Friendships, championships, first dates and fireworks: A’s fans didn’t hold back their tears as the team that brought them a lifetime of memories played its final game at the Oakland Coliseum.
Add Vice President Kamala Harris to the long list of Bay Area natives reflecting on the A's leaving Oakland.
Harris recently was a guest on the "All the Smoke" podcast hosted by former Golden State Warriors players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. During the nearly hour interview, Harris, who was born in Oakland and raised in Berkeley, was asked about the mass exodus of Oakland sports teams.
"Oh, it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart," she said. "Remember, we used to have all of them? You know, you just drive by that area. When I go to Oakland, when I go to the Bay Area. When you like land at Oakland Airport and just pass the Coliseum. It just breaks my heart and good, good teams, right?"
In recent years, the city of Oakland lost its MLB, NBA and NFL teams as they moved to other cities.
The Warriors left Oakland in 2019 for the Chase Center in San Francisco. In 2020, the Raiders left the Bay Area and California as the team relocated to Las Vegas.
The Oakland A's have completed a final season in Oakland and the team is preparing to move to Sacramento for several years while a new stadium is being built in Las Vegas.
Harris also talked about how the moves impacted Oakland's economy.
"It was part of the economic engine of Oakland," Harris said. "And then the vendors, and it was the local folks, small businesses."
Barnes mentioned while he loves the Warriors' new home, it would never be like Oakland and Oracle Arena, which his co-host Jackson and Harris agreed with.
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"I'm always going to think Golden State Warriors is Oakland," Harris said. "That's Oakland."
Harris, Barnes and Jackson also discussed the Warriors' "We Believe" era in the mid 2000s as Harris attended games during that time. Barnes and Jackson played for the team during that era as well.
"I do remember. We want to say our Warriors are always good, whichever era. But that was a very special time," Harris said. "I mean it was electric, you guys remember? It was electric and we would take BART to get there and go."
Harris added the thing she likes about sports in general and the Warriors is the team bringing "all kinds of people from around the Bay Area."
"The Bay Area is a melting pot, right? All coming in," she said. "And that team, I mean you guys were like the best of the best, legendary, legendary."
In addition to her Bay Area roots, Harris also talked about being a stepmother and her racial identity during the interview. Watch the Harris interview on the "All the Smoke" podcast or on YouTube.
