UrsaMajor said:
SFCityBear said:
bearister said:
wallyball2003 said:
When I was a boy they were the San Francisco Warriors and played at the Cow Palace. They changed their name to the Golden State Warriors when they moved to Oakland. Now they've moved back to SF and will once again be the San Francisco Warriors. I'm OK with that. Much bigger things to get worked up about.
I think the fact you need to focus on to more fairly evaluate the negative feelings that have been generated is that although the team played in Oakland for 47 years, out of deference to San Francisco fans, none of the series of team owners changed the name to the Oakland Warriors.
Lacob was faced with the same sensitive issue when he moved the team back to SF. However, Lacob chose to follow the same path he takes every time there is a decision to be made involving the city of Oakland: "Oakland, go f yourself!" (Oakland has had to make claims against Lacob twice for parade cost reimbursement and now for his share of the cost of improvements to the Arena).*
*Im not sure if the official transition from Golden State to San Francisco has occurred yet but it's comin
I hadn't heard the name "Golden State" was out of deference to San Francisco fans. This article says the name arose out of a supposed bluff by Warrior owner Franklin Mieuli, who was negotiating with Oakland and San Diego to move the Warriors and play half the games in Oakland and half in San Diego, thus the Golden State name. Oakland came through with a good lease, and the San Diego games were moved to Oakland. The uniforms were already made with the Golden State name, and some said Mieuli was too cheap to rename the team and make new uniforms. Mieuli was forced to move the team out of SF, because it had lost money every year but one, and the city had no interest in building an arena for a money-losing team. I was sorry to see the name change to Golden State at the time, and even though I live in San Fran, I thought he should have changed the name to Oakland Warriors. All NBA teams are traditionally named for cities, not states. As for the 49ers, don't get me started on that one.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/How-the-Warriors-became-Golden-State-10856924.php
I'm not sure this venture will pay off. Lacob is moving the Warriors at the peak of their popularity, and the product is already not what it was the last few years. It will take draft after draft and trades to make it good again. San Francisco fans are harder to please than East Bay fans, I feel. We'll see if they keep coming in huge numbers.
Except, of course, those that aren't: Utah Jazz, Minnesota T'wolves, Indiana Pacers; I'm pretty sure those aren't cities.
Thanks Ursa, for the corrections, but traditionally speaking, all NBA teams were named for cities. I should have used the words "were named for cities" not "are named for cities". If I can figure out how to switch to a bigger font for proofreading, maybe I can do a better job of it.
The Warriors were actually the first NBA team to be named for a state when they changed their name from San Francisco Warriors to Golden State Warriors in 1971. The Indiana Pacers began as an ABA team, and kept their team name when the leagues were merged and they joined the NBA in 1976. The Jazz were known as the New Orleans Jazz, until they moved to Salt Lake and changed their name to the Utah Jazz in 1979. The Minnesota Timberwolves NBA franchise was started in 1989, with that name. So it was Franklin Mieuli who broke with tradition and paved the way, so to speak, for more teams to have a state name and not a city name.