“That season is really what made me an NBA player,” Matt Barnes once said about his first stint with the Warriors. And to speak about that era, the latest unique basketball and political collaboration has just dropped. It features the Vice President and Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election, Kamala Harris. So when she was on the podcast featuring two former Warriors, Matt Barnes, and Stephen Jackson, she detailed her love for the franchise. Even the co-host spoke about the impact and success of not the recent years but the “We Believe” era.

“You know, it’s funny, not to cut you off, but I went back in 2017 with Steph and KD and those guys and we won a championship right before I retired, but they all wanted to know about that ‘We believed team’,” Co-host Matt Barnes described his second tenure with the franchise where he won his only championship.

Even though the atmosphere at the time was next level, Barnes revealed how Stephen Curry and Durant would ask about the 06-07 season. “And in the era and the energy around the city (16-17 season). And when I was there, the media was talking about it, the fans were talking about it. As amazing as that team was and won all the championships, they had a fascination in what we did,” Stephen Jackson explained on All the Smoke podcast why that year was important to him.

“It was a blessing in disguise for me,” the 46-year-old stated the coach trusted him the most and so did his teammates. That’s why he was able to perform and give his best to the team. In the 2006-o7 playoffs, Jackson averaged his career-best 19.9 points per game. And the next season, he was made co-captain alongside Matt Barnes and Baron Davis.

Even Davis had his best playoff number that season with 25.3 average points. Plus, he once recalled when he was injured in Game 6 of the first round, he held Jackson in high regard since Jackson was the only one who had the experience of winning the championship before his tenure with the Warriors. But why is the 2006-07 season so significant? After all, they did not win any championship.

The reason why Curry speaks about Matt Barnes and Co. “We Believe” era

The 2006-07 season was a mixed bag for the franchise, with a 26-35 record and just 21 games left in the season, something had to change, and luckily, they had the full roster available for the first time since the team’s January acquisition of Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington. They would go on a 16-5 run to end the season with 8th seed. But that was not the miracle.

During that run, they would garner eight wins against playoff teams that year, two of which were against the Dallas Mavericks. That’s why the team and the fans started using the ‘We believe’ slogan for the playoffs. The Mavs were also the number 1 seed, and despite the recent regular season loss, very few thought that the favorite team would lose the series. But the Bay Area team was successful (4-2) which was also the first playoff victory since 1991.

They also became just the third eight-seed team at the time to beat the number one team. That run before the playoffs along with the instrumental win in the playoffs caught the attention of many. The fans were once again loud and proud to celebrate their team’s success, and that why’s Kamala Harris and the players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson remember that run very fondly.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.