The Golden State Warriors will play their last game at Oracle Arena during the playoffs before they move across the bay to San Francisco's Chase Center next season.

Many locals believe the team's move from Oakland, where its spent nearly 50 years, will rob the Warriors of a fan base that was once known as the NBA's best. Though Oracle Arena can still rock as loud as any venue in the NBA, Golden State's evolution into the league's glamor team over the past few seasons have sapped its crowd of the consistent fervor and zeal that was a hallmark of Warriors teams during both the beginning of the Steve Kerr era and, perhaps most memorably, for the “We Believe” Warriors.

Asked why the 2006-07 squad that beat the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs was so beloved in the Bay Area, Matt Barnes, who played on the team, replied that he and his teammates connected with fans in a manner the current iteration of Golden State doesn't.

“I think because we were really pillars of the community so to speak,” he said on ESPN's The Jump. “We were out at NBA Cares events, Warriors events, but we were touchable, we were accessible. You'd see us on the streets, you'd see us on the street corners, you'd see us in the clubs, you'd see us at the supermarket, you'd see us at restaurants. Those people felt like we were out there fighting for them, you know what I mean? We put the team back on the map for the first time in awhile, and they really embraced us for it.”

Over a decade has elapsed since Barnes, Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Jason Richardson, Al Harrington and the rest, led by Don Nelson, took the league by storm. Obviously, the nature of celebrity accessibility has changed drastically in the interim. It also goes without saying that megastars like Steph Curry and Kevin Durant will almost always be less comfortable than other NBA players going about their daily lives due to their inability to ever step outside of the spotlight.

Still, Barnes' point about the “We Believe” Warriors is instructive as Kerr's team enters Game 5 against the Houston Rockets – with both a summer of uncertainty and a new beginning in San Francisco looming.