Warriors Enjoyment Guide

This won't be the most popular post on the site, but I thought I'd share a few of the things that have kept me a die-hard Warriors fan for over twenty years.

The Warriors do not play to win, they play to wow.  Now I know that many of you wish we had the San Antonio Spurs here--a terrific professional mistake-free franchise that plays hoops the way my father and grandfather remember.  But instead we have the Harlem Globetrotters.  Nellieball is exciting because it features super-athletic, extremely fast, flashy players who can think on their feet and excel at fast breaks.  Even in Nelson's interregnum in the 90's the Warriors remained one of the most exciting franchises to watch because they didn't lose their style.

Here's where you say: Style doesn't win games!  I agree.  But here's where we may differ:  Winning games has never been the top priority of the Golden State Warriors.  Putting on a great show and putting paying customers in the seats is what any pro sports team is about.  We are not winning wars at all costs here.  This is entertainment.  And in a world of thirty teams each trying to differentiate themselves and keep the home fans excited, the Warriors do a better job than almost any franchise of any sport.

Yes, we keep losing and hardly ever see the playoffs.  That's fine.  The playoffs are for the likes of Jerry Sloan and Kobe Bryant, ultra-competitors I'd never want to get trapped in an elevator with.  I was a soccer player up till high school.  Then the super competitive monsters kept popping veins in their necks at our lack of fire and missed assignments and I just quit.  With a**holes like that around I wasn't enjoying myself any more.

Now what makes the Warriors special is that other teams are eager to play us.  They have a very good chance of winning, it's true, but more to the point they get a license to ill when they come to Oakland.  Everyone, including the psychotically competitive, love showing up and having a run n' gun streetball fiesta every few weeks.  And we, the lucky fans, get to invite the greatest hoops players from all over the world to Oaktown to put on the best show in the country.

How else to explain it?  When you have Jax, Mags, Crawford, Monta, and Biedrins as your starting five you're not working toward a trophy, you're working toward a highlight reel--and contrary to common wisdom, which is that winning puts fans in the seats--we have learned that a feel-good highlight reel is what keeps us paying the increasingly expensive tickets.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.  When another team executes a pretty play and dunks on us I cheer just about as loud as when the Dubs do it.  And when we beat all expectations and break every lily-white heart in Dallas against all odds it just makes the story all the sweeter.  But don't expect this crew to compete against teams designed to win the championship.  And accept that if the NBA only held teams that played basketball "the right way" as Larry Brown likes to sniff, this league would be a hell of a lot more boring.  If you want to cheer on the Warriors for the next twenty years, learn to enjoy what you got.  If you just HAVE to cheer on a winner, because you're an ultra-competitive a**hole yourself, then root for KG, because he is a god among men.