NOV 15 | vs Detroit Pistons – Leigh M

Warriors 101 – Pistons 97

As much as we plan things, we should always be prepared for a plan ‘B’… either that or just learn how to be flexible. Because if it’s one thing that I’ve learned from the game of hoops is that you can’t always just rely on your starting five. And as I we learned from championship teams and the lackluster debut of this year’s Miami Heat, bench depth is important.

Tonight’s guest was supposed to be Jamie Barrett but because he’s caught up in a pretty significant business pitch and making sure that the agency outputs it’s best work so we can keep all 800 people, including yours truly, employed with a paycheck. So lets just say I was happy to do everything in my power to find someone for him to swap a game with.

So coming off the Golden Season bench for tonight’s game was Leigh McDaniel.

What I thought was going to be a difficult task of finding a replacement ended up being a really easy one. To no surprise, Leigh volunteered her game to be bumped because she knows how much Golden Season and making room for Jamie was to me. His work for Nike, Jordan and the And1 Mixtape work, is the reason why I fell in love with basketball in the mid-late 90′s and his overall body of work is the reason why I wanted to get into advertising.

Leigh knows all of this and without hesitation she saved the day and came to the office this morning with her David Lee jersey in tow.

The Commute

Per usual, the game plan as it has been with all my guests have been to leave for BART at 5:30pm for 7:30 games; on the dot we headed down the stairs and ran into Kimon and Jolene who were also headed to the game.

Kimon and I share a passion for the Warriors so he already knew where we were headed, but either way it would have been unmistakeable. Leigh wearing her Lee jersey and me in my royal blue track jacket.

I love the way the retro blue and yellow draw way more attention than the previous navy and orange.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect as they offered us a ride to Oracle. We moved the car seat aside and hopped in the Prius. Off we were, the first non BART commute of the season.

As we made our way to Oracle we obviously talked Warriors since 3 of 4 of us were wearing gear. It was the standard conversation… ‘how often do you go to the games?’, how the team is doing and how optimistic we were this coming season…

Warrior fans are ALWAYS optimistic… and that’s what I love about us.

The rest of the ride was left up to getting to know more about one another. Because as much as we see and work with one another we never really get the opportunity to learn about who each of us really is. We talked about family, the East Bay, the city of Alameda, and how I used to go watch Jason Kidd play in high school at Saint Joseph’s.

We got stuck in a bit of traffic and BART would have definitely gotten us there quicker, but this is the classic example of ‘more is merrier’.

Even with traffic we made it to Oracle early in anticipation of “half off night”.

The new owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber were celebrating with the fans tonight with the official announcement of the sale of the Golden State Warriors to their name. Because of their generosity, we were all anticipating a packed Oracle tonight so it’s a good thing we had left early.

We arrived in the lot while it was still relatively empty and it was a view I haven’t seen of Oracle since I was a little kid going to games with my dad… from the parking lot. In an instant, all the nostalgia of the handful of games we went to came flooding back and a missing piece of why Golden Season meant so much to me was filled. My memories of the Warriors didn’t just include the antics on the court, but it also included those few rare moments where my dad and I would hang out. We didn’t ‘hang’ much when I was a kid, so I guess that’s why I used to latch on to special nights we would with the Warriors.

We made our way up the stairs that lead right to my section and this is where we said goodbye to Jolene and Kimon.  We gave each other high fives and hugs and b-lined it to the beer kiosk for half off EVERYTHING (except merchandise).

The Game

Leigh and I grabbed some beers and we wanted to go see if ‘Ribs and Things’ were also a part of the half off day. As soon as we took the escalator up to Club 200 we saw the line wrapped quarter way around the arena. Um…. no… we headed straight back downstairs and hit up the concessions behind my section, copped some half priced burgers and headed to our seats.

Getting to the game early with beer in hand watching the guys warm up is one of my favorite moments of game day.  There’s nothing more exciting than watching the guys run down the hallway out the tunnel and on to the court. Because that very moment is theres. All the players have their own rituals. Get stretched out, talk to buddies on the other team, or just focus on getting loose and getting inside their own heads for the game.

After the national anthem and player introductions, there was a quick message from our new owners. The crowd erupted as they took the microphone. It was clear that we all hope and expect that they will do right by their new roles.

They said everything we wanted to hear and sounded completely genuine and determined.

Although these guys will have more money than I will ever see in my lifetime and live a completely different life than I will ever know, we share the same values and passions around our boys in blue. They want wins. They want winners. They want what is best for this organization and the loyalists that have stood by it.

The lights rose and it was game time.

Leigh loves the Warriors now. Even when she’s at home with her house full of 4 other girls, they have the Warriors games on TV. And to have her with me at an actual game is really special. I loved catching her throughout the night coming in and out of awe of the court, the performance of the players, the passion from the fans and the game itself.

We talk everyday so there’s not much we need to ‘catch up’ on, and she’s been a part of Golden Season from the begging and now is a pretty hardcore Warriors fan so there’s not much to update you around that, but what is great is how much she loves the Warriors.

She knows intimately how much this team and this project means to me and in large part I know that’s why she loves them too.

It’s like how I see religion. I was raised a Buddhist and went to Catholic school my whole life. I’m still a Buddhist, yet have completely immersed myself in another faith because that was the faith that my friends around me chose to believe in. So I feel right into it. I did everything I could do to be a part of it and understand it and in many ways believe in it too.

I can see that this is what Leigh is doing and has done. She has put her faith in me, faith beyond belief really… and coming out on the other end is a Warriors fan because she believes in me respects, appreciates and embraces the faith and belief I have in the Warriors and what this team has mean to me over the years.

Leigh’s special in that way. She continues to show me the best of what we all as people are capable of and I’m very lucky she’s in my life and has chosen to not view my love for a sports team as crazy.

So to reward her faith in the dubs and me, I bought her a half off ice cream sandwich . Bless those guys for walking up and down the isles with deliciousness.

The Warriors fought hard tonight and showed both Leigh and I why I have always put my faith in them. Even though we were without David Lee we still pulled it out after almost giving up a 30+ point lead.

Leigh and I made our way to BART and because of the amazing turnout, it took longer than usual just to walk to the platform. And as soon as we reached the BART platform and were waiting for our train back to San Francisco, Kimon comes screaming through the crowds toward us.

The whole night circled back with us commuting back to San Francisco with Kimon. It’s always great running into people and sharing fandom with others. Kimon and I have been talking Warriors for as long as I could remember starting at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners almost 4 years ago. And this season by going to the games and rocking more Warriors gear than I ever thought I would, we too share similar kind of connection that had brought Leigh and I closer.

We understand that a sports team…the Warriors… bonds us in ways that many people will never understand… but they will…

G0 Warriors!

-Nam

More photos from tonight:

This entry was posted on Monday, November 15th, 2010 at 1:31 pm. It is filed under And 1 and tagged with Detroit, Jamie Barrett, Jason Kidd, Joe Lacob, Jolene, Kimon, Leigh, Peter Guber, Pistons, Prius. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.