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In April of this year, Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompaon famously railed against bandwagon fans, espousing his love for the “real ones” who “sat through many years of not winning.” And there’s no doubt that all kinds of people started coming out of the woodwork — from cheap-seaters to the celebrities sitting front row — once the Steph-Klay-Dray Dubs started hanging banners.
One person who could never be accused of being a bandwagoner is Too $hort, who went from playing drums at East Oakland’s Fremont High to dropping platinum records as one of the pioneers of West Coast hip-hop. Through the franchise’s various ups and downs, the legendary rapper remained committed to the blue and gold crew.
Even now, as the vultures begin to circle and the team’s dynastic core faces an incredibly daunting task in getting back to the NBA Finals, Too $hort is confident in the Warriors’ ability to save their own season.
“Right now… you know, you only got a .500 record or whatever ish, you kind of sit there and you feel good,” he told TMZ this week. “You’re like, ‘Man, I know my team ain’t about to fall off and we got a chance.”
Too $hort Is Maintaining Positive Warriors Outlook
After all he has seen and experienced over a lifetime of supporting the Warriors — from Run-TMC to the “We Believe” crew and beyond — Too $hort has ascended to a sort of zen state in his fandom. He doesn’t think he’s the only one rolling with the punches, either.
“When people hate on the Warriors, I’m like, ‘Us Warrior fans, we don’t care.'” the rapper said. “We spent a lot of years at the bottom of the division and now we come to your town and your team plays their best game of the season against us. Hey, for a fan, man, we like, ‘That’s what it’s supposed to be.'”
That’s not to say, though, that he’s obvlivious to what the nay-sayers are putting out there.
“The Warriors kind of are not the defending champs; they won the chip but they were not perceived as a championship team since KD left,” he said. “What happened last year pissed a lot of people off. The Warriors started playing good at the very end of the season, looked good in the playoffs and then won it and then like, you’re a sports fan, you’re an NBA fan, you’re like ‘That’s not what was supposed to happen. That’s some b*******.”
As he sees it, that’s just life in the Warriors’ corner of the hoops world. He compares it to the music-making process; all of the things that go into cutting a record and, ultimately, determining whether it succeeds or fails.
“In music terms, I could tell you we make a lot of dope songs but when it’s time to mix those songs down and master them and put them on the actual project, all that stuff he was loving in the studio and you was on a roll — it might not fly when you put it out to the public. If you don’t put it out properly, if it’s not mixed and mastered and the right list of songs aren’t presented to the public, it might not fly… You might not win in the playoffs.”
Too $hort Was Just Received Oakland Honor
As relayed by The Oaklandside, Too $hort was back at Fremont on December 10 to receive a major piece of recognition from Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf.
The date was proclaimed “Too $hort Day” by the mayor and a street sign — which was stylized with a dollar sign — was dedicated in the 56-year-old’s honor at the 4400 block of Foothill Boulevard.
Joining the Schaaf at the event were rappers Ice Cube, Mistah FAB and Sway Calloway. Meanwhile, the Pittsburg High School marching band — all of whom were wearing black Too $hort t-shirts — performed as an homage to the rapper’s time as a drummer at Fremont.
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