Golden State Warriors: A look back at Davis’ vicious dunk over Kirelinko
On this day in Golden State Warriors history, 11 years ago, we bore witness to the most disrespectful dunk in team history.
If you are a Golden State Warriors fan and names like Andris Biedrins and Mickael Pietrus ring a bell, chances are you remember where you were when Baron Davis sent Andrei Kirilenko back in time.
As these 2018 playoffs slow and the current Warriors prepare for their next series against the Rockets, we stop to remember what happened on this day 11 years ago.
Why? Because basketball remembers. The Bay Area remembers.
And because nothing else encapsulated the 2007 playoff Warriors more than that very play.
For 12 parching years, the Golden State Warriors failed to capture a winning record. Players, coaches, general managers, assistants and training staff all came and went– some even came, left and came back again. But while illusive changes happened within the organization, two things remained steady: losing and fandom.
Which is why basketball is forced to remember the 2007 Warriors. Because for those 12 agonizing years, there was nothing but failure and disappointment in Golden State. But each season brought new opportunity, and each year Warriors fans clung to the hope that this was the year.
So, when the year 2007 came around and the Warriors squeaked into the playoffs with their first winning record since 1994, Warriors fans could finally place a finger on that eluding success.
“We Believe” shirts were draped on every chair, placards were given to each fan, and every seat inside Oracle Arena was filled.
They were ready.
The Warriors faced MVP Dirk Nowitzki and the 67-15 Dallas Mavericks in the opening round. On paper, they stood no chance.
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But for every home game, five scrappy Warriors players took the floor armed with the vocal ammunition of more than 20,000 blood thirsty fans. For 48 minutes they stood, erupting in roars at the recovery of a loose ball, or a defensive rebound, or a call in their favor. Forcing Mavs coach Avery Johnson to use hand signals to communicate to his team and announcer Steve Kerr to yell his commentary into his TNT microphone.
The noise was deafening – fueling a run-and-gun Warriors offense and serving as a mental and physical blockade to the Mavericks.
As the roars temporarily relaxed in the closing minutes of Game six, a hoarse Kerr provided perspective:
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a better crowd either, Marv,” Kerr said. “I mean in my entire career of playing and watching basketball, even on the college level… I’ve never seen an entire crowd stand for the whole second half.”
“Never seen it,” Kerr followed.
No one had. No fan base that loyal, that dedicated and that invested had ever been as thirsty as those who showed out to Oracle in 2007. It was basketball in one of its purest forms and it showed as the Warriors, led by a sea of yellow-clad fanatics, captured a series victory over the best team in basketball. Only the third time in NBA history up to that point a No. 8 seed defeated a No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
Led by their captain, Baron Davis, the Warriors stormed into the second round ready to dismantle their next opponent: the Utah Jazz. Ask any Warriors fan who remembers anything about the organization prior to 2013 and they’ll share with you the same memory of that series.
Yes. That’s right. The memory of Baron Davis absolutely obliterating Andrei Kirilenko with one of the most outright disrespectful dunks in NBA history.
Check Kirilenko’s Wikipedia page and it says he retired in 2014, but I’m pretty sure that’s just hearsay, because as far as Warriors fans are concerned, Baron Davis snatched that man’s soul that day. Rumor has it his ghost still drifts in the rafters of Oracle.
The memory sure does.
Next: The Golden State Warriors enter Houston without homecourt advantage.
The Warriors lost that series in five games, but it didn’t matter. Because all those seasons of hurt and failure and year after year after year after year of defeat were temporarily forgotten when watching Baron Davis climb not only those ten feet to the rim, but to the tippy top of Warriors lore.
It’s why the Warriors’ fandom of the 2007 playoffs wasn’t measured by attendance numbers, but rather a scale developed by Charles Richter.
It’s why Baron Davis got a technical foul after the play for lifting his jersey above his chest.
It was all those years of frustration bundled up into one tremendous slam dunk. It was that flavor and that passion and that look in his eye that screamed “Town Business.”
And it’s why that image is forever burned into the mental retina of Warriors fans everywhere.