Much as their 128-111 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday night, the Golden State Warriors’ other achievement this day will be equally unnoted and forgotten.
They went to a city and an arena that rarely sells out because their own team is not a particularly compelling draw, and filled it. This is not unusual; the Warriors have that way of clouding people’s minds when it comes to disposable income.
But it was the 100th consecutive time they have filled someone else’s arena, including playoffs, which extends a record no other team in any sport has ever conceived. Not in their own arena, in which they could lie about the crowd count were they so inclined, but everyone else’s.
This means nothing to you because it is a statistic nobody ever cites. Attendance figures can be hinky, and every team concentrates on its ability to draw at home because that’s where the money comes from. But to be irresistible to other people’s cash for nearly two consecutive years is a remarkable achievement -– if achievement is the right word.
But if it helps, here’s who is second: WLBJPF, which is Whomever LeBron James Plays For, with 25. And here’s who’s third: the Portland Trail Blazers, with four.
What this suggests is that fan apathy toward their own team is not typically overcome by the visiting team coming to town. Kawhi Leonard leaves empty seats, and so does James Harden and Russell Westbrook and Kyrie Irving and Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Sidney Crosby leaves empty seats, and so does Alexander Ovechkin and Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews and P.K. Subban and Steven Stamkos.
But the Warriors have managed it, again and again, in good times for the locals and bad ones. The last time they didn’t sell out, Dec. 12, 2016, they were in Minneapolis to play the Timberwolves, who were 6-18 at the time. Plus, it was 1 degree outside with a 15-mph wind that night. Only an idiot would put up with all that and still go to the arena -- and yet that night only 528 bottoms did not find seats.
Since then, the Warriors have been the surest thing in sports. They even sold out in San Antonio in 2017 when Steve Kerr announced that neither Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green nor Klay Thompson would even dress — although in fairness Gregg Popovich and the Spurs invented this tactical resting thing some years earlier.
[RELATED: Kerr makes wise choice starting Iguodala vs. Hawks]
Indeed, the next time someone tells you “The NBA is always better when the Lakers (or Celtics or Knicks or Bulls or Name That Legacy Team) is good,” show them this. The NBA never has been a better draw, in the building, on TV, streaming, buzz or putting chips in people’s heads and inducing them to talk basketball with a stimulus button, and the centerpiece has been Golden State. And with so many other draws and wonders and entertainment options, the Warriors are the ATM of ATMs.
And the next time someone else whines to you that the country hates the Warriors for being so good, remind them of this. They come out, they watch, they spend money, or in the alternative they watch every chance they get. Not every attraction is a 12-car pileup on the freeway, after all. Sometimes you watch because you actually want to see.
This isn’t another “Gee, aren’t the Warriors swell?” piece. They are, everyone knows it, there’s nothing to look at, so move on citizens.
But 100 games in a row? In 100 places where everyone wants you to fail? It means they’ve overcome all the arguments about ruining basketball and making the sport unfair and chasing people away because the championship is always decided on opening night. Even if people come to seem them lose, they come to see them, more often and with more unanimity than any team in the recorded history of North American sport.
And if this number doesn’t particularly impress you, fine. I mean, you got this far and you haven’t thrown up on your phone yet. But the Warriors have basically broken this little piece of the paradigm of crowd psychology and challenged most of the assumptions about why people will pay to watch the other team play.
And just imagine when the face of the franchise is DeMarcus Cousins. Can you sell more seats than exist to more people than exist? Why, the mind truly boggles.
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