For the second straight year http://www.falconsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-isaiah-oliver-jersey , throngs of Golden State Warriors fans turned out for a victory parade to celebrate a team some are calling an NBA dynasty and got a treat when several players got off their buses to mingle with the crowd.
Hundreds of thousands of fans in gold and blue and holding signs that read ”Dynasty” and ”Back to Back Champions” waved from behind barriers set up along the route in downtown Oakland, California, as the Warriors rode by in the open, double-decker buses Tuesday.
Stephen Curry, NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant and the rest of the Warriors, who won their third title in four years last week, took turns raising the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the roaring crowd, which officials said could reach up to 1 million fans.
Officials had promised an ”interactive” parade with some fans able to ask the players questions and giant TV screens for the crowd to see them and hear their answers as the moved along the route. But there were no screens and when Klay Thompson used a megaphone to say hello, his greeting was drowned out by the cheering crowd.
Curry was able to connect in a different way when he opened a bottle of champagne, shook it and sprayed the crowd with it. He briefly got off the bus and walked up to fans, throwing T-shirts, bracelets and other souvenirs to them and then holding the trophy up as dozens of cameras surrounded him.
Curry wore a large sun hat and under it a ”RUN TMC” baseball cap in honor of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin, the namesakes for the Don Nelson-coached Warriors teams during the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons.
”We never really imagined that we would be having one parade Kentavius Street Color Rush Jersey , let alone two and now three,” Curry said during a short live interview before the parade started. ”But this is for you guys! We are going to try and get greedy and go get some more.”
JaVale McGee, Nick Young and Jordan Bell posed for photographs and also mingled with fans, even hugging some of them, energizing the pumped up crowd. Even coach Steve Kerr joined in on the fun and walked up to fans to sign autographs.
”I’m just excited to be here with these guys” McGee, who was wearing only shorts, told KGO-TV. ”Our fans are amazing! All the love that they show is just beautiful.”
Young, also just in shorts during a very warm afternoon, ran up and down the street, giving fans high-fives. He then took a broom from a fan and posed for photographs as dozens of people took pictures with their phones.
The repeat champions went back-to-back, beating LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 108-85 on Friday night to finish off a four-game sweep of the NBA Finals in the fourth consecutive meeting between the clubs.
Melissa Marzan, 25, of Santa Cruz said she doesn’t take the Warriors’ winning streak for granted.
Oakland resident Jasmine Culp, 36, painted her lips blue and dressed in a sparkling golden sequined dress, sash, and blue-gold feather accessories to attend the parade with her three children, Jonavon, Jewel, and Cypher.
She acknowledged it could be the family’s last parade in Oakland, since the Warriors plan to move to San Francisco next year.
”It’s sad to see a big part of our city move away,” she said. ”Not going to want to travel over the bridge to see them, but we will.”
Adriana Carnecer of San Francisco said she is a lifelong Warriors fan and is excited the team will be closer to home.
On the Warriors being dubbed a dynasty, the 15-year-old said ”it’s the start of something that’s going to be greater than it already is.”
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Jon Cooper searched for adequate words to describe the feeling of coming within one victory of playing for the Stanley Cup.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have done it twice in the past three years. And it hurts.
”It’s everything from agonizing to angry to disappointed to shock,” the coach said Thursday, less than 24 hours after one of the most successful seasons in franchise history came to a screeching halt with a 4-0 loss to Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final.
After compiling the best record in the Eastern Conference during the regular season, eliminating the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and rebounding from losing the first games of the conference final to take a 3-2 series lead, the Lightning truly believed this was their year.
Now, general manager Steve Yzerman and Cooper face decisions about what needs to be tweaked.
The Lightning won Game 7 of the conference final against the Rangers in 2015, advancing to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in franchise history. They made it back to the East final, only to lose to the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games two years ago.
”If anybody sits and says it was an unsuccessful season, I have to question that. You look back at this team. All the accomplishments of the regular season, and then to be one game away from getting to the Stanley Cup Final,” Cooper said, his voice trailing off.
”Now it’s just solving that piece of the puzzle,” the coach added, ”getting over the top.”
With a talented roster that’s both deep and fairly young, there won’t be wholesale changes.
Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy Antonio Callaway Color Rush Jersey , a Vezina Trophy finalist in his first full season as a starter, is just 23 years old.
Leading scorer Nikita Kucherov is 24, Norris Trophy finalist Victor Hedman is 27, and emerging star Brayden Point is just 22.
Even captain Steven Stamkos, completing his 10th NHL season, is only 28.
”What were we missing? A couple of goals in Game 7,” Cooper said. ”You can sit here and pick apart all you want of what went wrong, it was one game. We didn’t score and we lost the game. They were opportunistic and scored, and they advanced. … It’s razor-thin how close this league is.”
Yzerman said there are a number of areas where the Lightning need to get better moving forward, including defensively.
The GM, however, rejected the notion that somehow the season was a failure because a team with such high expectations didn’t get back to the championship round.
”It’s really difficult to win the Stanley Cup, and if you’re going to measure every year strictly on it’s a failure if we win or not, I don’t think I look at it that way Lamar Jackson Jersey Ravens ,” Yzerman said.
”There’s a process and there’s no definitive timeline for it. Just continue to improve, continue to hang around, I guess, and we’re going to win one of these things,” the GM added. ”It’s not a failure. It’s a disappointment at this stage, but we’re not sitting here saying we’re the best team by a mile. We realize there’s a bunch of good teams out there, a group of teams that could win the Stanley Cup.”
Cooper said one thing it’s important to not do this summer is over-react.
”It’s hard to explain just how hard it is to get here,” the coach said. ”There are 30 teams who are going to get Monday morning quarterbacked, and one team that is not. You just have to build on your strengths and keep getting better and come back next year stronger than ever.”
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08.08.2018 04:55
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