The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are just one day away from beginning their much-anticipated Western Conference Finals showdown.
The matchup is attracting attention from all over the sports landscape, with fellow athletes getting a chance to show off their fandom and support their city.
The Houston Astros are the reigning World Series champions, and they made quite a statement as they embarked for a series in Los Angeles to play the Angels.
Brian McTaggart of MLB.com tweeted out photos of various Astros players wearing Rockets jerseys as they left Minute Maid Park.
It’s a nice gesture of support from Houston athletes, and undoubtedly there will be similar instances of Bay Area athletes wearing Warriors gear.
The city of Houston is still recovering from Hurricane Harvey, which caused so much damage when it hit back in August 2017. The Astros championship just a couple months after the hurricane was a welcome occurrence for a city frantically looking for hope in the aftermath of catastrophe.
Sports can be a relaxing distraction from the far more pressing challenges of daily life, and it’s soothing to know that the Astros made the healing process a bit easier for the residents of the Houston area.
It’s not very often that a city gets to host multiple championship parades from different sports within a year of each other, and Houston still has that chance.
The last time a city won multiple championships in a calendar year in two different major North American sports was Pittsburgh in 2009 when the Steelers and Penguins both won championships.
The record for a city in a year is 3 different teams winning a championship. Detroit celebrated 3 championships in 1935 when the Lions, Red Wings, and Tigers won titles.
Expanding the criteria from a common city to common region, the Bay Area achieved the feat in 2014-2015 when the San Francisco Giants and Golden State Warriors both won championships.
The Warriors are favored in this Western Conference Finals and want to keep Houston from earning the special distinction of being home to multiple champions in a calendar year.
Sport is a great vehicle for city residents to rally behind their team and take pride in the place they happen to be living in.
The Warriors are truly the Bay’s team. As the region’s only basketball squad, it’s a sports franchise the entire Bay Area can agree upon. That unity can’t be taken for granted.