Warriors rock
NBA champs celebrate with fans their third title in four years
For the second straight year, throngs of Golden State Warriors fans turned out for a victory parade to celebrate a team some are calling an NBA dynasty.
Hundreds of thousands of fans in gold and blue and holding signs that read “Dynasty” and “Back to Back Champions” waved from behind barriers set up along the route in downtown Oakland, California, as the Warriors rode by in an open, doubledecker bus.
Stephen Curry, NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant and the rest of the Warriors, who won their third title in four years last week, took turns raising the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the roaring crowd, which officials said could reach up to 1 million fans.
Officials had promised an “interactive” parade with some fans able to ask the players questions and giant TV screens for the crowd to see them and hear their answers as the moved along the route. But there were no screens and when Klay Thompson used a megaphone to say hello, his greeting was drowned out by the cheering crowd.
Curry was able to connect in a different way when he opened
a bottle of champagne, shook it and sprayed the crowd with it. He briefly got off the bus and walked up to fans, throwing Tshirts to them and then holding the trophy up as dozens of cameras surrounded him.
Curry 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.