Bay Area sports teams represent more than a uniform for local fans like myself. They symbolize our community, pride, and roots in local life. When the A’s and Giants are having a great season, I feel like I can overcome any expectations. When the Warriors are winning championships, I have a bounce in my step. When the Niners and Raiders are contending, family get-togethers seem more celebratory.
But for each sweet victory comes eventual defeat. And though this decade has provided some of the most memorable sporting wins in Northern California history, the last 10 years have seen some devastating lows. With 2020 around the corner, what better way to prepare for change than to recall the worst moments that sports fans have endured? Forget the good times. These are the incidents that pissed people off, casting long shadows over hippie optimism, proving that it isn’t golden here all the time.
2010: Steph Curry gets injured (again) and almost ruins his career
After a scrutinized start to his career — in which many basketball “experts” claimed he was far too small and weak for the NBA — a young Steph Curry severely injured his ankle. Fans held their breath as the future looked bleak. Then Curry returned and reinjured himself. In fact, Steph was injured so frequently in the beginning of his career that Warriors fans almost gave up on him, resulting in a digital timeline of his ankle’s woes.
Back then, the Warriors weren’t really good yet, but Curry’s star potential was the hope we could cling to. When his ankle went bad, we all went bad with it, making this one of the darkest moments for any Dubs fan this decade.
2012: Warriors trade Monta Ellis
Monta Ellis was our hopeful superstar long before Steph, Klay, and Draymond came along. He was an explosive, tattooed, hyper-quick scorer fans loved and (at the time) preferred over Steph and his shaky ankle problems. So when the announcement of his trade to Milwaukee was made, fans went bananas — a reaction that culminated in the notorious public booing of team president Joe Lacob. For longtime Warriors fans, this trade represented another disappointment after previous decades of mismanagement and neglect. Luckily, the trade eventually worked out and led to the core group that brought us our first title in Oakland three years later. But in that 2012 season, fans were on the verge of rioting, and to this day I still miss Monta; he represented a scrappier team before rising economic inflation and the popularity of the Warriors made tickets outrageously expensive.
2013: San Francisco 49ers lose to the Ravens in the weird, lights-out Superbowl XLVII
After dominating the NFL in the ’80s and finding success in the ’90s, the 49ers slowly fell into obscurity, becoming one of the league’s sound bites of frustration by 2010. Then, after years of disappointment, new coach Jim Harbaugh resurrected the franchise and put together one of the most feared and unbeatable teams in football. The Niners were back in the national spotlight, regularly contending in exciting championships games. Led by young playmaker Colin Kaepernick, the “49ers Faithful” were rewarded with a much anticipated Super Bowl appearance.
I was buzzing with pride and arrogance, certain that the Niners would embarrass a less favored and older Ravens team on national television. Then, in what turned out to be a boringly lopsided game—mostly remembered for an inexplicable mid-game blackout — the Ravens handled the Niners, whose only moment of excitement came when they scored at the end. Since then, the Niners have yet to fully gain redemption, though things are finally starting to look better this season.
2014: Oakland A’s trade fan favorite Céspedes, then lose in the playoffs
During a year in which the Oakland A’s were once again the hottest underdog in baseball, team management surprised fans by trading the best offensive player at the time, Yoenis Céspedes, to Boston (a trade that was later ranked the second worst in recent Athletics history). Similar to their reaction to the Monta Ellis trade, local fans were pissed, especially because the player received in return, pitcher Jon Lester, lost in the only playoff game he pitched for the team.
To make matters hella worse, though, it ended a run that had potential to be a repeat of the famous 1989 Bay Bridge World Series, when San Francisco faced Oakland in the championship for the only time in history. But alas, Kansas City — who defeated the Céspedes-less A’s in the Wild Card Game — would instead go on to play rival San Francisco in the 2014 Fall Classic, making this loss and that particular trade even more painful and not so easy to forget.
2014: San Jose Earthquakes suffer their worst season in the team’s history
There was a time when the Earthquakes (formerly known as the Clash) were the most dominant team in Major League Soccer, led at the time by U.S. Soccer’s all-time greatest player, Landon Donovan. They’d won two titles, competed in international tournaments, and brought glory to Northern California’s soccer mecca, San Jose. Then it all unraveled. The team moved to Houston (becoming the Houston Dynamo), and hungry fans were left without a team they’d been supporting since 1996. The team returned a few years later, which culminated in the team’s worst season (2014) in which they suffered a 15-match win-less streak.
Though overlooked by many Bay Area residents, since soccer has long been ignored but is starting to gain popularity, this was a lowlight for those of us who grew up loving the game, especially those of us raised by immigrant parents from places where soccer is the real football.
2014: San Francisco 49ers move to Silicon Valley
In another South Bay sporting disaster, the San Francisco 49ers embarrassed themselves after being seduced by Silicon Valley moguls and declaring a controversial move out of the city in 2014. The team’s jump to Santa Clara, one hour south (without traffic) from the team’s historic site, Candlestick, left many fans outraged. Unsurprisingly, Levi’s Stadium turned out to be financially problematic, with plenty of empty seats. This move started a trend of local teams abandoning their roots to pursue bigger contracts elsewhere; it was surreal and painful — especially for longtime Niners followers.
2016: San Jose Sharks lose in the NHL post-season—again
Oh, San Jose. The Quakes, the Niners, and now the Sharks have all proven to be major sources of shameful disappointment for Bay Area fans since 2010. As the most frustrating of the three teams, the Sharks were unable to actually win a Stanley Cup despite their best seasons in franchise history. This cemented their legacy as a team with a “legendary reputation to choke” during important moments. Their failure reached a peak in 2016 when they lost in their first-ever finals appearance to Pittsburgh, a heartbreak they are still vocal about overcoming, especially after losing in the finals again to St. Louis in 2019. Though they have been one of the most statistically successful teams in the NHL (an eye-popping 21 playoff appearances since 1994), they have yet to prove themselves when it matters most.
2016: Draymond Green gets suspended, and the Warriors blow their 3–1 lead to lose the NBA Finals
It’s easy to remember the first, second, and third championships that the Warriors brought to Oakland in the span of five years. It’s not so easy to relish the one we lost. Or worse, the one we lost after we were one game away from winning, and then Draymond (debatably) “punched LeBron in the nuts,” getting himself suspended, and we ended up losing the next three games in a row to become runner-ups instead of champs. I will never forget game 7, when opposing player Kyrie Irving hit that freakin’ three-pointer over Curry’s outstretched hand in one of the most exciting — though disappointing — NBA games I’ve ever watched.
2016: The demise of Colin Kaepernick’s career after he kneeled for racial justice
After a quick rise to superstardom, Colin Kaepernick saw his NFL career cut short by a political avalanche centered on the Black Lives Matter movement and racial justice for black athletes. In a controversial move, Kaepernick used his status as one of the league’s top quarterbacks to protest the mistreatment of black Americans by kneeling during the U.S. National Anthem before each game — a silent protest that erupted with the backlash of fans and media who labeled him an unpatriotic “clown.”
Kaepernick sacrificed his professional career; NFL teams refused to hire him after that season; and he is still without a job, though he has been asked to participate in an NFL workout in Atlanta on Saturday. As a 49ers fan and Bay Area native, I lost respect for an organization that supposedly represents a city known for progressive rights, liberal attitudes, and social equity but didn’t support their franchise player when he kneeled for his beliefs. Even after being blackballed by the league’s owners, he continues to give back to Bay Area communities in need, having since volunteered to help California’s homeless population and founding a Black Panther–inspired program, Know Your Rights.
2017: Oakland Raiders announce they will leave for Las Vegas
Crappier than the 49ers moving to another part of the Bay Area, the Oakland Raiders jettisoning off to Nevada is low, scummy, and typical of an organization that had already left Oakland for Los Angeles, then returned in the ’90s only to undergo a saga to leave again. How many times can one team leave their loyal fans to seek money elsewhere, then come back and ask for forgiveness? Maybe once. But twice?! If the Raiders ever decide to come crawling back to the Bay after their “illegal” Vegas experiment, you can expect interesting drama. Even as a Niners fan, I admit that Raider Nation deserves better since they are some of the most hardcore fans of any sports teams — Bay Area or worldwide.
2019: Golden State Warriors leave Oakland for San Francisco
Arguably the most disappointing, disrespectful incident in Bay Area sports this decade has to be the Dubs ditching Oakland for a shinier spotlight across the water. Every true Warriors fan who has been with the team since childhood or who has enjoyed the glory of Oracle Arena in recent years knows what I’m talking about.
The Warriors already look like a completely different team so far this season. Ten seconds into the first game, a fan spilled his beer courtside, and the game had to be stopped. And in the second-ever home game, Curry broke his hand. Are these signs of what the future of the Warriors in San Francisco will hold?
After the team became a bona fide dynasty in the East Bay — winning three out of the past five NBA championships, including back-to-back wins against the Cavaliers — Warriors management turned their backs on the die-hards who had transformed “Roaracle” into one of the loudest and most exciting places to watch basketball. Especially after losing painfully to Toronto in the 2019 finals, then watching the team disband through free agency and injuries, the Warriors have seemingly abandoned their blue-collar identity for San Francisco’s waterfront. In comparison to Oakland, the Chase Center is smaller, harder to access, and too expensive for the average fan.
Over 10 years, these disappointments have revealed painful lessons for fans, owners, and players, but regardless of our defeats, the Bay Area will continue to cheer for our squads throughout the 2020s. Here’s to more championships, fewer heartbreaks, and keeping our franchises among the most valued in the world.
