Earlier this week, reports surfaced that the WNBA was looking at the Bay Area, specifically San Francisco, for a possible expansion franchise, which is great news for sports fans in that city but more bad sports news for Oakland, a city that definitely deserves better.
Oakland has a rich cultural history, the city being most widely recognized as the birthplace of The Black Panther Party, the social-political organization founded in 1966 by Merritt College students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton.
But its sports history is just as rich and reflects the hard-working, tough and proud people of the city.
From the late 60s to the 90s, the Raiders featured legendary players like Lester Hayes, Art Shell, Ken “The Snake” Stabler, Jack Tatum, Cliff Branch, Gene Upshaw, Howie Long, Jim Plunkett, Bo Jackson, Tim Brown and Marcus Allen.
In basketball during the period between 1974 – 2018, the Golden State Warriors had players such as Rick Barry, Joe Barry Carrol, RUN-TMC (Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin), Latrell Spreewell, and of course, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green
And then there’s the Oakland A’s. This is a franchise that, after moving to the city from Kansas City in 1968, won four World Series titles and fielded legendary players such as Reggie Jackson, Rickey Henderson, Rollie Fingers, Vida Blue, David Stewart, Dennis Eckersley, The Bash Brothers (Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco), Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez and Jason Giambi.
While in Oakland, these three franchises accounted for three Super Bowl victories (XI, XV and XVIII), four NBA titles (1975, 2015, 2017, 2018) and four World Series championships (1972, 1973, 1974, 1989).
These teams gave Oakland a rich, championship legacy that’s often unfairly marred by violence, misperceptions and greed.
And now it’s a city without a professional major sports team.
San Francisco has the 49ers, the Warriors, an economy on the upswing led by the tech and hospitality sectors, and (unfairly), a better general reputation than Oakland.
However, that doesn’t mean that it’s a better city than Oakland, for what Oakland lacks in a tech economy, it more than makes it up in a strong jobs forecast, history, tradition and a passionate and loyal fanbase that deserves better after money and politics robbed it of its professional sports teams.
Oakland has produced champions and Hall of Famers. It has birthed history makers such as the Black Panthers, icons like Bruce Lee, trendsetters like Too Short and MC Hammer and trailblazers such as Vice President Kamala Harris.
But now that A’s ownership has decided to flee to Las Vegas (although the deal is not officially done yet), the city is devoid of pro sports.
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