Oh man...Wednesday was probably one of the top sports nights of my life...We watched the Giants game at Oracle (they opened early) in a little side area, surrounded by an ever-growing group of fans who, by the 5th inning were chanting loudly, and screaming our brains out. Meanwhile, shootarounds were happening just below, and the opening day excitement was growing. Brain felt nearly torn in half at times. In fact, we didn't make it to our seats until half way through the second quarter, and Monta already had 20 points! We finally decided it was ok to leave with the 9th inning, and a 7 run lead. We stopped for a hot dog, and on our way in, saw that Texas had already scored a run and had 2 on with no outs. Come on, let us watch some fucking basketball! We watched for a sec, as Ramon finally got an out, then went inside and watched the rest of the 2nd quarter while refreshing scores on our iphones. Meanwhile, on the court, wait a minute...a rag tag team of castoffs with a couple brilliant homegrown talents from the Bay Area was scoring at will against a defensive-minded team from Texas...wha??? Where am I?
There was a sequence in the fourth quarter with Curry and Monta going off simultaneously that just left you breathless. Holy shit. Curry hit about three of the prettiest jumpers you'll ever see, with increasing levels of difficulty, stole the ball, dished to Monta, drove for a great layup and then Monta took over and hit two nearly impossible shots. You had a feeling like, maybe the reason Monta thought they couldn't play together is because nothing like this has ever happened before. There just may not be a precedent for two guards like this, and suddenly it clicked in his mind that maybe that wasn't a problem. Maybe it was going to drive opponents bezonkers. Watching the Warriors right now is as exciting as it's ever been for me. Like the Giants, they made a thrilling run a few years ago with a bunch of players who were brought from other places. An exciting and improbable first round victory, but nonetheless, this is different. Monta, Curry and Biedrins are Warriors from the beginning. Lee is still young, just blossoming. That core is basically our team for the forseeable future, and we're gonna get to watch them discover who they are under a new coach, a new ownership team. And Curry and Monta have nearly limitless potential. Again, like the Giants' run, you get the sense that being able to say you saw Monta and Curry in those first couple years will be something touched with awe for grandchildren. They scored 73 points between the two of them on opening night. Curry had 11 assists. Monta was 16-24. That's the baseline.
And as for the Giants, yeah, what can you say at this point? I finally had settled myself in for understanding what to expect from the Giants. A couple runs, some intense pitching, a huge hit and that's all she wrote. Now that they've scored 8 runs on the best pitcher in postseason history, it almost hurts. Like, oh my god, we have to hope for that too now? On Freddy's last hit, I actually fell to my knees, asking for mercy...is this possible? Do we have to take our fandom to yet another level? I don't know if my psyche can handle it!
Suffice it to say, that last night was beautiful. I still get shivers thinking about it. I actually think many people here would openly weep if the Giants won the series. When I saw them in their first playoff run at Pac Bell park, against the Mets, and JT Snow hit the game-tying 3-run homer that just crawled over the fence in left field, amongst the jumping and screaming I saw a man actually weeping behind me. Of course, we'd all be weeping the next inning when the Mets went back ahead and won, but still. That was nothing compared to a World Series, with these guys, now. For the first time I've actually had to confront the possibility that they might win this thing. I haven't, I don't think, allowed myself to dwell for even a moment on them going any farther than each round they've been in. But the winner of game 1 of the World Series has won 6 of the last seven series', and beating Cliff Lee is just a devastating blow. Doesn't mean the Giants are going to win by any means, they are certainly no sure thing, but the POSSIBILITY they might win is finally undeniable. I can no longer exclude it from my mind, which kinda sucks. Like the most beautiful woman in your class finally taking a long, luscious look at you and you finallly realize she might actually be interested but now that means you have to believe and maybe get hurt and say something stupid and oh my god.
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