Long-suffering or bandwagoneers, Golden State Warriors fans await NBA Finals

Don’t get Steve Knox talking about the Warriors. He’ll chat your ear off. But only because he’s in love with the team.

“This has to be our year,” he said, with the enthusiasm of a hopeful kid who’s followed this squad for years with exactly zero championships to brag about.

“It was a long dry spell,” said the 38-year-old Rohnert Park father of three. “It’s never happened in my lifetime. Finally being rewarded, it’s validation for us fans.”

After what seems like an interminable wait, Knox and thousands of other Bay Area fans have cleared their calendars and set up the viewing parties for Thursday’s historic NBA Finals Game 1 between Golden State and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The game marks the Warriors’ first trip to the NBA Finals in 40 years. Tipoff is at 6 p.m. at Oracle Arena.

If you’re still dreaming of being one of the 19,596 fans inside, break out the platinum card. Courtside VIP seats were listed at $23,402 each Wednesday afternoon. Nosebleed seats were on StubHub for the bargain-basement price of $584.

Knox fondly recalls going to Warrior games with his grandfather, falling asleep with his head on grandpa’s lap during the long drive. A “101 corridor boy,” he loves his 49ers and Giants.

But it feels different with the Warriors, he said. All the players seem to be good guys. The whole Bay Area can embrace the team. Basketball is a sport he’s been able to share with his daughters, ages 12, 14 and 21.

“When we have a common ground like the Warriors, it really brings the community together,” said Knox, who owns a carpet care business and a video production company.

“And the community is so big - not like the Giants, the Raiders or the Niners. The Warriors are kings of the whole Bay Area. It’s Golden State, not San Francisco or Oakland. It’s a different sense of belonging because there’s not that other side.”

Longtime fans like Knox have suffered through years, even decades, of heartbreak. There were some very gloomy years. In the dozen seasons between 1994-95 and 2005-06, the team limped through the regular season, failing to qualify for the playoffs.

And really, who wants to remember the five seasons from 1997 through 2002, when Golden State averaged 19 wins a year?

It’s much better to concentrate on this year, when the Warriors started out 21-2 en route to a franchise-best 67-15 record under rookie coach Steve Kerr.

At T&B Sports on West Steele Lane, fans were looking to commemorate the historic season with Warriors gear - shirts, tank tops, flags, even blue and yellow basketballs.

“We get die-hards and bandwagon fans,” said Matt Arnerich, whose family has run the local shop for decades. “Now is as good a time as ever to become a fan.”

They’ve sold hundreds of the basketballs, he said.

Samantha Davis, 12, of Sebastopol and her father, Mike, went to the Fanzz store in the Santa Rosa Plaza this week looking for a Warriors shirt for her. They perused a huge window - along with a wall and several shelves - full of blue, yellow and white Warriors swag.

Samantha, who is a budding basketball player at Twin Hills School, has vivid memories of this season’s opening game at Oracle Arena. “Loud,” she said. “It was so loud.”

She was hoping to get lucky and fall into some finals tickets.

“I know someone who has season tickets,” Samantha said, hoping maybe her friends weren’t going to use them. Dad wasn’t so optimistic.

Mike Chamberlain of Santa Rosa made a trip to the mall for his Los Angeles-area aunt and uncle, who can only seem to find Lakers gear down there.

“They are die-hard Warriors fans,” he said. “They hit me up to get some shirts.”

Chamberlain understands true fandom. He’s been a Warriors fan his whole life, staying loyal even though the cellar-dwelling times.

“There were a lot of bad years,” he said. “But finally, we’re in the finals.”

Chamberlain said he plans to watch the series at his home or at friends’ places, but may head out to join others.

Sports bars throughout Sonoma County were preparing for the onslaught of Golden State fans, both long-timers and bandwagon fans.

At Ausiello’s Bar and Grill on Fifth Street in downtown Santa Rosa, a group of about 10 dedicated Warrior fans who often watch games there together will have a side room all to their own, said clerk Matt Kane.

“Most of the games fall during happy hour, so we are getting ready,” he said. The bar will offer $5 drinks made with Tito’s vodka, a Warriors sponsor.

When the Warriors sealed a berth in the finals, the bar erupted into thunderous cheers.

“The roar in here when they clinched was as loud or louder than any for a Giants game,” Kane said, “I think because they’ve waited so long.”

Santa Rosa attorney Jonathan Steele has waited since he was a kid for this moment.

“When they won the last time, it was my senior year in high school. I couldn’t go to those games, but I always said when I had the opportunity, I’d be a season ticket holder,” he said. “That took until about 1988. There were a lot of years you were tested if you were a real fan.”

Like Knox, Steele said the sound, the energy, the electric atmosphere at Oracle - dubbed Roaracle for its noise - is almost indescribable. He said despite the small fortune he could make by selling his tickets, he never would.

“The sound alone in there and the vibrations and the intensity is such an incredible thing to experience,” he said. “It’s priceless, just to be there and feel the energy of that place. You couldn’t put a value on that.”

First-year season ticket holder Dan Younce of Santa Rosa was giddy with the Warriors’ success - and his good timing.

“I couldn’t have picked a better year to be a season ticket holder,” he said. “Yay for me, and yay for everyone in general who’s a fan, even if you’re just becoming a fan. Jump on the bandwagon; we’re OK with it. It’s all about being a fan.”

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.