Steph, Dame appreciate NBA revisiting Oakland for All-Star Weekend

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Steph, Dame appreciate NBA revisiting Oakland for All-Star Weekend originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

OAKLAND – When the NBA on Saturday revisited the building formerly known as Oracle Arena after nearly six years away, those most familiar with the high-voltage vibe inside allowed themselves to inhale the fading fragrance of a house that once had the energy of a living organism.

Call All-Star Weekend the NBA’s gift, likely its last, to Oakland.

Some adored Oracle, now Oakland Arena, because it was theirs, they felt the love and they knew it was genuine.

“It’s pretty dope,” said Stephen Curry, whom the crowd showered with rich cheers upon his return to the room where he and the Warriors routinely destroyed visitors.

Some were uncomfortable in the glass-and-concrete disc because they knew they didn’t belong. They were wearing enemy colors before a crowd that took no prisoners.

“Being in this arena gives me, like, nightmares,” said Los Angeles Clippers guard James Harden, who as a member of the Houston Rockets, as on the blunt end of a heated rivalry with Golden State. “Because I had to go against (Curry). It was like a real battle. We literally created teams just to beat the Warriors. And somehow, some way, they always … ended up in The Finals.”

The golden era of the Warriors – and the arena – ended in June 2019, when they departed after losing Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals. They returned to the Finals in 2022, winning with a roster rebuilt but still with Draymond Green and Curry at its core, but the intensity felt inside Chase did not match that which vibrated throughout Oracle.

“This was the hardest place to play in the league,” said Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, a former Warriors assistant (after the Oracle years) who is one of the coaches for the All-Star Game on Sunday at Chase.

It’s unfair to ask Chase, hard as it might try, to replicate the gusto of Oracle. The acoustics at Chase do their part, but corporate crowds in well-appointed suites simply do not muster the same level of sustained intensity. Rarely do they transmit enough energy to lift the players on the floor to…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/steph-dame-appreciate-nba-revisiting-084636730.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2025-02-16 08:46:00

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