As a Bay Area sports fan who grew up in the last decade, I have many memories of my teams winning. The Giants and Warriors in particular since they each won 3 titles in their respective sports. The Niners and Sharks haven’t won championships but still brought me memorable events. But when person experiences victory often, a loss creates a stronger heartbreak since you are so used to watching them win.
The Giants were the first team I began rooting for back in 2010 and we went three straight playoffs with winning it all. In 2016, I was expecting the same results. We had never lost a playoff series so why would that change that year. And that’s when heartbreak hit. With the Giants down 2-1 in a best out of 5 series, the Giants were on the verge of winning Game 4 and tying the series. Up 5-2 in the ninth, the Giants’ bullpen imploded like it had done all season and I saw my Giants lose their first playoff series since I began watching them. This hurt a lot since I had never seen them do this, but it didn’t hurt as bad because of another event a few months earlier.
The Warriors began to build their own dynasty in 2015 when they won for their first time. They had a rematch with the Cavs in 2016 and had the best regular season of all time: a 73-9 season. They seemed unstoppable. Nothing was going to stop them from going back-to-back. And then the Cavs appeared. Up 3-1 in the Finals, the Warriors seemed destined to win again. They lost Game 5 at home with one of their best players suspended in an awful call, lost Game 6 in a hostile environment in Cleveland where the referees seemed to hand the game to the Cavs, and lost Game 7 in an even worse fashion. Deadlocked at 89 for around 7 minutes with a little less than 2 minutes to go, the Warriors got a fast break opportunity. Iguodala went up for the layup and then the block happened. Lebron James chased the ball down from the other side of the court to create the greatest block in NBA history. The Cavs would hit a 3 with a minute to go and end up shocking the world when beating the 73-9 Warriors team. I was so upset at how the Warriors managed to lose this game and the series.
Loss can come in many different ways. I doubt many people think of sports when hearing the word loss. But this is my passion and most of my life revolves around sports. All of my sports team has made me experience this loss in hard ways. Over the years, I have learned to accept the losses and not get too upset at them. The Warriors last won in 2018, and that’s the last time one of my teams has won it all. Loss is now just a natural occurrence and I just seem to always expect it now.
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