"It breaks my heart": Kamala Harris admits to being heartbroken over NBA teams leaving Oakland

Throughout their time in the NBA, the Golden State Warriors have moved arenas several times. They started in Philadelphia before moving to San Francisco in 1962, then again to Oakland in 1971. After decades of playing at Oracle Arena, the franchise moved back to San Francisco where they now play at Chase Center.

The Warriors' best years happened while they were playing in Oakland, memories that are fondly remembered by their fans. One particular Warriors fan who has admitted to feeling sad about the team moving to San Francisco is Vice President Kamala Harris, whose hometown is Oakland.

Harris shared her sentiments with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes on the "All the Smoke" podcast on Monday.

"It breaks my heart," Harris said. "Remember we used to have all of them. You know when you just drive by that area, when I go to Oakland, when I go to the Bay Area. If you land at Oakland Airport and just pass the Coliseum, it is, it breaks my heart."

The Warriors weren't the only major sports team to leave Oakland. The NFL's Oakland Raiders left California in favor of Las Vegas in 2020.

Retired NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson also have memories of playing in Oakland. They were a part of the 2006-07 "We Believe" Warriors that secured a postseason berth as the eighth seed. In the opening round of the playoffs, the underdog Warriors upset the top-seed Dallas Mavericks to advance to the second round.

Several years prior, there was also the shortlived "Run T.M.C" era which featured NBA Hall-of-Famers Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin.

---

The Warriors' final NBA season in Oakland ended disastrously

The 2010s were a time of celebration for NBA fans in Oakland. The early parts of the decade marked Steph Curry's rise to stardom as well as the arrival of Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The Warriors fans' patience was finally rewarded when the team won a championship in 2015 — their first since 1975.

The Warriors won a record-setting 73 games in 2016 and even if they did not win the title that season, they bolstered their roster by signing Kevin Durant. This led to them becoming NBA champs in 2017 and 2018.

Golden State looked unstoppable entering the 2019 season as they still had Durant, Curry, Thompson and Green along with a plethora of rotation pieces that complimented its stars.

However, the Warriors would ultimately come up short in their quest for a three-peat. In the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors, both Thompson and Durant suffered major injuries. The Raptors capitalized on them and ended their reign atop the league.

The Warriors' game six loss to the Raptors in the Finals was the last they played at Oracle Arena.