WILLIE BROWN MIDDLE SCHOOL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Marreese Speights, now with the Los Angeles Clippers, returned to the Bay Area last night and spent some time volunteering with hometown friend Eddie Brown’s “Skillz Training Youth Basketball Clinic” in San Francisco.
It was only last week at Golden State Warriors training camp when head coach Steve Kerr, addressing reporters’ concerns about this season’s bench, recalled his two-year relationship with Speights.
“A happy-go-lucky, beautiful soul,” said Kerr. “He’s always got a smile on his face. The guys loved him.”
With the Clippers in town for the Warriors’ second preseason game and donating his time to help Brown and his youth, as well as getting a glimpse of the West Coast-version of his Team Speights AAU squad, Speights seemed to have left a bit of his soul in the Bay — in more ways than one.
Andre Iguodala told reporters in training camp that he had phoned Speights, his teammate not only with the three-year stint in Golden State, but also for three years from 2008-11 with the Philadelphia 76ers.
“I was saying, who am I going to talk to on the bench?” said Iguodala, “He was kind of my go-to guy so I’m going to miss him.”
“I talk to Andre and Shaun all the time, those are my guys,” said Speights in an exclusive interview with LetsGoWarriors. “All of them are my guys but those are the guys I know.”
Speights revealed much more about the conversation.
“Andre texted me like, ‘Why did you go there (to the Clippers)?’
“Just look at the team now. You feel what I’m saying? Look at, what, as soon as free agency starts, they sign Zaza Pachulia, then they sign David West, then they sign Andy (Anderson Varejao) before. You feel what I’m saying?” said Speights with a slightly pained look on his face. “Then (James) McAdoo is back, like, where imma play at?”
Perhaps Kerr lost trust in Speights as he became a matchup problem, as LeBron James easily took Speights — and nearly every other Warrior — to the rim. “MoBuckets” logged just two minutes in Game 6 and five minutes in Game 7.
“Last year I ain’t play when all the bigs is out so I’m like…” Speights trailed off, while recalling his bench time against the Cleveland Cavaliers in July.
But Speights still has a lot of respect for Coach Kerr and figures to have a bigger role with Los Angeles their lack of depth in the frontline.
“Coach Kerr was a good role model that I looked up to since I was young and playing for him was good,” said Speights. “But I feel like I could’ve did more if I gotten more opportunity but it’s the NBA, so things happen.”
Speights is certainly not deterred and looks forward to doing some damage as the backup to Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.
“You know, I’m always happy. Can’t be mad, gotta have a good spirit. Especially the position I was in and the way I handled my situation.”
Livingston stayed away from business when “talking turkey” with Speights and is fully aware of the potential trash-talking to come whenever the Clippers face the Warriors.
“He’s gonna give us some work,” Livingston told LetsGoWarriors at morning shootaround.
Should Speights, a free agent again in the summer of 2018, ever find himself considering the Warriors as a viable option, he can be sure that a little bit of his beautiful soul still remains with DubNation.
“I miss Mo already,” tweeted Kimberly Stubbe.
“Would have rather had Mo back instead of West,” said Twitterer @ax_slzr.
“KilljoyGSW” tweeted thirteen consecutive sad face emojis, while others tweeted similar sad ones.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: @spencerkf30 contributed to this report.](Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @teradaphoto)
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