Let's face it, the NBA fans and announcers only know about the Golden State Warriors because of their 2006-2007 playoff run, thematically titled "We Believe." "We Believe" was not necessarily defined by the product on the court, but the fan participation measured by the decibels of thousands of screaming fans. The collective rumbling was so loud it caused a small earthquake felt around the bay area.
It was a cathartic moment for Warrior fans; a moment of renewal and revitalization for fans under the terror of the Chris Cohan regime. Think when Harry Potter finally triumphs over Voldemort. Elation. But can that energy ever be recreated if the Warriors were to make the playoffs? Matt Steinmetz seems to think so, but few would agree with him.
Matt Steinmetz argues that if the Warriors ever make the playoffs again, Warrior fans will go bigger than they did with "We Believe" and probably topple the house that Don Nelson and Run TMC built with all their cheering. But he adds that he is in the minority among fans. I would agree with him on that.
"We Believe" was the perfect professional sports story that fans, owners, leagues, and the media love to witness. In a lot of ways, you could say the San Francisco Giants of the 2010-2011 season were the "We Believe" of the baseball given the risky mid-season moves and the unconventional way that they won games.
Warrior fans love their hoops no matter how bad the team is and will continue cheering as we have over the past two decades of sub .500 teams. But "We Believe" had all the narrative conventions of a blockbuster sports flick and that's why we felt so emotionally attached and vocally committed to sharing that excitement.
In a nutshell, the Warriors were a team of underdogs and castaways rebuking and breaking all the rules of how to win playoff basketball games. In essence, you were watching "Major League," "Remember the Titans," "Mighty Ducks" or "Coach Carter," "Any Given Sunday," and the list goes on and on. Without these conventions that are meant to set off our emotional cues, us fans probably won't have that emotional public outpouring. These same cliche movie plot lines are what we as fans are accustomed to responding to and without these cues, will we as fans care? Probably not.
We'll probably care more about what celebrities are sitting courtside and what other hotties decided to show up to this major bay area event.
"We Believe" will always have its place in Warriors history, if not THE moment of Warriors history. "We Believe 2.0," however, will probably be about as exciting as "Major League 2."