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Jan 12, 2011 | Categories:And 1 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave A Comment »

JAN 7 | vs Cleveland Cavaliers – Antoinette C

Warriors 116 – Cavs 98

I had a really bad cold but there was no way I was missing tonight’s game.

Two reasons:

1. The Warriors, of course

2. Antoinette C.

Antoinette and I have known each other a really long time now. We met when we were awkward teenagers. I was 14 and a sophomore in high school and she was a grade behind.

14 years later we’re still incredibly good friends with a long history of good and rough memories in between them.

As soon as college came around we didn’t see much of each other. But no matter how little we hung out, we remained the greatest of friends.

There are just some people in this life that you trust no matter what. Antoinette is definitely one of those people.

In 14 years we’re bound to mess up somewhere and I’m embarrassed to admit, it was only me that did.

With her, I’ve never had to question our friendship or ever think that she’d completely disappear out of my life.

For whatever reason, even with all my blunders, she values me as a friend. I’m forever grateful for that and forever grateful for her.

After Antoinette moved back from San Diego a couple years ago we vowed that we’d hang out more often.

Although sometimes months go by, we still make the time to catch up and check in with one another.

She’s in San Jose and I’m in San Francisco, so it can be hard, but it’d be harder not to see her and have her a part of my life.

We’re in a place now where it’s easier to share more of our lives with each than it was when we were teenagers. And tonight I was going to share my love of the Warriors with her.

Something she of course already knew about me.

She’s never been to a Warriors game, but actually likes to watch it on TV. With a brother who is an avid Warriors fan, it’s kind of hard to avoid.

So with a history and a solid connection to the Warriors, I’m excited that I can be the one to introduce her to the real thing.

 

The Commute

Antoinette was coming all the way up from San Jose and wanted to meet me in San Francisco because the fear of getting stuck in the parking lot post game was enough to deter her from driving to Oracle.

Plus this way, since she’d be coming up right after school (she’s a teacher), we could grab an early dinner in my neighborhood and then take the bus and BART to the game.

We met up at 5 in my hood, Lower Pac, and walked to Pizzaria Delfina off of Fillmore for dinner.

After all these games I really needed a change of pace from Ribs and Things and chicken strips, so this pregame meal was more than welcomed.

Actually, Pizzeria Delfina is always more than welcomed. I’d chose it over most meals any day.

It was nice to be able to sit down and have dinner before the game. Between that and the commute over there, we were able to catch up on everything.

After dinner we made our way to the 1 California line to head to the Embarcadero BART stop.

Tonight was one of the coldest days so far this winter so waiting outside for the bus was pretty rough.

I thought it was just me because I was already really sick, but it was when Antoinette took her scarf ‘thing’ and transformed it into a head wrap is when the biting cold was confirmed.

It was a pretty quick ride on the 1 and I spotted a couple people with Warriors gear on up in front who were also clearly going to the game.

Antoinette has never really needed to take BART before so getting her situated with a ticket and the process was pretty entertaining.

And like most people, after it was all said and done, she said it was way easier than she thought.

It was pretty quiet around and on BART, but as soon as we got on the train we sat around a group of people who had a modern day fist foam finger in tow.

Like usual, the BART commute was quick and painless. We passed the time playing iPhone games and cracking jokes.

We talked about her job and future as a high school teacher. Since I used to work at the same high school, it was fun to hear all the stories of how things are going and what has changed.

We talked about my unlikely path into advertising and we both reminisced about how long we’ve known each other.

I didn’t say it then because I assume she knows how appreciative I am of our friendship and history, because Antoinette is the type of person you don’t run into every day.

It’s just easy to hang out with her and her honestly and straightforwardness is refreshing.

She doesn’t pretend, you know where you stand with her and she’ll let you know.

Right now, the Warriors were on the outside with her.

Having not really gotten into basketball at a level beyond watching it when her brother has it on, I could tell she was genuinely excited to get to the game.

I could also tell, for her it was more than just about the game, but it was a great excuse for us to be hanging out again.

We’re on the same page and that’s no surprise.

(more…)

Jan 07, 2011 | Categories:And 1 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave A Comment »

DEC 27 | vs Philadelphia 76ers – Andy N

Warriors 110 – 76ers 95

Andy is my brother-in-law.

He joined the family almost 7 years ago, and 5 years ago he and my sister then also introduced my niece to us.

My family is small so every bit counts and Andy is making it count in several ways.

He’s the father of my niece, the husband of my sister and I really do consider him my brother.

I didn’t always of course.

Because my family is so small and I grew up so closely with my sister, even though we’re eight years apart, I’ve always been very protective of her and hyper critical of her boyfriends.

Andy and I didn’t start out as the friends that we are now.

We clashed, naturally.

It took us years to develop our rapport, and as we slowly grew closer, the friendship spawned from that. And it was really when my niece was born when we became brothers.

I’ve seen changes in Andy over the years. Changes that he admits really came with having a daughter, a wife and a family of his own.

Changes driven from life that demanded him to be a better man. A man that I’ll and most guys will never realize we’ll want to become until I also have a family of my own.

It’s the same changes and commitment from him to my bloodlines of my siter, my niece and my parents that made had me drop the ‘in-law’ part out of my vocabulary.

Whenever we hang out these days its always with the family, so I was really looking forward to this opportunity to get to hang out with him one on one.

The Commute

Katherine M is becoming a really great friend thanks to twitter, the Warriors and Golden Season.

She knew I was in San Jose and shot me a text asking if Andy and I would want to carpool to the game with her and her two little boys tonight.

I warned her I was sick, but she insisted.

Yup, she’s that nice.

Katherine came by to pick us up in her swagger wagon (Toyota Sienna). I rode shotgun and Andy was in the back with Joey and Jonathan.

The rain was easing up and it was only a couple days after Christmas so the roads were still pretty light.

The trip up was really quick as we passed time really getting to know one another.

Katherine and I are fans that met on twitter after she started following the blog. This was really the first time we truly were hanging out and finding out about what we’re really about. Where we’re from, what we do for a living and the history of our relationships with the Warriors.

Katherine’s love for the Warriors really begins with her kids.They really got into it and the entire family are now fans.  She’s an amazing mom who finds the time and energy to bring them out to the games. And when they’re not watching the game live, they’re at home screaming at the television. It be amazing to have gotten to know her and she gets me inspired and excited about the day when I can do the same with my kids.

As we reached Oracle, Katherine said she had some good parking lot strategies which after the game proved to be pure genius. She made the worst part about the game, leaving the parking lot, easy and kind of fun.

 

The Game

As we filed out of the swagger wagon, Jonathan was sound asleep. In a graceful motherly fashion, Katherine picked him up and we all made our way to the Plaza.

Once we got to the entrance, we set a plan to meet up in the plaza afterward. Katherine and the boys went in and Andy and I headed into the Team Store.

It was pretty busy tonight and we had to wait in line for a few minutes before crowd control let us in.

Andy had actually bought a jersey for tonights game, but once he put it on it looked like a dress because they’re so long, so he left it behind and was looking to get some gear tonight.

We cruised the shop and he finally locked eyes on the Adidas track jacket. We scoured the racks at the team store then moved up to the adidas store but they didn’t have his size.

 

Out of luck, Andy wouldn’t be rocking Warriors gear as planned. He considered the warm up jackets for a hot second but the price tag was a little too high.

So after a failed attempt of scoring him a jacket we decided to grab pizzas behind my section at Pizza Universe.

As we were standing in line we ran into Monika, her brother and dad.

She was already ready to go with beer in hand and wearing that fresh Warriors hat she picked up during our Phoenix game.

We caught up real quickly and found out that we’re in the same section. They were about 8 rows back but she said she’d come by and say what’s up later on during the game.

With a couple minutes left before the half Monika came by my seats with Nik and we all hopped outside to the concourse to hang out during the break.

Andy spotted some guys eating ribs and things during the second quarter and vowed to get some at the half. So after hanging out with Monika and Nik for a few we headed up the escalator so I could introduce Andy to some amazing arena BBQ.

After Andy grabbed some honey BBQ slices of heaven we made our way to the Club 200 Lounge.

On our way we ran into my great friends Jewel, Alan and their daughter Kylie.

I haven’t seen them in a while so it was a really great surprise to see them. Jewel had the giant logo ‘City’ tee on (I wish I would have got one when it was the item of the game) and Alan had a Champs exclusive black Steph Curry jersey on. It was pretty sick.

Tonight’s game was pretty amazing because we just kept running into people.

(more…)

Dec 27, 2010 | Categories:And 1 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave A Comment »

DEC 25 | vs Portland Trailblazers – Hiep N

Warriors 109 – Trailblazers 102

The last time my dad and I went to any sporting even I was 13; it was a San Jose Sharks game.

I don’t know why we didn’t do this stuff more, but every time we did I remember it.

I remember the time we went to go see the 49ers take on the Atlanta Falcons and Neon Deion came out with his famous shuffle.

I remember the one Warriors game where I could barely see over the man sitting in front of me.

That’s about all I remember but they were big memories, and in many ways the experience of going to a game is still ‘big’ because of my tie to them as a little guy.

This Christmas turned out to be a pretty amazing one.

I was able to give my father the gift of taking him home to Vietnam, thanks to my Employee of the Year vacation money, and I was also able to give him the gift of taking him back to Oracle.

It’s been 20 years since our last and only Warriors game and he looked just as exited about it as he was the Vietnam trip.

The Commute

My pops put on the hat I bought him a few games earlier and we headed out into the rain.

My family lives in San Jose and I was home for the holidays so the commute was different tonight; I was driving.

Thankfully it was Christmas night and no one was on the road. No traffic, smooth sailing.

My dad and I are close but we don’t necessarily have a relationship based on heavy conversation. He’s a man of very few words so it’s easy to tell what matters to him. Because if he’s interested in it in any way, he’ll start asking questions or tell you how it is.

We were in our own thoughts most of the way but he did ask me a ton of questions about the Warriors.

How is David Lee doing?

Does Jeremy Lin play well?

Is number 8 still with the team?

We didn’t dive into anything else really other than a reeducation of the Warriors, but that was okay. If it was basketball we could chat and connect over, I have no problems with that.

Me made great time and got to the Arena pretty early. The parking lot was still relatively empty which made it easier to walk around the puddles in the ground.

My pops has a bad foot so the walk was a touch longer than he would have liked, but what was even more difficult was the walk up the long set of stairs that lead into the entrances. I like them, as they get my blood pumping. But it’s a moment where I wish there was an escalator for those less mobile.

The Game

Because it was Christmas day, they were giving away Santa caps at the door.

We each grabbed one. I threw mine in my back pocket because my head is so large it didn’t really fit and my dad folded his up nicely and put it in his coat pocket.

My dad wasn’t feeling well so we didn’t go for beers or food. Instead my pops asked me for a Gatorade and we made our way to my seats.

One of the best things about being a season ticket holder is the friends you make.

One friend that I’ve made and get excited to see every game is my section attendant Johnny in 121.

We always give each other an enthusiastic hello and a hard time for whatever little thing we can find. Tonight I busted Johnny’s chops for not being in the holiday spirit and not wearing a Santa hat.

I offered him mine but he said the arena doesn’t allow them to wear it.

If that’s true, that’s messed up. But later on he must have found a loophole because we saw him at half time with a bright red cap on.

My dad and I sat down and were watching the guys warm up. Immediately he went into stories of days I played ball and how his favorite view to watch me play was from the top corner of the bleachers… kind of like how my seats are at Oracle.

He went into more memories he had watching me play and stories of how he used to leave work early to travel as far as San Francisco on a weeknight.

I didn’t know he did that then and I figured it out later combing through old photographs, but because of our conversation tonight, I realized that basketball was important to my dad because it was important to me. It all made complete sense because after I had broken my ankle and stopped playing and watching basketball for a while, so did he. His love for hoops and the Warriors mirrored mine.

With a few moments before tipoff, my new friend Katherine (who I met through the Golden Season effort), called me to tell me she was outside my section with her kids.

(more…)

Dec 25, 2010 | Categories:And 1 | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave A Comment »

DEC 21 | @ Sacramento Kings – Spencer L

Warriors 117 – Kings 109

I first met Spencer back in 2004.

I was working for his dad at NBC and Spencer would be at almost every event his dad was at.

He was a always a solid kid who would lay low hanging out and always looking to help out where he could.

Over the past 6 years I’ve been able to see Spencer grow up and become a man of his own.

He’s in college these days at Chico State and holiday break.

I don’t see Spencer too often but when we do we’re usually talking sports or video games.

Spencer and I connected again a couple weeks ago at his dad’s holiday party and of course we started talking hoops.

Since he’s a huge Kings fan we started going back and forth on our Northern California rivalry. After a while it just made sense that we had to make plans to go to the Warriors vs Kings game tonight in Sacramento.

Spencer found some great tickets from a Kings season ticket holder on Craigslist that put us a few rows back from courtside with a VIP parking pass.

The Commute

Spencer was staying at his folks house in Petaluma and since Sacramento isn’t necessarily and easy place to meet, I went north to pick him up.

It ended up working out well because from Petaluma there’s a backroad interstate that let us cut through a good stretch of trip without any traffic.

I showed up and went inside to say hi to my old boss, friend and Spencer’s dad, Lance. We caught up for a quick second as spencer was getting his Tyreke Evans jersey right.

We hopped in the car and started on our hour and a half road trip to Arco Arena.

As we were driving we were able to catch up on a ton.

I haven’t really caught up with Spencer beyond basketball and video games in a while so it was good to hear what he was up to.

Our conversations went from girls to school and back to hoops. We jumped around a lot letting the conversation take it’s natural course.

Rapping it up was real easy and hanging out with Spencer felt a lot what I imagine having a little brother would have been like if I had one.

The drive time blew by and the next thing you know we’re pulling into Arco.

The Game

The VIP Parking pass put us a stones throw from the main entrance.

As we were walking up I noticed that things were pretty grim.

There was stuff going on with local radio stations out front promoting their respective channels, but the building itself was DARK.

I would have thought that the Arco Arena sign would at least be lit up.

It’s a shame too because the team store in front of the main entrance was really cool. From the outside it looks like an Adidas sneaker box.

As we were walking into the arena, the ticket checker gave me hard time about my Warriors gear and playfully refused to let me in.

As we got in we headed right to the team store.

I was surprised by how much stuff there was.

After Spencer and I cruised the team store we headed to our seats to check them out. We were still really early but since we weren’t quite sure where we were sitting we wanted to do a fly by.

As we entered Arco, I almost forgot how old it was.

It’s really too bad that this is the home of a professional sports team. Walking down to our seats every thing felt smaller. The seats, the court, the isle, the jumbotron… everything.

Another thing I immediately noticed were all the Warrior fans in the house. Our guys were warming up and there was already a small Warrior fan crowd standing behind the seats courtside trying to get a glimpse and shout words of support to our squad.

We went back out to the concourse to grab some food.

It was dollar hotdog night and I was on a mission to get both Spencer and I sick out of our minds.

As we were headed to concessions there was something really cool that the Kings do for it’s season ticket holders. They have a SEPARATE line for them.

It was a really nice touch and since we had bought tickets from a season ticket holder off Craigslist we stepped right up without a wait.

We both got the max limit of hotdogs per visit. One look at the dogs and I figured the bright idea I had to try to make ourselves sick from hotdogs immediately felt like a bad one.

4 hotdogs were going to be plenty.

We got back to our seats and both teams were in full pre game warmup routines.

The lights went out an the introductions started. I have to say, the video they did for the Kings squad is pretty sick.

Also the dance squad came out and they were looking kind of cowgirl. The Kings know what’s up with their market as there’s a pretty good cowboy/cowgirl influence that was woven into the entire game experience.

We were well into the first quarter and looking around, it was nothing like Oracle.

Every night we can expect Oracle to almost be at capacity regardless of the team we’re playing.

Tonight at Arco for a Northern California rivalry, the place was pretty light in attendance.

And here’s a first. I’ve seen people read the paper at baseball games, but never at a hoops competition. One of the dudes near us must not have been expecting much from tonight because he was catching up on current events.

The game was pretty close throughout, with the exception of us blowing a double digit lead and then coming back from behind.

It was a fun game to go to with Spencer, especially since he’s a hardcore Kings fan.

And although we both have our loyalties we were able to appreciate all the trash talking we did back and forth all night.

During the first quarter I got a text from my friends David and Tram B. They came down with their beautiful daughter to come say hi.

They knew I’d probably be at tonight’s game because I’m a huge Warrior head.

We stepped out on the concourse and caught up for a second. It was really great to see them as it’s been a really long time… years I think. They’re some of the nicest people I know and it was really really good to catch up.

Again, I have the Warriors/Golden Season to thank for another reconnection.

Also at the half something really cool happened.

A bunch of kids were standing at half court when Tyreke came out with a bunch of bikes for them. They all lit up and I tipped my had to Evans who did something pretty amazing for these kids this holiday season.

(more…)

Dec 21, 2010 | Categories:And 1 | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »