The Mavericks aren’t the only team in the city of Dallas who
should feel victimized by the Golden State Warriors. The Cowboys
lost a little something too.
The Mavericks aren’t the only team in the city of Dallas who should feel victimized by the Golden State Warriors. The Cowboys lost a little something too.
Push aside that star in Big D, because the Warriors are the new “America’s Team.”
Fresh off their improbable first-round upset of the top-seeded Mavs, it’s not hard to see why the Warriors have captured the attention of not only the Bay Area, but the entire nation.
With an upbeat style of play that is more reminiscent of a game of street ball than the NBA, the Warriors served notice for every “little guy” out there by taking down the big, bad and heavily-favored Dallas.
America is always infatuated with the story of the underdog. The NCAA Tournament is so often considered the best sports has to offer because the improbable can happen and the atmosphere of a college game is hard to top.
That’s what draws people to the Warriors like a magnet.
It’s an NBA team – with the amazing talent that the world’s best players have to offer – putting on the Cinderella slipper and playing in front of fans that rival the Cameron Crazies. In essence, it’s the college basketball feel with the NBA skill.
It’s an atmosphere that you have to experience to believe. Watching Games 3 and 4 from the press area, I got a strong glimpse into what the arena is like for a Warriors playoff victory. But without being in attendance for the Game 6 clincher, I won’t even try to pretend to tell you what it was like in a rockin’ Oracle Arena on Thursday.
Perhaps the most telling sign of the Warriors’ abilities to capture people’s attention is the view at courtside.
With celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Kate Hudson, Owen Wilson, Carlos Santana and Jessica Alba showing up to cheer on the W’s, you know something special is going on. And when Charles Barkley, the foremost hater of the Warriors and the Bay Area, slips on a “We Believe” shirt, it shows we’re witnessing something extra special.
After spending so many years in the gloom and doom of the Western Conference cellar, there’s finally something to cheer about on a basketball court in Oakland. It also doesn’t hurt that in the glamour city of Los Angeles, the Lakers were quickly shown the door in the first round by Phoenix and the Clippers stumbled at the end of the season, which incidentally helped the Warriors reach the playoffs. (Note: I’ll take bets that if an LA team were still in the playoffs, Snoop would’ve never found his way to the Oracle).
The best part of all of this is that what the Warriors have done really doesn’t seem to be a fluke. This team has legitimate talent with a legitimate super star in Baron Davis and has one of the best coaches in the NBA in Don Nelson.
Now, I’m not saying this team is going to completely shock the world and take home the NBA title. But after you’ve toppled the best team in the league already, anything can happen.
For now, I’ll stick to a short-term prediction. It’s unknown whether the Warriors will face Houston or Utah (Game 7 is today), but I like the way they match up with either team. I’ll take the W’s in 6 and let’s rock ‘n’ roll with Phoenix in the Western Conference finals.
