ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors can generally count on Marreese Speights off the bench, as we saw against the Utah Jazz, when he sparked the team with 16 points in just 15 minutes of action.
As an added bonus, anytime Speights has a big game, especially at #Roaracle, expect the Golden State locker room to be full of fun little surprises.
On January 4, 2016, after he collected 15 points in 17 minutes off the bench against the Charlotte Hornets, Leandro Barbosa got his iPhone out and started filming Speights in the middle of a postgame media scrum.
Speights couldn’t hold his on-camera composure any longer and cracked a huge grin. Some reporters at the front weren’t quite sure what was going on, since Barbosa was video-taping from the back row.
After the Jazz win, Barbosa butted in this time by calling Speights “pretty boy”:
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The fun continued.
One of the plays of the game was Speights’ sideline inbound a streaking Barbosa for a layup at the end of the third quarter, the result of the Jazz paying too much attention to Stephen Curry because of his previous half-court make at the halftime buzzer.
So when Speights was asked by media about it, he described his assist as having “great arc on it”.
“Seven,” he ended, making an analogy to a touchdown pass in football.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6j4-crrTeI&w=560&h=315]There was icing on the cake to that light postgame locker room atmosphere, courtesy of Draymond Green.
A deeply loyal Michigan State University alum, Green got distracted by KNBR video editor Josh Lander‘s Michigan University t-shirt. “MSU” and Michigan are, of course, bitter intrastate arch-rivals.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9o-7yDpAGQ&w=560&h=315]CSN Bay Area’s Kellie Johnson salvaged the breakdown and said, “Try not to get too distracted,” while KNBR radio reporter Ryan Leong graciously blocked Green’s view of Lander’s shirt with a sheet of paper.
“Note to self: Don’t wear collegiate-affiliated materials to sporting events you cover,” Lander later tweeted, with a video clip from straight on.
The postgame locker room experience had become an event unto its own, not unlike what we saw when the Warriors stole Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Playoffs against the Los Angeles Clippers.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @poormanscommish)
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