The Golden State Warriors’ 2018-19 NBA season will not just be the end of another season but it will also be the end of an era in Oakland.
The Warriors are in the midst of their final season in Oakland’s Oracle Arena and are set to move across the bridge to Chase Center in San Francisco in 2019. Special memories that took place at Oracle Arena will remain for a lifetime as the team moves.
Julie Phayer, former Head of Social Media for the Warriors, who ran the team’s official Twitter account with almost six million followers, spoke to The Pioneer about special memories from her time with the team.
Phayer, who now works on social media for NBA publication The Ringer, said two instances from her time at Oracle Arena stand out in particular.
“Klay [Thompson’s] 37-point quarter is the first thing that comes to mind,” she told The Pioneer.
On Jan. 23, 2015, Thompson electrified both Oracle Arena and the NBA when he scored 37 points in a single 12-minute quarter and in doing so, he broke an NBA record. Carmelo Anthony and George Gervin held the previous high-mark with 33 points in a quarter.
Thompson’s historic performance propelled the Warriors to a 126-101 victory over the Sacramento Kings and shocked Twitter.
It was Phayer who, in the early morning hours of Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015 tweeted from the Warriors’ account.
“When your teammate drops 37 points in a quarter, without missing a single shot,” she said.
Attached to the tweet were photos of Thompson’s teammates in a jubilant celebration. Phayer says another memory that stands out came two years later. “[The] 2017 championship,” Phayer said. “[That] was cool too.” The 2016-17 season was Golden State’s first season with Kevin Durant in the fold. The NBA superstar had joined the Warriors in 2016 in hopes of doing exactly what the team did in June 2017: win a championship.
The 2017 championship was especially unique, though. The Warriors won their first title in 40 years back in 2015, but the series-clinching victory came in Cleveland made the 2017 title in Oakland all the more memorable.
On June 12, 2017, Phayer took a photo of Durant amidst the confetti-filled celebration at Oracle Arena. Phayer tweeted the photo to the Warriors’ millions of followers with the caption “Champion,” and a trophy emoji.
The 2017 season was the first in which Durant won a championship. The photo was retweeted nearly 27,000 times, and received 54,000 likes. Phayer’s time with the Warriors was similar to the team’s production on the court: successful. Phayer was a part of the action during the team’s many memorable moments in Oracle Arena the past few years, chronicling the triumphs on social media.
The Warriors’ level of success, especially in the past four years, has given fans and employees who worked at Oracle Arena memories that they will never forget.
During the 2019 NBA playoffs, which run from mid-April through June, the Warriors will try to “three-peat” by winning a third consecutive championship. If Golden State can pull it off, it would put the franchise into elite company in NBA history. It would also be a perfect way to cap off the Oracle Arena chapter of the team’s history.