SHERATON HOTEL, TORONTO, ON — The “Big Three” Golden State Warriors NBA All-Stars Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green were all at media availability on All-Star Friday morning, where mini-mosh pits of reporters from all over the world gathered around each player, elevated on a small stage, and fired off a bunch of questions for a good thirty minutes each.
The “scrums” were held in one of the ballrooms at the Sheraton and began with the participants in Saturday night’s festivities: the Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest, and Slam Dunk Contest.
Although all three Warriors are participating on Saturday (Green in the Skills Challenge, and Curry and Thompson in the Three-Point Shootout), they did not come out until it was time for the Western Conference All-Star Game participants to show up.
Klay and Draymond were first up, then some of the more popular Western All-Stars appeared, such as Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant.
Curry’s podium was already littered with camera men ready to go on a facing stage, while Bryant’s area was a “normal” setup adjacent to Curry’s.
However, when Bryant arrived, overseas media made a mad dash to his podium and, soon thereafter, the NBA moved Kobe to a larger area across the hall.
Thompson wore his sponsor Anta‘s gear, replete with “KT” logos, including a grey sweatshirt and sweatpant outfit.
Green wore a black t-shirt with a Marilyn Monroe print and a dark violet jacket.
Curry wore black Under Armour gear, including a windbreaker and matching sweats and kicks that had gold trim.
Towards the end of the scrums, you could tell Thompson was getting a bit weary and, at one point, it looked like he may have gotten inspired by something as he looked over to Green’s table, smiled, and tried to simultaneously answer one of the many rote questions. I happened to be videotaping it at the time:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ThCmzymKss&w=560&h=315]Finally, he tapped his fingers on the table some more, said, “Last question,” and headed over to a one-on-one with CSN Bay Area. Then he made his way over to Draymond’s table across the way, where we had already gone.
Warriors PR director Raymond Ridder was already in the process of wrapping that up.
“Great, guys, we’ve got to run over to another interview,” Ridder announced.
Green answered the final question and looked over to someone approaching.
“Umm, Klay wants — Klay wants you to pass to him every time.”
Green’s surprise guest was Thompson.
“I will pass the ball every time I touch the ball,” answered Green. “The ball will go to Klay.”
“Alright, I’ll relay that message,” and Klay walked away.
“Respect,” said Green.
“Good job, Klay Thompson,” said Ridder, and off they went.
When we tweeted what happened, DubNation reacted happily. “Great to see Klay come out of his shell,” said one responder.
Media obligations for all of the Warriors weren’t quite overwith, however, because Curry still hadn’t reached the end of his scrum.
A few minutes later Ridder announced, “Last question,” Curry answered the question, but a foreign reporter still managed to pop in one more.
True to form, Curry stayed to not only answer the question, but answer it thoughtfully and with a full quotable response.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rp4zT4SJa80&w=420&h=315]More links:
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @poormanscommish)
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