Date nights and matching track suits for some 'super-Warriors' fans
OAKLAND, Calif. (KTVU) - When Oracle Arena crowds start to roar Wednesday night, so will fans watching across the Bay Area, in living rooms, sports bars, even theaters.
Petaluma season ticket holder John Balistreri operates a pool service. His home office is chock full of team memorabilia and jerseys.
After the next game, he figures he'll have something new to commemorate.
"I'm sure there will be shirts with "73" on them, things like that," Balistreri told KTVU. "Something with all the players pictured, and hats, probably everything!"
Last year, when the dubs won the championship, they were in Cleveland.
Fans packed into Oracle to watch on big screens, and celebrated as if the players were actually there. Wednesday, going for the record, they will be.
"The night before games, we come through and decide what to wear, " Thaddeus Gill of South San Francisco told KTVU, as he showed off a half dozen Warriors track suits, all matching, for him and his wife Angie.
The couple goes to every home game, and never in street clothes.
"It's our date night, we have 42 date nights," smiled Thaddeus, "and a Warriors game is somewhere we always want to be."
Their basketball romance began five years ago when they married and bought season tickets.
One room of their house is now crammed with memorabilia, much of it signed by players.
Some of the items, like the shoes autographed by Klay Thompson, they don't wear anymore.
They're such a fixture at games that other fans, even players, have come to recognize them as "the twins."
"One time we went mismatched because we were running late from work and didn't coordinate the night before," laughed Angie, "and everyone wanted to know why we weren't matching!"
"Tomorrow's game is history," observed Thaddeus, "and now that we're on this big wave, we can't seem to get off, and we don't want to get off!"
Sunday night, pubs were rowdy with fans for the tying win number "72", but Wednesday's crowds should dwarf those.
Some family-friendly venues will also be showing the game.
The historic Alameda Theatre is hosting a watch party and space is filling up fast.
"Tuesday morning, we had a line of people waiting for tickets, and already we're half full," Allison Shannon at the theatre, told KTVU.
Balistreri is among the season ticket holders now kicking himself for selling his tickets to the final game, after the team made the playoffs. He'll watch on TV instead, with family.
"I was not thinking, I just was not thinking when I sold them., " he groaned, "and it kills me that I sold them."