Oakland ready to celebrate another title

Gold and blue confetti rained down in downtown Oakland, Calif., Tuesday as a parade to celebrate the Golden State Warriors’ third NBA title in four years occurred. Warriors guard Klay Thompson threw T-shirts to fans and waved from the top of an open, double-decker bus. Fans arrived hours before the start of the parade Tuesday to get a prime spot along the route. The NBA champions have gone back-to-back, beating LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-85 on Friday night to finish off a sweep of the NBA Finals in the fourth consecutive meeting between the clubs. Star Stephen Curry promised fans the team will “get greedy” and win more championships. Curry says he never imagined the team would have a parade “let alone two and now three.” Curry spoke during a short interview Tuesday with the team that was broadcast live before the start of the parade through Oakland, California. He says “this is for you guys.” The guard wore a large sun hat and under it a “RUN TMC” baseball cap in honour of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin, the namesakes for the Don Nelson-coached Warriors teams during the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons. Oakland resident Jasmine Culp says she is elated to attend her third Warriors parade with her three children. The 36-year-old mother painted her lips blue and dressed in a sparkling golden sequined dress, sash, and blue-gold feather accessories to attend the parade Tuesday that she says has become a family tradition. Culp says she and her family love that they can kick off the summer by dressing up to celebrate the Warriors. She acknowledges it will be sad to see the Warriors move to San Francisco because they team is “a big part of our city.” Still, she says she will travel over the bridge to support her team. The Warrior are set move to Chase Center, a new arena being built in San Francisco, in October 2019. Oakland city streets have been lined with gold and blue banners and shop and restaurant owners along the parade route say they are getting ready to open their businesses during the celebration. Fasil Lemma, who owns De Lauer’s Newsstand, said he will be selling the new championship T-shirts and gear from past championships. “It’s very exciting,” Lemma told the East Bay Times. “We want to serve the community.” Officials say as many as 1 million fans were expected to attend the parade. Unlike other years, the parade won’t end at a rally near Lake Merritt. Instead, there will be large Jumbotron-type screens set up along the route that will feature members of the team talking in real time and answering the questions of a few lucky fans. “We wanted to make it more intimate, free flowing and, frankly, more exciting,” Raymond Ridder, the team’s vicepresident of communications, told the newspaper. “We will now have more fans along the parade route, creating more of a buzz, giving fans closer/direct access to players and, ideally, it will keep the event moving/flowing.”