He May Be The King of L.A., But He’s Already A God By The Bay.

This Kurt Streeter piece in the LAT regarding Baron Davis’ status as the King of L.A. playing up in Oakland confused me when I read it Sunday morning, and I’ve largely come to the same conclusions that Tom Ziller has over at the FanHouse — it’s a well meaning enough piece, but to suggest that Oakland isn’t somehow deserving of having Davis lead its basketball franchise is nothing less than silly at best and snobbish at worst.

Last season, Baron Davis worked like a snake charmer. He lifted the Golden State Warriors, Oakland’s team, from their perennial pit. Then he led them to the postseason for the first time in more than a decade.

He steered that undersized team to one of the most stirring upsets in NBA history: a cold-hearted drubbing of title-favorite Dallas.

It was the Twilight Zone.

Those games up north looked like Lakers games during the best of times. Wall-to-wall crazies. The pixie dust had star-trekked north to watch their boy do his thing.

In the wrong town.

I’d say that pixie dust migrated north because the team opened up on the Mavs so early that they pushed out the fans that had been cheering from the get-go. No matter how good those friends are of Baron’s, they weren’t the most obvious in the house during that opening series — thsoe die-hard Warrior fans are the ones that shook the place against Dallas, and I bet Davis is ever-cognizant of that.  If Warrior management doesn’t look to screw him over, he’d be nuts not to stay there — why be mere royalty in Los Angeles when the Bay Area considers you a god after those feats in the first round of hte playoffs?

When a hometown boy does good and you all finally bother to notice, it doesn’t mean you get to say you were down from the beginning. God, what entitlement.