A vintage basketball. Beast!

We lived in the Bay area from 2013 to 2018. Basketball was not the sport we followed, having come from Europe, but you could not NOT notice basketball if you were in northern California in those years. It was the golden era of the Golden State Warriors. I’m overusing the word “golden,” but by any measure, the Warriors left a remarkable mark in the history of all sports, not just basketball.

Maybe we wouldn’t have jumped on the bandwagon, but we did after seeing the Warriors play at the Oracle area. Our neighbors and fellow school parents had a seasonal pass, and thanks to them, we were able to attend a couple of games.

I have so many basketball memories from those years, especially in 2016, both the regular season and the finals. The Warriors’ loss to the Cavaliers was heartbreaking, and I’m not exaggerating. For days my sons and I woke up depressed, unable to comprehend how the 73-win team blew their 3–1 lead in the finals. We then marveled at the sensational news of Kevin Durant joining the Warriors and, for the next two years, enjoyed watching one of the most dominant teams of all time.

There was then the talk of the end of the dynasty. But the Warriors won again in 2022. Curry was likable as ever, his legacy forever cemented.

During those years, we played a lot of basketball in the local parks of Cupertino, where we lived. From those years, we have a … basketball. We purchased it around 2015. After 2017 we had a stretch when we moved a lot. Memphis, Dallas, Southern California…