[EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve decided to call these insider looks the “#GoDubs Diary”. Not sure if I’ll have time to change all the previously named “Warriors Blogger Beat” articles to this, but that’s what we’ll do at least going forward. Thanks for reading!]
WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — My oh my what a win can do to the atmosphere. Instead of a sense of extreme urgency as we last left off, before the road trip and after the loss to the Portland Trailblazers, there was levity in the air.
By the way, Damian Lillard not only retweeted my article on him, but he also favorited it!
MONDAY MORNING, 12/2/2013
The Golden State Warriors had just come off a thrilling one-point victory at the Sacramento Kings and I wanted to get in some questions about the high IQ of the last two plays, offensively by Stephen Curry and defensively by Andrew Bogut.
But first off, upon entering the gym, my initial concern was to find out how Andre Iguodala, out “indefinitely” with a strained hamstring, looked. After all he had been shooting free throws the last time I saw him.
Thankfully, he was shooting free throws again and walking around, so things still looked on the up-and-up. Jordan Farmar was recently struck with a torn hamstring and he was listed as out for “at least four weeks”. He had also reported tightness in the hamstring beforehand. So you can deduce that the Warriors will not take any chances, but that logic would dictate that Iguodala should be back within a timespan of those same four weeks, since Farmar’s injury seems more serious. It’s already been ten days, as of this writing, since Iguodala strained the hamstring.
Coach Mark Jackson, the first in the interviewee’s chair, started out by answering a question about the George Karl comments.
Since I’m a basketball guy, I’m not going to comment further on this nor link the articles, other than Jackson defended his ground and took a shot back. You can Google it yourself, but I’m all about the community of basketball. What goes around, comes around. We’re all in the same boat, and it’s a great boat, a great big boat, a fun boat to be on. I would never write an article just to fan some flames and get credit for being in the argument. To me, that’s not basketball. So beatwriters will just have to be beatwriters. I’m a beatwriter, too, but then again I’m not. Go ahead, do what you have to do.
On Toney Douglas and Iguodala, Jackson said they are day-to-day. There’s no decision yet as to whether or not either of them will join the team on the upcoming road trip.
Jackson then talked about the forthcoming game against the Toronto Raptors. We have the report/preview here as well as Monte Poole here. Both stories included quotes from the next day (read on).
It was around this time that Curry tried a 92-foot heave and — let’s just say — he came within the vicinity of the basket on the opposite end of the gym. ‘Nuff said.
After that, Jackson praised Draymond Green, one of the heroes from the Kings victory, and someone who’s been playing more in crunch time.
Here’s Jackson answering one of my questions that day:
Coach @jacksonmark13 on Bogut: "That's a game-saving play. We had a bunch of guys on empty…"… http://t.co/0MrRj2Vh9m
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) December 2, 2013
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Then it was Draymond’s turn. Other than Jermaine O’Neal, whom I’ve interviewed twice here and here, as I said on Twitter (although I spelled “interviewee” wrong),
One of the best NBA interviewers out there: Draymond Green. Sooo knows the game. Can talk shop for days. I'll have article up in a few hrs.
— Poor Man's Commish (@poormanscommish) December 3, 2013
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Here’s the article from Carl Steward: Draymond Green lone bright spot on Warriors’ bench
Here’s the article from Rusty Simmons: For Warriors, Green’s work paying off
And here’s my article: Draymond Green: Enforcer, But With A Coach’s Perspective And Even A Bit Of Self-Effacing Humor
I actually woke up early this morning to transcribe the entire Green interview, which was about twelve minutes (for the record, his twelve pales in comparison to JO’s twenty-minute average!). The average interview lasts only about five minutes. As you can see from all three articles, Dray is a student of the game and really fun to listen to.
After transcribing, I had to leave for the shootaround and, during this time, Steward’s article was posted and then so was Simmons’s. After shootaround, I carefully combed my entire transcript and tried not to use the same quotes. I mean, Dray’s interview was that good. It produced three distinct articles.
Obviously, Dray had a great many good quotes and here was one of the better ones:
On improving from last year, @money23green: "A lot of the times I wasn't me…offensively…I didn't… http://t.co/GNo6yhUJg1
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) December 2, 2013
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The media session ended with Harrison Barnes doing some kind of video thing on the far side of the gym. I’m not sure which news agency was doing that one.
TODAY, TUESDAY MORNING, SHOOTAROUND 12/3/2013
This morning began with Klay Thompson, who wasn’t making a great number of practice shots from inside the arc, but certainly his regular self outside the arc.
Nemanja Nedovic was practicing on the far court and Klay noticed something. We asked him what it was and he said that Nedo had just delivered a bounce pass from the right elbow three-point line and the basketball landed right in the ball bag way behind the opposite baseline against the wall. Future Skills Competition champion!
This was right after @nedovic1624 delivered a bounce pass from the right elbow beyond the arc,… http://t.co/2FKz1EuRf8
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) December 3, 2013
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This was an unusually short interview because there wasn’t much to talk about with Klay. It was the usual “ho-hum” stuff with him that’s been reported before. Lucky Klay. In any case, I used some of his quotes for the Raptors preview (previously linked above).
Here was Klay’s best quote:
#Klay Thompson said the game after shooting a career high 8 treys, he'll let tonight's game come to… http://t.co/Y3ZVhES43A
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) December 3, 2013
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Then it was Barnes’s turn and — maybe it’s just timing and not being in front of cameras much after losses — but he’s always seems to be in a jovial mood during interviews. The talk turned to team chemistry and Scott Ostler will probably post something tomorrow, and I’ll link it here when that happens, because Ostler had a lot of questions.
"This is very similar to a college team," @hbarnes tells Scott Ostler. #Warriors #DubNation… http://t.co/cShdN61BYp
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) December 3, 2013
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Late in the interview, I realized Barnes had not talked about the Raptors yet and I wanted a soundbite of his in our preview, so I asked him about the matchup against Rudy Gay, which was quoted in the preview (previously linked above).
I also got to meet KTVU sports anchor Joe Fonzi. He remarked how different the Warriors interviews are from those with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. He also said it was great that during this time of the winter, the Warriors are still a big topic. In years past, obviously, after the 49ers were done with their run, they’d have to go search for Cal/Stanford stories because by the dead of winter, the Warriors were usually already out of any playoff race.
All in all, an upbeat, light-hearted atmosphere because the Raptors are not that big of a threat and the Warriors are coming off a big win, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t taking the Raptors seriously. They’re looking at the game as a springboard for their upcoming road trip.
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