Yes, the Warriors are in the NBA

By JEFF CASPERSEN/Post Independent Staff

"Are the Warriors in the NBA?" On the very day of the Golden State Warriors' glorious return to the NBA playoffs, a friend of mine - one who lives in Bay Area, no less - fired that gem of a question at me.

Doing my best to guise the resulting disbelief and fury, I politely fired back a "Yes."

I hate to admit it, but the Warriors' mere existence is just now sinking into the nation's collective conscious.

And, honestly, I'm not surprised. I long ago lost count of the number of times I've been asked, "Where do the Warriors play?" (For those who don't know, it's Oakland.)

That's why I'm not sure whether or not I should be thrilled that, after taking dead aim and blasting away last year's Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks, that the Warriors have become the nation's golden boys.

Everybody's favorite underdog story and perhaps the most exciting team in this year's playoff bracket, these Warriors have, at long last, arrived.

But do I really want to share my team with the bandwagoners? I can't decide.

Golden State has some of the best fans in the entire NBA. The sea of yellow at Oracle Arena cheering the Mavs out of town spoke volumes to that.

In no NBA city will you find hungrier fans. Thirteen straight losing seasons will often dissipate a fanbase, but not with Golden State.

Every single one of those years, the tortured Bay Area fan base managed to generate false playoff hope, even with rosters that included players like Felton Spencer, Mike Dunleavy and Christian Laettner, to name very few.

Cubs fans know this practice far too well. So did pre-2004 Red Sox fans. Or pre-2005 White Sox fans.

There's something to be said for rooting a team on through the good times and the bad, constantly convincing yourself your team's better than it really is, perpetually having to say, "There's always next year."

That's why I haven't abandoned my home team, and how could I?

Growing up in the Bay Area in the early '90s, I remember dragging my dad to Warriors games in Sacramento as a kid because then, the Kings were a downtrodden franchise with far more empty seats than Golden State.

I remember imitating Tim Hardaway's killer crossover on my elementary school's playground or wishing I was left-handed like Chris Mullin.

I remember begging my parents to take me to a Warriors playoff game against the Lakers in 1991, only to watch James Worthy and Magic Johnson foil Run TMC's playoff party. The Warriors and Run TMC - the nickname for the team's famed trio of Hardaway, Mullin and Mitch Richmond - had shocked the basketball world by knocking off the second-seeded Spurs a round earlier. Despite the loss, I saw Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Run TMC all in person. It's a birthday present I'll never forget.

Those memories carried me through the rough years and, finally, thanks to this year's rag-tag, overachieving Warriors, I have new ones to carry me through any future rough spells.

For all those reasons, I'm not a big fan of bandwagon jumpers. I picked my teams as a youngster and stuck with 'em. That's the way it should be. I confine all my rooting for outside teams strictly to platonic admiration.

I must admit, though, I can't help but enjoy - just a little - the attention the Warriors are getting, if only to avoid answering silly questions like "Where do the Warriors play?" or "Do the Warriors play in the NBA?"

I guess I should just suck it up and enjoy the fact that the Warriors have finally made the NBA map.

I just hope the bandwagon doesn't tip.