The All-Star Game featured plenty of typical silliness and leisure with a slightly better game dragged down by a convoluted format, but the Bay Area hosts gave an interesting look at how the Warriors’ move impacted Oakland and San Francisco.
OAKLAND, Calif. — The bus ride from the old Oracle Arena to the Warriors’ new home at Chase Center felt more like a flight. With cars crawling to merge together in a chaotic pile in front of us before pulling onto an already gridlocked highway, about 15 minutes out of the hour-long journey was just trying to exit the parking lot.
The relatively short yet massive leap the Warriors made in 2019 to San Francisco became an inescapable All-Star weekend theme. Oakland hosted the celebrity game, HBCU Classic and Saturday’s Media Day before everyone piled into vehicles, subway cars and trolleys to move to the main event across the bridge. The older, concrete-heavy visuals have been traded for new glass skyscrapers and self-driving ride share cars with their cameras and spinning sensors.
Warriors jerseys filled the Oakland Arena stands for Saturday’s practice, fans hanging on every shot, dribble and half court heave with Golden State legends Steph Curry and Kevin Durant front and center. Outside, hot dog and sausage venders, the large parking lot and lines around the building made for a far more raucous atmosphere across the Bay.
Curry later advocated for an annual game at Oracle — which indeed remains standing next to the since emptied Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which lost the Raiders and Athletics since the Warriors led the way out. A more expensive experience at Chase saw many seats sitting empty or filled with outsiders from Friday through Sunday. Curry threes that likely would’ve blown the roof off the Oakland Arena received more dulled reactions.
The experience last year in Indianapolis, which held Saturday night at the Colts’ football stadium, led me to book my stay in Oakland, expecting that the Warriors’ old home could receive the same treatment as a nod to the Bay Area theme that All-Star centered around. That allowed for my first look at Oakland, where I’d never traveled despite three trips to San Francisco previously, including the 2022 Finals when I regrettably passed up a chance to watch a Sox-A’s game. Businesses, including an epic pizza spot called June’s, infiltrated old warehouses, graffiti covered walls and old vans, and the hustle-and-bustle from San Francisco gave way to a quieter downtown with old infrastructure.
Those from the city have written about the San Francisco-Oakland dynamic, but few who attended the weekend could ignore it. Reporters reminded Pascal Siakam that he scored the final basket at Oracle during the 2019 Finals win over the Warriors. James Harden remembered nightmares from his Rockets days fighting with Golden State’s dynasty.
“If you’ve been part of our journey, Oracle is front and center as the symbol of that,” Curry said. “It’s such a unique place, Oakland is such a unique city and unique town … the 47 years that we played in that building, and the memories that we had, I got real emotional yesterday going back. I’ve been back a couple times before, but not with a crowd and not with a basketball court on the ground.”
Miles away, Jaylen Brown attended Oakstop’s luncheon the day before, merging the decade-old community gathering effort with his year-old Xchange business development program, which expanded from Boston to Oakland due to Brown’s ties to nearby UC-Berkeley and alignment between his goals and Oakstop founder Trevor Parham. Brown announced a business district center above the 19th Street BART station at the heart of the city which he said in a short speech will aim to reverse the incarceration rate, abandoned businesses and gentrification he viewed as intentional to push Oakland’s people out.
Brown later attended museums and toured the city, expressing multiple times the ways the Bay Area formalized who he is today, from allusions to the Black Panthers to his internship with a venture capital firm that helped formulate his entrepreneurial approach to fighting systemic inequality.
“We will keep the light shed on Oakland,” Brown told attendees who wore suits and dresses with sneakers at the gathering’s request. “We intend to bring awareness, attention and a media presence so some of these issues aren’t gonna be forgotten about.”
Across the Bay bridge, culture existed, but in a more inundated and sometimes contrived manner around NBA programming. Local star Larry June and Atlanta’s 2 Chainz hosted a free concert that drew thousands of fans three hours before they handed out wristbands at 10 in the morning, wrapping around four streets near Union Square. The people at the front of the line showed up around 7 a.m. Elsewhere, 2 Chainz checked into the NBA’s events, a concert series built at Pier 48 near Chase and the celebrity game, which he helped coach. The events and panels ran the weekend. Along with the partying. Lots of partying.
Yet focus remained on the quality of the events, which reflected the interviews and media availabilities around the weekend. Unserious. They aimed for fun and loose yet the effort only increased slightly compared to the ridiculousness of the new format and the 30 minutes of action it amounted to. Kevin Hart’s loud MC role and an infamous Inside the NBA intermission overtook the All Star Game. The line of questioning seeking jokes, accolades or even laughs from the players at media day increased over last year. Eric Andre crashed post-game press conferences. Why? Who knows.
What’s your dream lineup? What rule would you change as commissioner? Do you like Drake?
With one question left for Kyrie Irving — and his reunion with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown on my mind — someone shouted what’s your favorite anime?
At the events, open bars, basketball shooting contests and a convention center brought people together outside the arena. My friend wanted a photo with Baron Davis at his rooftop event, only for his screen time limit to thwart my attempt to take it. Chris Haynes and Let’sGoWarriors organized pick-up basketball for reporters on Sunday, and a professional dunker showed up and threw down on me.
At the actual dunk contest, the clear highlight of the weekend inside Chase, Vince Carter received more flowers while Kevin Garnett judged the competition in a Bill Russell sweatshirt. We should probably appreciate the presence of those legends at these gatherings more. That’s what the weekend’s about.
It’s a breather for the players and a moment to celebrate the game. It’s an entertainment event for travelers and — as always — it’s more about the kids. The league did its best to pay homage to Oakland while Brown and Damian Lillard made more concerted efforts. It’s not the best reporting environment of the year — but it’s something of a break for us too. The 50-60 degree California weather felt like summer compared to Boston’s dip into the teens.
“I know we’re just trying to be great professionals, do different things and explore how to keep generating viewership. Tonight was just trying to do something different,” Brown said. “Guy were out there having fun, all the OGs … team old knees and old backs, we came out on top … even me, spending time here in college and seeing (Curry’s) influence and how it’s grown, he’s a Bay Area legend … and it was fitting for him to win (MVP).”