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Playoff run brings nostalgia to fans of Warriors' 1975 NBA Championship

Published  May 19, 2015 12:50am PDT
News
KTVU FOX 2

OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) -- As the Warriors continue their march through the NBA playoffs, the run bringing some nostalgia to longtime fans who remember the team's glory years that won them their last NBA Championship title four decades ago.

On Monday, volunteers worked at Oracle Arena preparing for the start of Round 3 by laying out 19,596 Golden State Warriors t-shirts. Each fan in the sellout crowd gets a shirt that reads "Strength in Numbers." 

It's the team's motto through the playoffs which they hope will help carry them to another NBA title.

"Warriors in 5," predicts Morie Kahane of Oakland, who was sporting a Warriors cap Monday. "They have the teamwork, they have the comradeship, they've got excellent coaching, they've got a great bench."

Longtime fans such as Kahane have playoff pride that they haven't felt since 1975.

"Those are the days back when Rick Barry and them in the original championship played at the Cow Palace," said Ricky Ricardo, the owner of Ricky's Sports Theater and Grill in San Leandro. The walls and glass cases display a museum-worthy collection of Warriors' memorabilia.

Ricardo remembers watching the Warriors team when they played at the Cow Palace in San Francisco back in 1975, the year the team took the NBA title.

"The balls, the shoes...and the pictures," Ricardo says, are an important part of Warriors' history. "So we can all remember. A lot of people weren't born then."

Four decades ago, many of the Warriors' staff and team members including the Splash Brothers -- Steph Curry, 27, and Klay Thompson, 25 --weren't even born. It's a new generation of Warriors taking the court this week.

But old-time fans say the team's heart is the same, and when it comes to game time, they say this team has what it takes to bring the Golden State glory back to the Bay.

The Warriors' Foundation is holding more than a half dozen official watch parties in the Bay Area for the playoff games. Each location will donate a portion of proceeds to the Warriors' Foundation.