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By: Amaury Pi-González

The Warriors have stolen the old Oakland Raiders phrase by their legendary owner All Davis “Just Win Baby” and “Commitment to Excellence” because that’s exactly fits the Golden State Warriors in present history. The Warriors will return to play in San Francisco at the Chase Arena next season. They played in San Francisco (actually Daly City’s Cow Palace) from 1962-1971, and they were called the San Francisco Warriors. I remember their last two years they play at the Cow Palace very well,because that was the first professional Bay Area team I covered as I was writing for El Mundo News of Oakland, a bilingual newspaper.

Recently, injuries have stopped the Warriors and that is their #1 enemy. A healthy Warriors team is way above anybody else in the NBA. Stephen Curry,Draymond Green and others are currently not 100% and that is always a problem, even to a team as deep as the NBA champions. The whole season is ahead. However, there is wear and tear on this team.

The Boston Celtics have won 17 NBA titles, the most followed by the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers with 16 titles. Philadelphia/San Francisco/Golden State Warriors with 6, Chicago Bulls 6 and San Antonio Spurs with 5. Starting this 2018-19 NBA season, the Warriors are playing their last season at Oakland and really have no rivals. All the experts and money in Las Vegas is on the Warriors as the undisputed favorites to repeat. There are teams like San Antonio, Dallas and Cleveland who would be trouble for the Warriors, especially during the playoffs, but it is hard to see anybody really stopping them this season.

The Warriors have won 3 titles in the last four seasons,and they are poised to win again this season,which will give them a total of 4 at Oakland, (they also won in 1975) and a total of 7 among all the three cities they have played for: Philadelphia,San Francisco,Oakland. Outside the Bay Area, the Warriors are hated by many and called annoying by others. They were a championship team prior to acquiring Kevin Durant, now this season they added Demarcus Cousins. So it is easy to see why outside the Bay Area they remain as one of the most hated and even annoying teams for people that follow the NBA. Some times you have to admit it is human nature to hate something that is almost perfection. There is a reason the New York Yankees have been hated for many many years,and a lot have to do with the success they have always enjoyed with their 27 World Series titles, they got the nickname of “The Evil Empire”while playing in the Empire State.

The last few years have been dream years for the Warriors and it seems everything continues to go their way. In 2016-17 the salary cap in the NBA went up to $94 million, which made possible the signing of Kevin Durant by letting go of Andrew Bogut, the rights to Harrison Barnes and now with Cousins (signed to a 1-year, $5.3 million deal), their odds of winning the title soared. They are as close to a sure thing to repeat as they have ever been before. Remember they were already Champions before Durant or Cousins came to the Bay.

Like mentioned before, they still have most of the season ahead and there is nothing assured in any sport, but unless a freak rash of injuries to a few of their players, especially if anybody suffers a key injury that would keep from playing for a long time, this team will walk into another title with little difficulty. It never gets boring for fans of a team when that team wins. You expect them to do every day every night. The story becomes when the Warriors lose a game, not when they win.

I remember the days when I could not give tickets for free for the Warriors games at Oakland,we had a bunch of coaches on a short span of time, like Don Nelson, Gary St. Jean, Rick Adelman and P.J. Carlesimo. These were exciting Warriors teams, they scored a lot but gave away much more points. They were very entertaining, but they didn’t win anything. Now the glory days are going on,and everybody expect them to win every time they go out on the court, and for many teams, a win against the Warriors regardless how that win is obtained is like their highlight for the season.