‘Now the party starts’: After the victory, fans celebrate around the Bay Area.
Oakland fans were higher than the arc on a three-pointer as their beloved Warriors took care of business on Monday night to take home the NBA championship.
“Now the party starts,” said Erik Cordero of Oakland, inside the Make Westing, one of countless downtown watering holes packed armpit to armpit. “This city needs it.”
“I’m a happy fan,” said Sandi McDonnell of Oakland, standing in the street outside the Good Hop bar as honking cars streamed past. “This is a big deal.”
When the final result — Warriors 129, Cleveland Cavaliers 120 — flashed on the TV screens of the bars around Oakland, bedlam busted out big time. Shots were poured, beers chugged and dance music blared.
At Telegraph and Grand avenues, a police cruiser drove by, with the cop inside chanting “Warriors! Warriors!” over the loudspeaker.
Some fans poured out into the street, yelling “Let’s go Warriors!” but there were few signs of trouble after the game, and a healthy police presence was intended to keep it that way.
At Broadway and 14th Street, hundreds of exuberant fans stood in the middle of the intersection, drinking, dancing, screaming and blocking traffic. But there were no problems, other than cars stuck in traffic.
Downtown Oakland bubbled like the countless pints of IPA being downed in sports bars, regular bars, neighborhood bars and just plain bars. Across the bay in San Francisco, horns honked, pedestrians whooped, firecrackers exploded and strangers high-fived.
At the final buzzer inside the arena, yellow confetti fell from on high, spotlights flashed, players hugged and fans poured beer into their mouths and onto their friends’ heads. Wellheeled fans wore their “free” yellow T-shirts that were included in the ticket price, which, for some, was well into five figures.
After that little bump in the road in Cleveland on Friday, Warriors fans were ready for good things to happen in Oakland on Monday night. And they did.
“I’m here and I don’t care how much it cost,” said Rodrigo Oreiro as he prepared to pass through the metal detectors at Oracle Arena and get sniffed by police dogs. “It’s a dream to be here.”
Oreiro had driven from his home in Long Beach on Monday morning. After sitting for nearly eight hours behind the wheel, he said he was ready to sit for three more hours inside the arena, providing the Warriors — leading the series 3-1 — saw their way clear to finish off the pesky Cavaliers, a thing they were unable to do in Game 4 on Friday.
Arriving Warriors fans streamed from the Coliseum BART station and onto the pedestrian bridge to the arena, past a small army of Oakland cops, bootleg T-shirt vendors and off-the-cuff snack sellers peddling hot dogs of unknown pedigree.
On the souvenir black market, the hot item was a T-shirt depicting a sobbing LeBron James.
In the parking lot, fans tossed a Frisbee, drank beer, sat in folding chairs and trash talked in the late afternoon sunshine. Everyone was happy, including a lone fellow in a Cavaliers jersey.
A couple of miles north in downtown Oakland, the small crowd at Luka’s Taproom was in good spirits and optimistic as the game began.
“It really feels good to be watching the Warriors win in a place like Luka’s where the crowd is diverse and you can feel the energy in the room,” said Steven Jones, a former San Francisco newspaperman. He sat perched on a stool with friends as he has for all the playoff games.
“Tonight’s the night,” he said.
But the first 12 minutes of the game were plenty scary. Shortly after tipoff, the taverns were oddly quiet, as the Warriors fell behind. But whoever wrote the script on this one came up with a different ending.
Jonathan Ross of Oakland sipped a vodka and cranberry juice, and said he expected a victory all along..
“I said from the start the Warriors were going to win it in five,” he said.
Nearby sat Austin Whittak of Los Angeles, the only fan in the bar pulling for the Cavs. He said he was more of a fan of underdogs than of Cleveland. He cheered whenever everyone else didn’t.
“I’ve always been the contrarian,” Whittak said. “I’m happy to give everyone someone to hate.”
At Make Westing bar on Telegraph Avenue and 19th Street, patrons stood shoulder to shoulder
“It was a great game. It would have been nice to take it in four but, hey, this is OK.” Nick Hernandez, Warriors fan
watching the game on three screens and downing drink specials. For much of the game, the score was close, even though the Warriors were ahead.
“It’s going all right,” said Cordero, keeping an eye on his beer and the scoreboard. “So far, so good.”
During much of the game, the streets of downtown Oakland seemed eerily quiet, probably because most of the giant screen TVs are located inside, not outside. Only after the final buzzer did the fans spill outside and the honking and hollering commence.
“It was a great game,” said Nick Hernandez of Oakland. “It would have been nice to take it in four but, hey, this is OK.”
Nearby, another fan, Nye Britt of Oakland, said a world championship was a fine thing for the Warriors to bestow upon Oakland before their planned move to San Francisco in a few years.
“Everybody’s leaving. The Warriors. The Raiders,” Britt said. “At least the Warriors gave us a championship.”