Warriors opening night

Would I call myself a basketball fan?  Partially.

I enjoy going to basketball games, but I have to admit I don’t spend a ton of time watching the action on the court.  I like to people watch.  I like to chat.  I like to watch the dancers.  I also like to offer my opinions and commentary on the fashions of fans.  I prefer to sit in good seats close to the court, but not so I can see close-ups of the players.  I am more interested in seeing close-ups of the people sitting in the floor seats.  That’s usually where you see the best fashions to discuss.

We moved to San Francisco for Dave to work for the Golden State Warriors, so naturally, there’s a lot of basketball in our lives.  Friday night was the season opener at home, and now we’re into our first West Coast basketball season.

Since Dave has to work at the games, I attended the game with Dave’s boss’s wife and her visiting Dad.  We not only sat in some great lower-bowl seats (which allowed me the opportunity to high-five a player as the team walked down the tunnel), but we also had dinner at the Courtside Club restaurant before the game.  Not open for the general public, the Courtside Club is a buffet-style restaurant offering seasonal food for patrons with Club passes.  I enjoyed some chardonnay, sea bass, salad, turkey, kale succotash and a fairly dry oatmeal raisin cookie.  Basketball arenas aren’t known for their good food, but this was a nice dining experience.

The Warriors play at Oracle Arena, which is located in Oakland.  This arena is older than the shiny, new Amway Center, where the Magic played in Orlando, so I was fully expecting to be disappointed by the facilities.  Other than the interior hallways and backstage areas showing their age a bit, the arena was just fine, and it offered a great fan experience.  As we entered the arena we were given glow-sticks to crack and wave during the pregame festivities.  We were also given t-shirts, which ended up being taken from the back of our chairs when we left our seats during halftime.

There was a packed house on opening night with more than 18,000 fans in attendance.  These are some loyal fans, completely decked out in bright blue and yellow.  (Love that color combination!)  There were pyrotechnics, lit-up replicas of the Bay bridge for the players to enter, a live orchestra performing the national anthem and quite a bit of fanfare.

After an amazing opening, one of the Warriors starters had a terrible injury and had to leave the game (which we’ve now found out will have him out the entire season … poor guy).  This sort of changed the tone, and unfortunately the team didn’t recover.  They ended up losing to the Memphis Grizzlies 104 to 94.

I had a great time watching the action, watching the fans and taking in my first Warriors experience.  The crowd seemed rowdier than it was in Orlando, and the fans definitely seemed more excited to participate on the dance cam.

While I won’t be going to every home game, I’ll try to keep up through the season so I can watch the who’s who on the floor.  Go Warriors!