Damian Lillard on Warriors' Impending Move: 'Real' Fans Can't Get into Games

Damian Lillard grew to love basketball watching the Golden State Warriors from Oracle Arena with his father in his hometown of Oakland.   

With the franchise's impending move to San Francisco, the Bay Area native bemoaned "real" fans being priced out. 

"They're upset about it. It's one of those things where success comes and you're going to up and move," Lillard said, per Mark Medina of the Mercury News. "A lot of the real Warriors fans, a lot of times, they can't go to the games. They can't afford it. At that time, we were able to go to the games. Nowadays, a really good ticket is way more expensive to do everything. The people who are real Warriors fans aren't able to get into the games."

The Warriors will begin playing at the $1 billion Chase Center in San Francisco next season. They have played at Oakland's Oracle Arena since 1971.

"I don't really think about it. The building really is more significant to my childhood than me playing there," Lillard said of the move. "When I come here, I'm playing in my hometown. When they start to come to San Francisco, my family is still going to come there either way. But the memories of it and what it used to be is going to be different."

While Lillard clearly means well in his comments, he might have wanted to choose a word like "working class" rather than "real" to describe fans.

The cost of going to games is as much a result of the Warriors' success as it is a new arena. Lillard grew up during a time when Warriors tickets were more affordable because the franchise was one of the worst in basketball, and the tech boom had yet to inflate the price of everything in the area. 

That said, it's hard to see the Warriors replicating the incredible home-court advantage they've enjoyed at Oracle during this recent run after their move to the Chase Center.