GOLDEN GLORY ON FULL DISPLAY
“When you have that and talent and the right leadership, this is the product of that.” Andrew Haag, Warriors fan
Amid blizzards of confetti and the occasional spritz of Champagne, tens if not hundreds of thousands of people packed downtown San Francisco on Monday, lining a Market Street thoroughfare often silenced by the pandemic to celebrate the Golden State Warriors’ first championship since the team’s move back to the city.
As players, coaches, city politicians and others rolled through the crowds on doubledecker buses, revelers formed a sea of blue and gold on the streets and sometimes climbed light poles, trees and bus shelters for a better view. Their verdict was unanimous: the Warriors were unbeatable after all — a team for the history books, with four rings since 2015.
After two seasons beset by injuries and struggles yielded to an NBA Finals win over the Boston Celtics, Stephen Curry and his teammates rode victorious with their families, sometimes jumping off their buses to high-five fans and twirl starstruck children.
Gary Payton II fired a water gun before moving shirtless into the masses. Juan ToscanoAnderson poured a golden liquid out of a bottle into the
open mouths of waiting fans. At one point, Draymond Green slipped out of the parade and into a Ghirardelli shop to buy an ice cream cone. At another, he stood alongside his mom, Mary Babers-Green, and declared he had a message for his critics: “Shut up!”
Curry paused to tweet a photo of himself with a cigar in his mouth, trophies in his arms and his now familiar taunt: “What they gonna say now?”
The tension and emotions of the season melted away as fans carried signs reading “Ayesha Curry can cook,” a reference to a Boston bar claiming the opposite about the NBA Finals MVP’s chef-wife. Another sign said, “Celtics Fans don’t season their food.”
The parade briefly eclipsed the profound challenges of a downtown abandoned by thousands of office employees now working remotely and wounded by an epidemic of fatal drug overdoses.
At a pre-parade rally in front of the Ferry Building, Mayor London Breed, decked out in Warriors gear, said the city
“All the people that believe in what we do and how we do it, that’s what will live longer than this parade and everything.”
Stephen Curry, Warriors guard
deserved to let loose after two tough pandemic years. “It’s time to celebrate Dub Nation!” she called out.
Team owner Joe Lacob applauded the combination of experience and new vigor from younger players that helped the team come “back from the abyss.”
Green, after tossing around four-letter words like his signature passes, put it plainly: “What do you want me to tell you? That we were better than everybody? This has been an amazing year.”
The most eager fans were already lined up behind metal barricades on Market Street by daybreak. They nearly overwhelmed the BART system, with fans forced to wait in long lines at many stops. At one point, the train system’s Clipper system malfunctioned.
The scene reminded many of the San Francisco Giants’ three championship parades in 2010, 2012 and 2014, before the world changed and the Warriors moved from Oakland.
Alma Antioquia of Newark came to celebrate Curry’s MVP and the team’s rebound. “Now,” she said, “we can say strength in numbers!” Elizabeth Hansen of Brentwood, who has cheered for the Warriors since she was a child, said she was inspired by Thompson’s recovery from multiple injuries and was “even more proud to be his fan.”
The parade was just blocks from home for city native Edana Contreras and her caregiver Andrew Haag, both lifelong fans. Contreras came in honor of her mother, who died in 2018.
“It’s a squad, a pack of Warriors,” Haag said. “When you have that and talent and the right leadership, this is the product of that.”
The double-decker buses were crowned with the team’s Larry O’Brien championship trophies, one of which Green held overhead as the buses plowed over the carpet of confetti. The fans pressed in, making the sidewalks nearly impassable. By the early afternoon, emergency responders had reported treating numerous people for minor and often heat-related injuries, including a teen boy who briefly fainted but was expected to recover.
As Curry’s bus approached Market and New Montgomery streets, the crowd erupted into cheers and chants of “M-V-P!” Confetti cannons blasted as Curry hoisted his trophies and
waved them toward the crowd.
“It never gets old,” the best shooter in league history told a television reporter, wearing a shirt emblazoned with “Back Again” and listing the team’s title years. He paid tribute to everyone in the Warriors organization who had a part in the current dynasty, saying, “All the people that believe in what we do and how we do it, that’s what will live longer than this parade and everything.”
The other member of the Splash Brothers, Klay Thompson, was wearing a sea captain’s hat when he appeared to drop one of his past title rings while mingling with fans — a near-disaster, or perhaps a ruse, captured on video by The Chronicle. Thompson scooped the ring back up, kissed it, then marched over to teammate Otto Porter Jr., who was holding a trophy. He threw his arms around Porter, and they jumped up and down.
Dozens of people rushed Thompson’s bus as it brought up the rear of the motorcade, jumping over barricades or pushing them aside. As Porter jumped off the bus to spray Champagne on the crowd, police tried to guide the masses back to the sidelines. But it was too late: Market Street was for the fans.
Julie Johnson (she/her), Danielle Echeverria (she/her) Matthias Gafni (he/him) and Mallory Moench (she/her) are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: julie.johnson@sfchronicle.com, danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com, matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com, mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @juliejohnson, @DanielleEchev, @mgafni, @mallorymoench