fireworks that resembled sparklers capped it all off. Seriously anti climactic.

I would have gone for fire shooting for 30 straight seconds or more Warrior Girls to close it out, but that’s just me… I like it hot.

The starting five is who we expected: David Lee, Dorell Wright, Andris Biedrins, Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis.

The game was close all the way throughout and actually felt a lot like the Don Nelson Era of Warriors basketball. We reached 100 points by the 3rd quarter and the lack of D was apparent. The most frustrating part of the game was how the backdoor was left open all game long, allowing Scola to have one of the best games I can ever remember from him.

During the half I got a text from Nicole and Patrick that they were outside my section. Stephanie and I went out to say hello and wish Nicole a happy birthday.

Patrick bought one of those messages on the jumbotron to also let everyone else in the arena know Nicole is a year older.

It was pretty awesome. It was great to see other friends at the game. Patrick has this cool Warriors track jacket on that Nicole had gotten him. It was released last year but had the royal blue and warriors yellow that the team had gone back to this year. A timeless jacket… good work Nicole!

I haven’t seen Nicole and Patrick in months and it was our shared passion for the Warriors that brought us together again.

We said a quick goodbye and promised each other we’d hang out soon, this weekend even. And if not… at another Warriors game perhaps.

We got back to our seats and Stephanie got inspired by some of the ballon creations and started to fabricate something out of inflated latex. She continued this the rest of the game. :)

The rest of the game was great. The Warriors pulled it out and Monta could have had a career day had he not missed his free throws toward the end of the game. Irregardless, they played well and looked great.

By the end of the game. The Warriors won, Giants won and the Sharks won.

This is how you start a season… this is how you start a World Series… this is how you light Bay Area sports fans on fire.

As we sat in our seats waiting for the crowds to clear so I could get a shot of Stephanie down closer to the court, she turns to me and says… “This felt like a Laker game, they (the Warriors) are really good and exciting”. BOOM. On our way out Stephanie says, “I need to go to more Warriors games, it’s way different being here than watching it on TV”. DOUBLE BOOM.