From the reverence of the game in the Philippines, to Taiwan’s heartfelt love for Jeremy Lin, to the near-worship of Kobe Bryant in China, over the past week the NBA Global Games has left impressionable memories and opened passionate basketball fans’ eyes from around the world to the various cultures of Asia.
For the Golden State Warriors, the opportunity to engage with and perform on a big stage, so many miles away from home, for the Chinese has resulted in a brotherhood of sorts forming for the team.
Of course, there was already a brotherhood before the season started. That would be Stephen Curry and his little brother, Seth, of course.
“Sometimes I forget that he’s my teammate,” Steph said, “We go through drills and we’re closing out (defensively on shooters) and I see Seth and I’m like, ‘What are you doing here?'”
It seems that Seth relishes such encounters.
“You gotta compete as hard as you would anybody else,” Seth said, “It’s not hard to block (the fact that you’re going against your brother) out. Sometimes you kind of go hard because it’s your brother. It can be a little bit more competitive, kind of like you did growing up.”
Yet Seth isn’t lost on the perspective.
“Playing on the same team as my brother is definitely special,” said the younger Curry, “Something you don’t want to take for granted.”
Seventeen-year veteran Jermaine O’Neal also embraced the opportunity, but pointed to a different kind of brotherhood.
“Trips like this really set the tone. We’re basically brothers, we live together (on the court and the locker room), throughout the NBA season,” said O’Neal, “If you can depend on them away from basketball, you can depend on them during basketball. It just falls into place like that.”
[NOTE: There were awesome quotes about O’Neal’s leadership role and how the younger Warriors have talked to him about what it will take for the Warriors to reach the championship. More on this in a forthcoming post.]Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
