(Photo: LetsGoWarriors.com Instagram account)
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — By now, especially if you’ve been a follower of this website, #DubNation knows all too well that, on the Golden State Warriors, center Andrew Bogut is the consummate team player.
As the team traveled to China this past summer, that became more and more apparent, as we reported.
Last month after a morning shootaround, he reiterated his sacrifice for the greater good.
“Steph (Curry)‘s our scorer and our go-to guy, shooters like Klay (Thompson), Andre Iguodala and David Lee,” Bogut said, “I’m fourth or fifth or sixth on the totem pole for touches and I don’t mind that. My role isn’t to go out and try to demand touches and cry about touches.”
Character is built over time, of course, so it should come as no surprise that Bogut had created his fan club “Squad Six” — Bogut wore the No. 6 on his uniform during his tenure with the Milwaukee Bucks — back with the Bucks using his own paycheck. Squad Six was mentioned in the preview of the Warriors’ pursuit of their 10th straight win this past Tuesday.
Bogut touched on that experience today after shootaround.
“It was a fan group I put together because we weren’t drawing a great crowd in Milwaukee,” Bogut said, “I ended up giving away a hundred tickets a game to fans that were passionate about the club when I was there, so it was a big success.”
“The first year we did it was probably the best. It was an unbelievable crowd,” Bogut added, “The rule was they get the free tickets if they cheer and make fools of themselves every game.”
Squad Six members, who had to audition to join the exclusive club, were rabid, for sure.
But not only that, the doing-what’s-best-for-the-team attitude pervaded with the fan club. Jeremy Schmidt of Bucksketball.com once wrote:
“We’re not trying to stand out,” said trip organizer (Chuck) Schilling. “We’re just hardcore fans. We want to get the crowd pumped up, the team pumped up. It’s not about us, it’s about the team.”
Even after Bogut was traded, with the tickets being bought in the beginning of the season, Squad Six lived on until the end of that season, at which point the members of the fan club paid homage to their former star center.
Jim Owczarski of OnMilwaukee.com wrote in his article, “Squad Not Deep-Sixed”:
…much of the group wore No. 6 in tribute, some of them backwards, for a player oft-maligned but very loved.
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“Very much so,” said (Gary) Huff, a 2-year member of the Squad. “How many other players do you hear caring about his organization’s fan base to actually offer tickets to support the team?”
Bogut chose the No. 12 when he joined the Warriors, although he considered both No. 6 and No. 66, but the Bucks have reformulated Squad Six into a to-be-named fan club for their rising star Ersan Ilyasova.
“It was in its infancy when I was there,” Bogut said, “and it continued to now with Ersan Ilyasova.”
Bogut’s personality of doing whatever he can for the greater good can also be seen in his assistance with basketball players coming out of Australia, something he takes a lot of pride in.
As he wrote in his blog with Sportal.com.au, under the banner of the NBA, “Too many Aussies is not enough”:
Having four Australians in the NBA is a fantastic achievement, but we shouldn’t be satisfied with the contribution we are making to the best league in the world until we reach double figures.
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It is something that is easier said than done, but when you consider myself, Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Aron Baynes are already there and we are probably going to have some high draft picks in the coming draft, it is certainly something to aim for.
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At the moment we are definitely batting above our weight. Mills is doing well for Spurs, Dellavedova had a career-high in minutes the other night for the Cavs and Baynes is doing what he can alongside Mills at San Antonio.
Bogut doesn’t know Mills or Baynes that well personally, being senior to them by a few years. “We know each other, we say hello, but that’s about the extent of it right now,” Bogut explained, “I’ve missed the last two national team campaigns, so I haven’t had a chance to spend time with those guys.”
“The more Australians we can get in the NBA, the better. I think we have some good players and the more players you can get, in the big league, helps the game back home, helps the game locally and both nationally,” Bogut said, “Dante Exum coming up now has a chance to be a Top Five pick (in the NBA Draft), and a couple other kids coming through, so the more the merrier.”
Again, Bogut financed the initiative. The Andrew Bogut Basketball facility website states:
Now, all these facilities are available, but rarely under roof with one membership fee, and the fact you would have to drive from place to place to get each form of training done really got time consuming. This prompted Andrew to purchase a basic building in a brand new industrial area in Carrum Downs, located in Melbourne’s South Eastern suburbs. What followed was the slow process of setting out to build all of the above under one roof. 5 years since the purchase of the building and we have Andrew Bogut Basketball. The only private venue dedicated solely to basketball players and their passion to get better. A basketball factory was born.
“We’re still in the infancy of starting up, but we’ve had a bunch of kids go to college already. Our goal is to make sure kids are advised the right way and they’re not being promised things that are unrealistic,” Bogut added, “We try to set athletes goals and we’ll let them know whether they’re D-1, D-2, D-3, as opposed to other academies out there where they promise them they’ll be NBA players and take their money.”
Just Bogut being who he is, on and off the court: giving towards the greater good.
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