Air ball Pizza vs NJN

What an exciting year it has been. These games have been some of the best I have ever watched. New Jersey proved to be no different. It was action packed and anyone's game. The Nets have a great team watching Vince Carter, Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson is pure fun. You could tell Baron knew it was a battle of the guards tonight. Some great dribbling and passing from both guards. Not to mention amazing layups and dunks from Carter, Ellis and others. The crowd was loving it and there was a surprisingly good amount of drunks for a Thursday game. One guy who was obviously very drunk and very hungry stood for at least 20 minutes without sitting yelling various chants. He started off with the normal drunk warriors fan chants "MVP", "GO WARRIORS" etc. After seeing the Jam squad pass out Pizza to a few lucky people though he switched his tune. He then began chanting "PIZZA! PIZZA!" for a good 10 minutes solid. Lots of people tried to derail his train of thought by shouting toppings for pizza or other food types. It did nothing he had his mind set and kept chanting PIZZA! It got annoying fast but after a bit he stumbled off to get more beer only to never be seen again.

That's when it got really strange Marco Belinelli came off the bench pretty early in the game with the score very close. Now if you fallow the Warriors you will know the only time Marco normally sees minutes is when we are up by 20 plus points or down by 20 plus. I am thinking to myself what does Nelly have up his sleeve. As soon as Marco hits the floor and the Nets have the Ball he instantly mugs Josh Boone. The Nets then inbound again and boom Marco mugs Boone this time putting in them in the bonus and sending Boone to the line. It's then when Boone shoots an Air ball on his first Free throw that I realize what Nelly is doing. The old Hack-A-Shaq on poor Josh Boone. The Arena instantly erupts into "AIR BALL!" chants. They rinse and repeat this on Boone several more times and even Buke got in on the foul the action when Marco sat. But Marco was the main hit man with a solid 5 fouls on him back to back. Is he our new goon squad captain? It ended up paying off as we got another Win at home. One more interesting thing to note. On the screen during a time out they showed people in the audience who looked like some of the presidential hopefuls currently trying to win your vote in the primaries. It would first show a picture of the candidate then someone who looked like him or her from the audience. They showed McCain first and he got booed something fierce. Hilary was next with a mixed reaction from the crowd. Some Boos and a good amount of cheers as well. Then came Obama who I would say was the clear winner. He got the crowd going like as if Jackson just bombed a crucial 3 pointer to take the lead. An interesting look at a certain demographic here in the Bay Area I thought. Personally I would of cheered loudest for Ron Paul had they of showed him. They left out several people who are still in it though so I can't complain. Anyway great game oh and a Poor Boy Catfish Sandwich and side from Popeyes beats Arena Catfish hands down. Price and taste yes even taste you heard me right.

I Have a Dream vs MIN

First off I would like to take a moment to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was one of the most influential and charismatic men of the 20th century. With that said this was the Warriors only day game that landed on a week day and unfortunately my place of work did not have the day off. I knew several weeks in advance this was the case however and used a vacation day to get it off. I like to do this during the baseball season to. I call it taking a Ferris Bueller day off. The Weather did not lend itself to that mid summer day cold Beer and a Brat type of feeling though. It was cold and rainy, utterly miserable or as some would say beautiful. Got to the game just in time for tip off. It was a slow morning and the rain on the way slowed us down. The game itself was exciting and at times it was also very frustrating. We constantly struggled and many times found our selfs chasing the lead. The half time show was interesting they had a Artist who paints while performing to music. In several minutes he painted a stunning picture of Dr. Martin Luther King all the while dancing to the music. It was a good vibe in the air celebrating and honoring the man on this day. sadly at the end the Warriors came up short by one point. It all came down to one shot at the buzzer. But in all honesty we should of had that game won well before that. To sum it all up with one shot would not do it justice.



I however found my salvage in the fact that it was 4:00pm the game just let out and Doug's is finally open. Normally when I pass by this place it's me rushing to get inside the game. Then by the time I come out it's already closed. But today I was out early and I figured I would drown my sorrow over the loss with some food. Many of you might of seen this place it is directly under the bridge that goes from BART to the Colosseum / Arena. My first thought when I saw the menu was "wow it's pricey". They had full racks of ribs for $24 and Tri Tip sandwiches for $10.50. I went with a classic combo burger, fries and a drink. The burger was good, it is what you expect from a good little hole in the wall. The fries can be summed up as "Salt sticks". They are the nice corrugated old school type of fry but with twice the salt. Overall though I would recommend the meal as it's cheaper then inside the Arena and better quality. I can't speak on any of the BBQ items on the menu though I will have to try those another day. As always your man on the field for Warriors home games giving you the inside scoop....

Let's go shopping! vs MEM

What a great night out. It's Friday my wife is with me we got Popeye's before the game. It was pretty much given this should be a win. On the way to the game my wife asked who was on this team. I named the starter and she knew none of them. I then assured her she would see a win tonight. I think most would agree it was not a far fetched prediction either. With 10 wins and 26 losses Memphis fans are singing some blues. The game itself was good we took an early lead and never let it go.



My wife had the shopping bug though she kept asking about hitting the team store. She originally wanted to get a sweatshirt that she had seen a few weeks back. Turns out they did not have anymore in stock though. She ended up finding some shirts she liked though. I was looking at the new hardwood classic jackets they had. Never actually thinking about buying one. I wanted one but even with the season ticket holder 10% discount that's kinda expensive. Anyway she talked me into getting it and I have to say she did not need to try hard. The fact she even said she liked it and I should get it was all the justification I needed. My penny pinching ways went out the door real fast with wife approval. This is it for my Merch budget this year though. No more California Dogs and a Dr. Pepper for $13.00. Its gonna need to be Popeye's poor boys and the water fountain from now on.

P.S Big shout out to my homey Finnicus out of Norway. Glad to know GldnSt8Warriors.blogspot.com is big in Europe keep sending in the fan mail.

How was the sandwich? vs SAS

Wow what a night this was. Hands down the best game of the season and one of my new favorite stories as well. Let me start with a little history. In negotiating my season tickets I tried milking every little thing I could from my poor sales rep. One of the thing's he promised me was to get down on the court before a game and watch the players warm up. Now for those lucky to be on the Club level this is a given if you show up at 6pm when they open the doors. But for us Club 200 folk i.e nose bleed non corporate real fans we don't get to see the players close up unless it's at home in HD. Anyway it was time to cash in on one of my purchase promises. So he meets us and gives us Club level coupons. These basically give us Access to the main bar on the Club level. Been there and done that many times in the past so nothing to new exciting. Made me miss those ticket hook ups that ran dry though. So he brings us down on the floor, front row Nike to the maple. A bunch of kids already had taken all the seating on the Warriors side so we sat closer to San Antonio. I started snapping pictures left and right watching everyone and their various warm up techniques. This was a lot different warm up then you see if you arrive a half hour or so before the game. It seemed to be a more specialized warm up rather then the old shoot around. Guys are working with coaches on certain things etc.



So here I am snapping pictures of Spurs and Warriors. Every now and then a ball comes over my way and I get to toss it to one of the coaches. Never got to bounce pass to Robert Horry or anything. But it was cool none the less. Then as I was snapping pictures of the Warriors I hear out of my right ear "So how was the sandwich?". I look up and in amazement Brent Barry is asking me this. First thing I thought was what the hell is he talking about. Mind you I have no Sandwich in my hand and had not eaten anything inside the Arena. So I answer him back with a "Huh...What Sandwich?". He then responds with "Didn't I see you a few hours ago in SF getting a sandwich?". Realizing now he has mistaken me for someone else I respond back telling him no it was not me. That's when it got real funny and he said "Damn to bad I was hoping it was you. Because the guy's girlfriend was hot". He then went back about his business warming up. So that's my Brent Barry story. The thing I find the most interesting about it is how random it was. Normally when you have a story involving a famous person it's you approaching them. This cracked me up cause here I am minding my own business and I get to hear Brent Barry talking about some guy's hot girl friend. Anyway that was a blast we stayed on the floor for a almost an hour just watching and chatting it up with the sales guy.



Then comes arguably the best game so far this season. Duncan was rumored to be not playing and he never showed his face when I was down on the floor. He did end up playing and although it was bad for the Warriors for fantasy reasons I was happy. I think it also made our win that much more sweet. Knowing San Antonio had their best players suited and we still pulled off a Win made it that much more meaningful. Sure the Spurs played the night before in LA but this is the champs we are talking about. The entire game felt like a playoff game. It was intense and the crowd was into every possession. Overtime scared me because both our big men had 5 fouls. So one or two wrong moves could of cost us the game. We buckled down though and finished strong. Jackson finally came to life and Baron my god he is amazing. Those MVP chants are starting to have some serious meaning now. Well great game great story to tell what more can you ask for. It sure is a great time out!

Playing hookie vs NOR

Well missed my second home game this one was not really by choice though. Well I guess it was choice as I could of went but circumstances just didn't work out. On the bright side the game was in HD but I won't get ahead of myself. The news kept saying Friday there was going to be a massive storm. So the question kept coming up of how we are going to get to the game. Both me and my friend didn't want to drive if it was storming and BART was not really sounded attractive either. So as it rolls closer to leaving time we both are beating around the bush obviously wanting the other to drive. No plan really emerged so my buddy opted out and said he was staying home. If neither of us was going to go I suggested trying out the ticket exchange on the warriors site to see how that works. With my friend officially out I made some phone calls and everyone seemed to feel the same. I don't blame anyone it was nasty outside really nasty or as some would say it was beautiful out.

Anyway I went ahead and put our seats up on the ticket exchange with a few clicks from the mouse. It seemed like a cool idea and the interface was easy to use etc. However I started reading more after I put the tickets up and it turns out you don't receive cash if the tickets sell. What they do is give you the money in the form of a credit that can only be used towards next year season tickets or playoff game tickets. Not the end of the world as I was hoping and praying to be able to get season tickets anyway. So if they make it that's just a little less money me and my friend have to come out of pocket. I really wish we could of used that cash towards regular season games or even in the team store etc. So now knowing this I am kinda hoping our tickets don't sell. Apparently if they do not sell 2 hour prior to the game they are still valid for our use and they go off the ticket exchange. So now I am hoping they don't see cause dammit I wanna see Chris Paul and these red hot Hornets. I figure screw it I will go solo if I have to. Well they ended up selling right at the last minute. Honestly I think the Warriors organization might just buy em up so they have tickets to sell to walk ups. So I ended up watching the game at home. It was nice cause first off the food was a lot cheaper and second damn it looks nice in HD. That still does not replace the fun of being there though and I wish I went. oh well lets beat some Spur ass on Monday. I might be getting down on the court for that game stay tuned.