OAKLAND — Al Attles had to pause.

“Aw, man,” he said.

Attles coached the Golden State Warriors to the NBA title in 1975. He also cherishes a close friendship with Willie Mays, cultivated over the decades. This is why, if you should ask Attles to select his second-favorite Bay Area pro sports team, he quickly names the Giants.

But when you ask Attles the next question, it’s tougher. Let’s say he had to pay money to see just one team in one particular season — and it either had to be one of those great Giants rosters of the 1960s with Mays in center field, or the current Warriors. Which would it be?

“This might make Willie mad,” Attles said. “But I’m going to go watch the Warriors.”

Who wouldn’t, the way they are playing? Thus far, the Warriors are giving us a basketball season that at times seems more like a gauzy dream.

Every night, every game, impossible new things happen. Did shooting guard Klay Thompson really score 37 points in one quarter? He did. Did Stephen Curry really receive more All-Star votes then LeBron James? Yes. Are the Warriors a threat to finish with one of the top-five winning percentages in NBA history? They are.

With a 40-9 record, the Warriors’ pace puts them on track for a 67-15 season. They certainly will surpass the Golden State franchise record of 59 victories — and the players aren’t even pretending to be too cool and blasé about that possibility.

“If we do break it, it will definitely mean something,” Thompson said recently. “We’ve been through some dark times here.”

Those dark times, of course, are part of why this season glows like the Las Vegas Strip. It is so spectacular that perspective becomes difficult.

To this point, we are definitely seeing the best regular season of pro basketball in Bay Area history. But could we be seeing the best regular season of any Bay Area team, in any sport, ever?

We might. That’s what led to Attles facing the question about which team he would rather pony up money to witness. And why he winced while answering.

“Once you start comparisons, you start down a road I’d rather not go,” Attles said. “I just try to give teams and players credit for what they’re doing right now and try not to get caught up in comparisons. And I am really just enjoying watching this. We all should. “

Acknowledged. Nevertheless, it’s certainly worth having the discussion about where the 2014-15 Warriors fit into the Bay Area pantheon of greatness, even if it’s just a fun argument over a beer at the local sports bar.

You can posit, for example, that this Warriors season is better than the A’s impressive 104-victory performance of 1988 or the Giants’ 103 victories in 1993. Also, this Warriors winter is arguably superior to the Sharks’ winter of 2008-09, which earned them the NHL Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best record.

Football is the harsh mountain to climb. The standard for regular-season sports excellence in the Bay Area is the 15-1 record by the 49ers in 1984. Directly behind is the Raiders’ 13-1 record of 1976. You might even call it a tie for the top spot. It wasn’t the 1976 Raiders’ fault that the NFL played two fewer games before 1978.

Beyond those football high marks, however, the Warriors can make the case that they are giving us the best regularly scheduled athletic show ever witnessed within our 10 area codes. Attles gives credit to Warriors coach Steve Kerr but especially to the players.

“I know how difficult it is to get people on the same page,” Attles said. “And they all seem to be on the same page. You don’t see any nonsensical things going on. It’s a pleasure to watch. If they can stay healthy, they can do great things.”

Ah, there you go. That can be the dark side of teams that post great regular seasons. Far too frequently, they are followed by soul-crushing playoff disappointment — except in football, it seems. Those 49ers of 1984 and Raiders of 1976 did go on to win Super Bowls. But every other Bay Area team’s best regular season has been followed by postseason failure. A key injury or one stinker performance can change everything in a short series.

You can ask the Sharks about that. Their 2008-09 dominance that clinched them a No. 1 playoff seed was followed by a shocking first-round playoff loss to eighth-seeded Anaheim. What would be their advice to the Warriors of today?

“It’s all how you’re playing going into the playoffs,” Sharks defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic said. “It doesn’t matter what you did in the months before. It’s the last five or 10 games, how you’re playing.”

So pay attention to that, Warriors watchers. In the Sharks’ best season, they won only two of their final five games and needed an overtime shootout for one of those victories. They also had several banged-up players who might have returned too quickly from their injuries in the final few weeks, assuring them the Presidents’ Trophy but hampering them in the postseason.

“Everyone wants to finish first or as high as possible,” Vlasic said. “We wouldn’t have changed anything. But you know, that’s just how it is. The Warriors could go 66-16 and then lose in four games. No one likes to hear that. But it could happen.”

True. That is the potential reality. That is also three months away, if it should occur. Attles is right. Until then, we should continue to enjoy the dream taking place in front of our wide-open eyes. Willie Mays will surely forgive Attles for wanting to float through that dream with the rest of us as the regular season spins out. Because it’s a pretty damn amazing dream. The best one in more than 30 years.

Read Mark Purdy’s blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/purdy. Contact him at mpurdy@mercurynews.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/MercPurdy.