The laws of gravity no longer apply in Oakland, California, both inside Oracle Arena – where Stephen Curry’s three-pointers have vaulted the Golden State Warriors into the record books – and outside, in what locals refer to as The Town.

Since 2010, the median home price in Oakland has jumped 74%, while the average monthly rent has more than doubled from $1,720 to $3,580 and the city’s image as a gentrifying hipster haven has soared.

That year, incidentally, was the year that venture capitalist Joe Lacob purchased the basketball team, and with it acquired a long-suffering but loyal fan base who watched ticket prices rise (134%, according to Team Marketing Report) alongside the squad’s win percentage.

Oaklanders have rejoiced in the team’s success – their full-throated fervor has given the home court the nickname “Roaracle” – but as the Dubs chase a second consecutive title in the NBA finals, the team’s likely departure for San Francisco looms, embittering many longtime fans and aggravating an old grudge between The City and The Town.

“It upsets me all the time – the T-shirts that say ‘The City’ – that they refuse to call them the Oakland Warriors,” said Robert Parker, 62, a lifelong Warriors fan who works as a bartender in Oracle’s nosebleed sections. “It’s an insult to Oakland.”

Michael Tran, 37, an East Bay native and lifelong Warriors fan, explained the resentment from his end of the Bay Bridge: “We’re always in the shadow of San Francisco. We don’t call it the Oakland Bay Area.”

Jim Zelinski, co-founder of Save Oakland Sports, a grassroots organization that hopes to prevent all three of the city’s professional teams from departing, called the city “the Rodney Dangerfield” of the Bay Area, invoking the comedian’s famous “I don’t get no respect” routine. (The owners of the Raiders and the Athletics, Oakland’s respective football and baseball teams, have made clear their preference to leave for years.)

Warriors fans have been known to show up to games hours early to see Stephen Curry warm up. Photograph: Reinhold Matay/USA Today Sports

Tran admits that some fans have “a chip on our shoulder” after having stayed loyal to the team through decades of underperformance only to see them “turn around and move to the city” as soon as the team started winning again.

But Oakland’s inferiority complex is matched by a certain smugness by San Francisco’s increasingly wealthy residents.

“San Francisco is the most important and innovative city in the world, so having the most innovative team in the history of the NBA only makes sense,” said Jason Calacanis, a tech angel investor.

“It’s like the brain drain,” Tran said. “They take the best of us when it gets good, and then they get to profit.”

Adding to the conflict is the increasing gentrification of Oakland, often by displaced San Franciscans seeking cheaper rents, as the city becomes more attractive to tech companies such as Uber.

“You have a lot of people who want to live in San Francisco but they can’t afford it, so they settle for Oakland, and in doing so they gentrify and displace the longtime residents who’ve been there the whole time, weathered the storm, and made it what it is,” Tran said.

The Warriors’ return to San Francisco after more than four decades (the San Francisco Warriors were renamed in 1971) is not a done deal. It’s being challenged by a group called the Mission Bay Alliance, which argues that the new arena’s location near the San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park would negatively impact another neighbor – the University of California San Francisco’s hospital complex.

And Oakland leaders such as city councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan hope that the owners will think better of their decision, citing the fate of the San Francisco 49ers, which moved from the much benighted Candlestick Park in south-east San Francisco to a new stadium in Santa Clara, the heart of Silicon Valley.

“They certainly have seen empty seats at the 49ers,” Kaplan said. “Instead of trying to sell tickets to fans, they went to trying to sell tickets to the wealthiest possible interests on earth who wouldn’t actually go to the game.”

The Warriors celebrate after winning the western conference finals. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

“Maybe the Warriors will try that and end up backfiring,” she added.

Outside Oracle Arena before the first game of the finals last week, Oakland fans said they refused to accept the reality that the team could soon relocate to the other side of the bay.

“They are not going to move,” said Jacqueline Oriabure, a 43-year-old school security officer who grew up not far from the arena. “If you take this away from the kids who are inspired to be sports players, they won’t have anything to look up to.”

Oriabure, who was standing in front of the arena soliciting donations for a local youth dance troupe, said it would be depressing to see the Warriors market the team to a wealthier demographic in San Francisco.

“Who are you trying to support? Those who already have something or those who are trying to make it?”

Many East Bay fans said they would still show up if the Warriors were in San Francisco – but noted that it won’t be as easy or fun.

“I don’t want them to leave, but I’d totally still support them,” said Oakland native Adriane Primas.

“But not as much!” interrupted her friend Antoinette Jenkins, who also grew up in Oakland. “We bring the noise. That leaves if they’re not in Oakland any more.”

For his part, Parker is counting on another Bay Area regional foible to save the day for Oakland: San Franciscans’ notorious aversion to new development.

“Personally, I’m rooting for the people in San Francisco who know how to file lawsuits,” he said. “They know how to do it where someone can file a lawsuit that says [a new development] blocks their view. That’s our only hope.”