Last year, as the Warriors were on their way to what would become an NBA-best 73-9 regular season, their fanbase was growing by leaps and bounds. There were lots of … “novice” Warriors’ fans should we say — though we’re not here to criticize.
Somehow, on the heels of the 2015 NBA Championship, the Warriors put together an astonishing an unmatched regular season, one that started with 24 consecutive wins. Stephen Curry, the reigning MVP, somehow found a way to be better than he had in 2015, and won his second MVP, this one the first unanimous one in league history.
A disappointing NBA Finals loss to Cleveland was parlayed into the acquisition of free-agent Kevin Durant, ensuring the Golden State bandwagon — a very diverse group — was going to keep picking up passengers and rolling along.
Last year, I wrote about Warriors’ fans and how you can break them into four different types.
I’ve been around the Warriors now for more than 25 years and sometimes I feel like two groups of fans — the “new and arrogant” and the “well-meaning but naive” — sometimes needs to remember this team’s past and how it wasn’t always like this. Not even close. Then I realize a lot of these fans don’t even know about the Warriors’ past. They don’t know the 12 straight seasons of missing the postseason; the hope Larry Hughes once brought; the draft lottery and how it became this franchise’s friend; the constant coaching carousel, and so much more.
Matt Steinmetz 