The rest of the league finally gets it...

We've been at the bum end of a lot of NBA dealings. I think the NBA finally understands how much the Bay Area loves basketball. That last minute salary cap hike in order for the Lakers to be able to afford Malone and Payton, allowed Washington to steal Arenas away from us. If we were the Knicks, Lakers, Heat, Bulls, Celtics, this never would've been allowed. The Larry Bird Rule was created for the Celts, the Allan Houston rule was born for the Knicks (In a year when it wouldn't make any sense for the Warriors to dump salary). Why do other teams get outs, yet the Warriors never did.

I think people quickly forget that we're a major media market. All it took was an 8 seed and the threat of beating Dallas in round 1 and the Warriors fans went nuts. Do people forget that we were consistently selling out the arena before the remodel (even when the team wasn't winning). We had the longest consecutive sellout crowd for a long time. The throwback jerseys are consistently amongst the top sellers. The list goes on and on...

Maybe Stern finally opens his eyes to the fact that this team shouldn't be overlooked. The rest of the league sees what this market/team is capable of. Mr Stern, now's your chance to see if a KG rule can be created to make this team a legitimate mark in playoffs to come. Lets see how that huge contract can be moved in a creative way. Go Warriors!

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">After I wrote last week that two special NBA crowds remain -- Madison Square Garden and Oakland Arena -- the predictable slew of e-mails arrived from Sacramento, Chicago, Toronto and many other cities, all of them asking, "What about us?" I don't blame them for being deluded because they don't know any better.</div>

 

<div class="quote_poster">AnimeFANatic Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/blog/index?name=simmons</div>

I like!

 

Did Charles say there was nothing to in the bay area? That's the most retarded thing i've ever heard. almost nowhere else in the U.S. has more stuff to do.

 

^^he also said that the bay area is the place where people move when they can't afford to live in LA...he obviously isn't familiar with bay area rent either!!

 

Awesome article AF. I missed it last time you posted it.

 

<div class="quote_poster">707to805 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">^^he also said that the bay area is the place where people move when they can't afford to live in LA...he obviously isn't familiar with bay area rent either!!</div>it's the other way around, L.A. is full of people who wish they could afford to move to San Francisco.

 

<div class="quote_poster">CohanHater Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">We've been at the bum end of a lot of NBA dealings. I think the NBA finally understands how much the Bay Area loves basketball. That last minute salary cap hike in order for the Lakers to be able to afford Malone and Payton, allowed Washington to steal Arenas away from us. If we were the Knicks, Lakers, Heat, Bulls, Celtics, this never would've been allowed. The Larry Bird Rule was created for the Celts, the Allan Houston rule was born for the Knicks (In a year when it wouldn't make any sense for the Warriors to dump salary). Why do other teams get outs, yet the Warriors never did.

I think people quickly forget that we're a major media market. All it took was an 8 seed and the threat of beating Dallas in round 1 and the Warriors fans went nuts. Do people forget that we were consistently selling out the arena before the remodel (even when the team wasn't winning). We had the longest consecutive sellout crowd for a long time. The throwback jerseys are consistently amongst the top sellers. The list goes on and on...

Maybe Stern finally opens his eyes to the fact that this team shouldn't be overlooked. The rest of the league sees what this market/team is capable of. Mr Stern, now's your chance to see if a KG rule can be created to make this team a legitimate mark in playoffs to come. Lets see how that huge contract can be moved in a creative way. Go Warriors!</div>

This is true. However it is difficult for the national media to give much concern for the Warriors or any team like the Warriors who have had very small amount of local media following. Also the only local media to come out from the Bay about the NBA has been very poor news over the past 10 years including the Sprewell incident, the trade after the incident, the many new head coaches, paying very bad contracts, having bad drafts, etc. It is true that the world is just starting to get to know about Golden State and its fans, but so is the local media, I bet. For several years KNBR 680 has only been the Giants, 1050 has been the Raiders, and then inbetween you just have mostly football discussion and baseball talk. I am not able to follow the local media so closely down here in Long Beach but I bet that the media is much more in-tune with the Warriors right now and the NBA.

But I agree that it has been awesome seeing the Bay Area sports fans unite in the Oakland Arena or the ORACLE Arena. That truly is a very diverse group of fans coming from potentially fans who come from the Blackhole, Pac Bell Park, the Sharks arena, the A's, 49ers, Cal Bears fans and Stanford fans and even some local celebrities like Santana.

Also didn't the NBA make some type of rule because of what happened in the Arenas situation? I guess the difference in this case is that this move was reactive rather than proactive...

 

We're the true underdogs of the NBA, but we play like the Suns.

 

From my own experience the Oracle is just plain crazy. The last game i went to was the home game vs the suns and the crowd was just noisy. Everytime we scored it was loud and people would just start chanting "Defense" and "Lets Go Warriors" out of nowhere and it got extremely loud. Like the article said, these fans didn't need a screen to tell them what to do. We know exactly what to do to motivate our players. Anyone else hear during game 5 that the Mavs had to use fake crowd noises to make the arena louder? I think Reggie Miller mentioned something like that

 

<div class="quote_poster">iLL PiLL Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Anyone else hear during game 5 that the Mavs had to use fake crowd noises to make the arena louder? I think Reggie Miller mentioned something like that</div>

If thats true, that is just pathetic. Pathetic.

 

They did?

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">
Also didn't the NBA make some type of rule because of what happened in the Arenas situation? I guess the difference in this case is that this move was reactive rather than proactive...</div>

Actually, If the league hadn't hiked the salary cap last minute (it was well above what was leaked) Washington wouldn't have been in the Arenas game. And yes, the league was reactive in the Arenas situation. So the league bit the Warriors twice in this case.

 

How lucky does Larry Ellison feel that he chose this year to name the arena the Oracle Arena after it was the Oakland Arena for what 7 years?

 

How lucky would he have felt if he had been able to buy the team this year?

 

<div class="quote_poster">philsmith75 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">How lucky does Larry Ellison feel that he chose this year to name the arena the Oracle Arena after it was the Oakland Arena for what 7 years?</div>

It's not luck... the Oracle told Ellison that this was the Warriors year.

 

Great thread, thanks for sharing.

 

As a side note, David Stern has also previously endorsed the Warriors. Several times on draft nights he's been asked who he hopes get the #1 pick, and a few times he's said, the Warriors. He knows we're the 4th? biggest media market and knows we make money, so he's always tried to be behind us as impartially as possible.