NBA title comes to San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors are parading through San Francisco Monday after clinching their fourth championship in eight years with a victory over the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.

It’s the first time the Warriors are celebrating a championship in the city, home to the Chase Center, as the previous three championship parades snaked through Oakland.

That decision was met with some frustration from East Bay fans who saw their team move across the Bay after the 2019 season.

At 6:30 a.m., nearly five hours before the scheduled start time of the parade, both sides of Market Street were already filled with people in camping chairs and laying on blankets. Shouts of “Waaaaaarriors” echoed off the sides of the concrete corridor. Car horns were blasting in celebration.

Francisco Vasquez and Carlos Morales, both of San Jose, made the early-morning trip.

“We got up at 3 this morning,” Vasquez said. “My wife is still mad.”

Ivan Chavarria, 32, of Walnut Creek, wore a Klay Thompson No. 11 jersey as he stood on a BART train headed into San Francisco.

He said he grew up in Oakland, saw a lot of lean times as a youngster, and marveled at four titles in eight years.

“I never thought I’d see us be this good,” he said. “It’s mind-boggling.”

He said he wore Thompson’s jersey as inspiration in his own journey.

“I tore my own (left) ACL in my knee playing soccer,” he said. “I watched a lot of his videos about his comeback and listened to what he would say about it. It inspired me to get back.”

Like Chavarria, Patty Kwea was one of many fans clad in blue and gold hopping on a BART train in Walnut Creek after her drive in from Dixon.

“It’s not like we haven’t done this before,” said Kwea. “But this is the sweetest.”