Warriors 109 – Clippers 91
It’s the Friday before Halloween in San Francisco and there are handfull of people dressed up out and about downtown for their respective workplace festivities. The funny thing is even though they are in costume, I still can’t assume its a costume and not their everyday fashion sense. This is San Francisco after all.
However, when I spotted Julia at my agency’s Halloween party in a David Lee jersey there was no wondering why… a Warriors game was going down tonight.
Julia got off of work early so Leigh rallied Cassie, Jenkins, Jay, Julia and I to meet up at the Irish Bank for a pre-game beer. Since Julia got off REALLY early, Leigh also had her come and surprise me at the agency party.
Right after the party we ducked out of the office and headed to the Irish Bank where we ran into Joel and Sidney. I see Joel every now and then and even hung out with him at wedding last weekend. One person I was not expecting to see what my dude, Sidney Bosley, who’s doing big things now over in London and Portland at W+K.
I skipped on lunch because it was a crazy day of running around the Bay Area so we all ordred up a few plates of chicken strips. It sounds more disgusting than it actually was… because it was actually quite delicious.
The Commute
After a beer and some bar food, Julia and I said goodbye and headed down to BART. Like usual, I guided us to the Montgomery station. I can mention the Clipper Card again but even I’m getting sick of hearing me rave about it.
Leaving in the midst of a Friday commute is never ideal, but we were able to snag a seat for Julia, and I stood.
As the train pulled beneath the Bay, I immediately asked the first thing that was on my mind. ”Do you miss Philly?”
Conflicted, she said yes as expected…for all the reasons I expected. And with a pause filled with nostalgia and sentiment, she also expressed to me how San Francisco has also now become her home.
For as long as I’ve known Julia, I’ve known her to hold her family in the highest regard. It was one of the things I remember personally connecting on with her. She may not know it because it was really never a conversation we had, but since I’m more a man of observation, it’s something that I keyed into as one of her life’s greatest passions. The many fond stories of her nieces, parents, sister and cousins that I’ve had the privilege to hear in shared conversation remind me of why family is so special… no matter how close you are. Just being around Julia reminds me that no matter what goes down, family is family.
It’s her kind of loyalty and heart that made me especially excited to go to tonight’s game with Julia.
We spent the majority of the BART ride talking about family and the dilemma many of us in our twenties face that live apart from them. As our conversation dove deeper, a truth surfaced. The friendships we’ll make, the dates we’ll go on, the jobs we’ll take are indicative of how near or far we’ll be from our family. In a city primarily composed of transplants, this is a common issue. And even though my family is 45 minutes south of San Francisco, I always think about how my exploits may lead me away one day. Away from my niece and a city that I’ve spent the early part of my young career serving.
I’m from San Jose and it’s hard. I can’t even begin to imagine how difficult it is for Julia, whose family is thousands of miles east.
But as difficult it may be, she’s taking things into her own hands and already has plans to fly out for her cousin’s 18th birthday and football game. I find myself having difficulty even getting to San Jose due to my schedule and work, but seeing how Julia is handling her distance with her family is really inspiring and reminds me that I can and should always be doing more.
We caught up on other ‘life stuff’ and the next thing you know it we were at the Colosseum stop and the beautiful sunset that I’ve gotten used to greeting me and my guest(s) is now retiring earlier and earlier.
We made our way across the land bridge and Julia was the first person to not mention that it felt like she was walking to prison. I actually had to point it out and it still didn’t phase her. She truly is a tough girl from Philly. It’s going to take more than darkness and chain link fences to rattle her.
The Game
We bypassed what was becoming a tradition of going to the Team Store before entering the arena because Julia was already outfitted with Leigh’s David Lee jersey.
While we were waiting in line for beers I spotted my Account Services Executive, Andrew Llama. I got an email earlier in the week from Andrew to come by the table behind my section to enter in a raffel and to meet him. After we grabbed a couple beers we headed over so I could introduce myself to my man Andrew. I met him for the first time at the Draft Day BBQ and I remember him being the nicest guy, so I was excited to formally introduce myself since he probably has tons of season ticket holder accounts to manage and probably doesn’t remember meeting me that last time.
As expected, there’s a reason why Andrew does what he does. He’s approchable, likable and seems like a genuine guy. I quickly filled out the raffle form, introduced him to Julia and gave him a few friendly jabs for not swinging by to say what’s up during preseason like he said he would in another email before the first preseason game.
We got to the seats and there were lots of familiar faces of other season ticket holders. The one great thing I have witnessed is the bonds between other season ticket holders. They give each other daps, ask one another how they are doing and forecast the game. It was also really impressive to see other Account Services Executives walking around cultivating their relationships with their account holders.
In front of us there were a couple of nice guys who were talking to an older man who had his season ticket proudly displayed in a Giants’ World Series lanyard and ticket holder.
Julia, being a HUGE baseball/Phillies fan, excitedly engaged the guys as they talked about the Series. She quickly stated her allegiance to her hometeam and in after some quick friendly banter the warm-up clock was quickly spinning down.
The arena lights went out and Julia’s eyes lit up.
This is one thing that basketball does better than any other sport… the player introductions. Julia had never gone to an NBA game before so through her I was able to experience the flash and bang of an NBA introduction as if it were my own first time.
They say first impressions are everything. After the player intros, the Warriors are in Julia’s good graces.
Tonight was Asian American Heritage night and Jeremy Lin was in uniform for the occasion. Although, he didn’t see any time until the 4th quarter, it didn’t matter. The fact that he made it this far has already done so much for the Asian American communities.
The game was uptempo as expected and as beastly as Griffin is, somehow the dubs were able to somewhat contain him. I love B. Diddy, but his performance seemed uninspired with the exception of a handful of signature ’Baron’ plays.
Julia and I got hungry again so we decided to head to the concourse before the end of the half to try to beat the concession lines. The only problem was that we didn’t have any idea where we wanted to go. We headed up to the Club 200 level to check out Ribs and Things, then we scoped out the fish joint, but we weren’t feelin’ either. After tons of exploring from concessions to concessions we finally decided to get pizza at Pizza Universe in my section.
It was fun to get lost and explore the arena a bit.
We made our way back to the seats and I could tell that this was Julia’s element. Her game may be baseball, but it’s easy to see that she’s just a fan of sports.
The Warriors slowly pulled away and the Clippers called time out after time out to try to slow our roll down. We were up so much that the fans as expected on Asian American Heritage Night started chanting “We want Lin”. As the fourth quarter drew to a close and with the majority of the starters on the bench, Jeremy went to go check in. Oracle erupted. Everyone from the fans and the Warriors bench were on their feet.
At every game, I find my eyes usually shifting back to the bench. There’s nothing I love to see more than the camaraderie of the squad. Because I believe if a team has that, then they have a shot at anything. Perhaps it’s one two many “Remember the Titans” movies for me, but I believe it.
Even though there are a lot of Lin haters, to see the David Lee’s enthusiasm, support, and understanding of Lin’s plight doesn’t make me hate on those haters. There’s not one other person on that bench that I can observe that wants this team to do well more than him. Don’t get me wrong, I think we have great leaders, but Lee brings the heart that I see from every kid on blacktops everywhere.
Lin didn’t do too much with the ball when he got it, but he was scrappy, played great D and played smart. Jitters are obvious, but like Lee, I can also see that Lin has some great intangibles that just can’t be taught.
The clock winded down and against the wishes of the crowd, Lin dribbled it out instead or making a stupid play. I got to hand it to the crowd, Lin must be on a cloud with all the support he’s getting playing for his hometown team.
As the arena filed out, everyone who bought into the Asian American Heritage Night package stayed for a Q&A session with Jeremy.
I could see hundreds of 12 year old ‘mes’ sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for Jeremy. They have a new role model now and as much as he does or doesn’t want to be one, I hope Lin is ready for it.
As the last of the fans filled out of the arena I had to stop and compliment a man that was sitting in front of us the whole time with a Warriors hat adorned with some killer Warrior pins. A die hard fan. We chatted for a bit and we found out Dan’s the father of the Warrior Girls Team Captain, Thera.
On our way down to take a picture of Julia by the court, we met a nice couple, Ken and Katie?… I think I got that right… if you guys see this, hit me up and correct me (or they might be just friends). We chatted with them as that’s what sports and Golden Season affords us… the ability and ‘permission’ to talk to complete strangers.
Because when we’re under the roof of Oracle, we’re all friends… unless you got a Lakers jersey on.
As we were headed out of Oracle to make ur way toward BART, we noticed it was raining. So in a last ditch attempt to find some coverage or an umbrella we hit up the Team Store. As Julia was trying on a hat she fell in love with, we made another friend, Nate.
Nate was one of the most enthusiastic guys I’ve ever met and a clear Warriors fan.
The guy was just loving the new gear as he tried everything on in the store. He finally found a killer combo and I had to introduce myself and ask for his photo as he was checking himself out in the mirror. Without hesitation, he obliged and I made him promise me that he come say hello if he ever saw me here at Oracle or in the streets ever again.
I wish I had cards to stay in touch with some of these folks I’ve been meeting along the way.
Running out of luck on the hat for Julia and the warmup jacket for me, we decided to brave the rain.
After a quick minute, we surrendered ourselves to the elements and didn’t let a little weather damper the great time we just had together.
And even though it was coming down on us, I was able to snap one of my favorite photos of Julia.
This photo will always remind me of her, after a Warriors game, walking in the rain with complete disregard of getting wet on a night where I feel like I had just solidified a friend for life.
Stay dry and go dubs… and GIANTS!
-Nam
More photos from tonight:
