Warriors fans savor the franchise’s final season based in Oakland.
Team’s success a source of civic pride for residents
OAKLAND >> Mistah FAB’s Dope Era store sits in the heart of Oakland’s up-andcoming Uptown District.
The clothing shop, nestled near the corner of Broadway and 17th Avenue, is a symbol of the community where the rapper grew up. Fab, born Stanley Cox, like the rest of the Oakland community, is bracing for the Warriors’ last season in The Town, while reconciling a future reality that hasn’t existed for more than four decades: a city without professional basketball.
“It’s disheartening, man,” he says. “To watch your team leave like that. And even though they’re just going across the water, it’s still something prideful about the city of Oakland that we love and that the passion that has been here in the city for the Oakland Warriors and what we like to say in Oakland.”
The Warriors, who settled into the Oakland Coliseum Arena in 1971 after failed efforts by thenowner Franklin Mieuli to build arenas in San Francisco and even San Diego, begin their final season at Oracle Arena tonight when they open against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“It’s gonna be devastating not playing in front of Oakland,” Warriors star Kevin Durant said. “But we’re right across the bay, man. I think it’s a 20-minute ride, it might be 10 minutes. I know it sucks with the Raiders and the Warriors leaving, being that they have been here so long. But we’re just going across the bridge. I think a lot of these fans can still make that trip over.”
When Durant signed with the Warriors as a free agent in 2016, he looked at four potential residences: A spacious compound in Alamo, a hideout tucked away in Orinda, a property in Piedmont and a viewladen pad in the Oakland Hills.
He chose Oakland because, like Durant’s hometown of Washington, D.C., it had a thriving multicultural left-leaning epicenter.
“The people here reminded me of home, so it made my transition smoother,” Durant said.
Draymond Green, a native of Saginaw, Michigan, chose to live in Oakland for
similar reasons.
“Same mentality man,” Green said. “In Saginaw, they act just like people from Oakland. It’s just that same mentality, that get it out of the mud mentality.
“I feel like, the way I am, you know my demeanor, it’s just like them. Real recognize real.”
Regina Jackson, a longtime director of the East Oakland Youth Development Center, understands
what it means to have the Warriors in Oakland. On a spring morning in 2015, Abusheri Ohwofasa of the Warriors foundation called her and asked her to bring two young people to the Warriors’ headquarters at the Oakland Marriott.
Jackson had a history with the Warriors. The team practiced in the EOYDC’s gym periodically in the 1990s, before they opened their facility atop the Marriott. So Jackson packed up two students and made the 12-mile drive to the hotel. Upon arrival, they were met with cameras, lights and a large media contingent — for Stephen Curry’s MVP ceremony. Shortly after Curry’s speech, EOYDC was presented with a 2015 Kia Sorento.
“We are driving around in it all the time,” Jackson said. “We take the kids that are testing for the high school equivalency exam. We take the kids on field trips, whether it’s to the zoo or to Oracle.”
The EOYDC also benefitted from the Warriors Foundation’s renovation of the center’s aging gym.
“It’s just gotten better and better and better,” Jackson said. “The quality of the relationship has been richer and deeper. And it’s not just been about money. It’s been about access: access to staff, access to players, even access to the general managers and the owner. It’s been incredible.
“We know it won’t be able to be the same just by virtue of the distance. But we also just don’t know what it means and that it’s a little scary. It’s especially daunting, and we’ve had mad love for this team before they started winning. And certainly, I will always be in love with the Warriors. But I just don’t know what it means for our kids if they’re actually going to be able to grow up watching games.”
As a youth, Stanley Cox would sneak into the Coliseum Arena, rushing the turnstiles with his friends and finding seats in the barren arena. Soon after, Warriors forward Donyell Marshall began supplying Cox with tickets.
In 2010, Cox became a mainstay at Oracle, regularly sitting behind the scorer’s table next to the opponent’s bench.
In August, Warriors president Rick Welts said that 80 percent of the season ticket holders from Oracle Arena have renewed their packages for Chase Center. Cox, however, remains undecided on whether he will make the move. For now, it seems as if the Warriors’ impending departure is another part of his hometown that is going away.
“It’s been real,” Cox said. “Thank you for the championships before you left. We appreciate you. It gave the city hope. The parade. Just the parade alone gave the city hope. Going through the city of Oakland, parading, winning the championship in Oakland, the underdog finally on top. It’s been real.”