After the Super Bowl that I watched three weeks ago, the last weekend was again dedicated to the American sports (obviously watched and not played, for the moment!), and in particular to the NBA. This time I wanted something much more engaging, though, and so…

… I decided to attend a match of the Golden State Warriors (Dubs is their nickname)! I am not a super fan of basketball – I follow this sport quite superficially – but I have always desired to attend a live match because I imagined that it is a real show (as it indeed was), beyond the mere match. I had already planned to attend a match in my previous trip around the States in 2008, but eventually we could not “find” a match in conjunction with the stages of our route. This year everything is different and I could not miss the opportunity, also because I am in the area of the strongest team of the whole championship (for those who are not experts, the Warriors won the NBA title in 2015, they lost the final in 2016 – by the way, they lost 3-4 after leading 3-1, too bad! – and they are leading the rank this year as well). To be honest, I should mention that I have always been a Los Angeles Lakers supporter (thanks to the great Magic Johnson), so now it is not that appropriate to sell myself to San Francisco/Oakland, but never mind: from now on, only the Bay teams can exist for me!

Given the variable weather that we have been experiencing in these weeks and considering that the regular season is going to finish in about one month (and I could hardly afford a play-off match), I had already focused my attention on February 25: Saturday match (which cannot be taken for granted, since matches can be scheduled on any day of the week) and low-profile opponents (I later discovered that the Nets are actually the very last in the overall rank!). Basically, perfect conditions. Finding a ticket was not difficult and so here I am on the BART (the Bay metro system): 20 minutes from Downtown Berkeley and I am at the Coliseum stop. This is the name of the Oakland baseball/football stadium, which is next to the Oracle Arena: Americans like optimizing! You can easily imagine the size of the parking lot…

Security checks are obviously carried out, but they are much milder than expected: indeed the atmosphere is super calm, and everyone is relaxed. Spectators on the bleachers enjoy the match, they have fun, laugh… and eat (especially eat 🙂 )

Concerning the show, I wasn’t wrong. Naturally it begins with the US national anthem, here’s a brief excerpt:

A really plain (!) presentation follows, and then… get the match started!

Every tie-break is naturally a good opportunity for choreographies, basket contests for lucky spectators and so on: you can’t have one single nanosecond of rest! No kiss cam, though, which was indeed good, since I had two couples beside me!

Obviously the Warriors eventually won… Or, better… We eventually won 🙂 ! The final score is 112-95, but the Dubs actually played very easy and relaxed for all the 48 minutes, with no need for particular efforts. And finally, for the NBA fans: yes, Stephen Curry (the star of the team) really does extraordinary things!