by Jerry Feitelberg

The Golden State Warriors held a practice at the Oracle Arena that was open to the public and there was no charge to attend. The fans almost filled the Arena to capacity and there was at least 15 or 16 thousand people in the arena

to watch their team get ready for the upcoming season. The players were introduced to the fans with the biggest

ovations went to fan favorites Steph Curry, David Lee, Klay Thompson and Andre Igoudala.

New head coach, Steve Kerr, talked to the fans and explained what the team had to do to just warm up and the players went through a series of stretching exercises before even trying a shot. The players were in a playful mood and would pass the basketball to a fan in the seats. The fan had to through the ball back but what a thrill for the fan. Coach Kerr then had the players go through a series of exercises that the team uses before each game. they used a 5 man weave to et things going. The players then brought the ball up court as if they were in a fast break

and repeated the procedure going the other way. The coach had three sets of five doing this maneuver.

The Warriors broke up into two teams and several fans were included as the teams had to make fifteen shots to win the "game." First team to win two out of three sets were declared the winner. he team and the fans then were challenged as they tried to make buckets from the half court line. A couple of the fans made the shot much to the pleasure of the crowd.There were some more of these contests before the practice session ended and everyone went home happy.

Coach Kerr and General Manager Bob Myers both expressed they could not wait for the season to begin and that

will happen on Wednesday October 29th as the Warriors travel to Sacramento to meet the Kings in the opener.

First home game is November 1st in Oakland against the LA Lakers.