The Warriors Victory: “Do You Believe?”

by Richard Marquez, 2007-05-07

Thursday night’s victory by the underdog Golden State Warriors over the heavily-favored Dallas Mavericks scored an explosive 13.1 local rating on TNT. Twenty thousand pumped-up and frenzied fans poured into Oracle Arena in Oakland, making it the largest audience to ever attend a professional basketball game in California history.

Ebay auctioned tickets for a hefty ransom; rap star Snoop Dogg flew in and got hyphy; his smile sizzled when Warriors’ point guard Baron Davis, his homeboy from South Central Los Angeles, hobbled-in three-pointers from behind the arc. Wealthier, white season ticket holders assuaged their inner-city fears by exchanging high-fives with anonymous people of color sitting in the cheap seats.

And at courtside, Jessica Alba, Luke Wilson, Kate Hudson and Woody Harrelson sat on comfy, foamed insignia NBA Cares seats. Hollywood was in the house. Big time. And these supposed not-ready-for-prime-time Warriors -- (unlike the commercially successful, 1979 classic gang cult movie, “The Warriors.”) – were in real time, ready to come out and play in Game Six. Can you dig it?

For a time clock minute, the Bay Area region’s class and racial divisions were muted -- or so it seemed; and social solidarity shook the stands. The mass-marketed, yellow Comcast t-shirted message: “We Believe!” -- became everyone’s battle cry, including the Arena’s namesake, Oracle Corporation where CEO and software mogul Larry Ellison, a $20 billion dollar man and the ninth richest man in the world, according to Forbes Magazine, built his modern day empire; as well as Comcast Executive, Brian L. Roberts, a “true believer”, who was compensated $27.8 million last year as reported by USA Today.

Two hours after the game ended, commuting surburbanites celebrated, but Quina Smith, 23, from San Francisco, an Oracle Arena concession stand worker, counted her tips. By 11:20 pm, shots were heard; robbery was the motive; and Smith was found dead in a parking lot near the Arena and in a West Oakland neighborhood known as the birthplace of the Black Panther Party.

The social anatomy of Smith’s murder, like countless, senseless killings in Dallas, Oakland, San Francisco and other Bay Area cities, was barely dissected on the next business day. Persistent patterns of corporate profitability, racial and economic inequality, systemic minority unemployment and residential segregation in America’s urban cities remained ominously absent from the celebratory fanfare.

But as expected, given the hype, hope and hellish excitement of the NBA, the political force of these real life “slam dunks” have virtually none or no impact on fans or the media’s “good feeling” message, even in an alleged liberal or progressive San Francisco Bay Area. The past and present legacy of racism and class exploitation in American sports disturbs what would otherwise be a meaningful and moving underdog story from our corporate sponsors.