Last Saturday, I took my daughter to see the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco. It was my first live sports event in three years, reflecting my caution regarding COVID and even the run-of-the-mill bugs that I had previously accepted as part of normal life. I missed Stephen Curry, and I missed the excitement that comes from being in the building for a game.
I was curious to see the Chase Center, the Warriors’ new arena. My in-person impressions of it were good but not great. The arena was in a more congested neighborhood than the old Oracle Arena in Oakland, which meant traversing narrow streets and San Francisco traffic to get there. Parking was good because I had paid $140, about as much as for my game ticket, to access the Warriors Way garage just across the street, a decision I made to avoid having to trek a full mile with rain and wind in the forecast from the garages near the Giants’ ballpark where fees were more reasonable. The Chase Center architecture was sleek and futuristic, and the central video board was immense. The place had a more closed-in feel, however, than the arenas in Sacramento or Portland, due in part to the Kings’ and Blazers’ more generous policies in allowing upper-tier ticket holders to access the lower bowl during warm-ups. At Chase, the intention was to get you to your assigned seat and keep you there. I imagine its luxury suites were nice, since they are the priority for new arena designs, but with my dearth of tech billionaire friends, they are likely to remain outside of my experience.
The Warriors have also fallen a little short of expectations this year after their recent championship. Steph, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are still on the starting roster, but many of the veteran bench players from last season have departed for greener pastures, leaving their roles to be filled by the Warriors’ recent draft picks. Their performance has left much to be desired, which has resulted in the Warriors’ current problems with holding leads and closing out games, a subject which Coach Steve Kerr discussed at length in his pre-game interview. His comments were unfortunately prophetic for the evening. The Warriors built a lead over the Dallas Mavericks that reached twenty points at times, but it nearly evaporated in the fourth quarter after Steph banged his knee and had to leave the game. The Warriors held on to win by six, so at least there wasn’t a loss to add insult to injury. The team announced on Monday that Steph would be out for a couple of weeks, which made me grateful that we had managed to see him when we did.
Three years away is a long time. I’m glad that I’ve begun to recover this part of my life. It may be a useless diversion to care about Steph and the NBA standings, but it’s also a lot of fun.
