Power is now speaking

Lately, the Warriors owner has been open like Biblical interpretation (Is Job’s story really just a predictive metaphor about Warriors fans?). Over the course of our interview, I think Lacob spoke more words than Cohan’s ever said–to anybody. Here’s what I culled from a talk that went over the salary cap…

On the rumblings about another (possibly Ellison-owned) Bay Area NBA squad:

ESS: There’s been talk of an NBA team in San Jose. How does that idea strike you?

Joe Lacob: It doesn’t strike me. We are the NBA team of the Bay Area. We’re San Francisco, we’re Oakland, we’re San Jose, put them in whatever order you want to put them in. We happen to be playing in Oakland. That’s where the arena is. But we have territorial rights. This is the NBA team for the entire Bay Area, those are our fans, they come to our games, I have friends in Monterey who come to the games. I have friends in Napa who come to the games. People in Sacramento actually who’s not in our territory (laughs)…come to the games. So, it’s an irrelevant point to me. There’s not going to be an NBA team in San Jose.

On the Monta + Steph situation per defense:

ESS: You’ve spoken about how the Warriors have lacked a winning architecture. And what I’m wondering is, going forward, is having two small guards in Ellis and Curry part of a winning defensive architecture?

Joe Lacob: I think it’s challenging.

ESS: (Incoherent grunt)

Joe Lacob: I love our backcourt. Anybody who’s a fan would have to say they’re excited. And they’re great shooters. I think we’re the top three-point shooting team in the NBA right now? And Ellis has turned into quite a great three point shooter. Which he didn’t have before as you know.

ESS: Ya.

Joe Lacob: He had a great midrange game, could drive to the hole, but now…he’s got everything. I think he’s underestimated right now in the NBA. People are just starting to really get it–how good this guy is this year.

But back to your point. I think it is challenging defensively. At the point of attack, we’re not the strongest defensive team. And in fact, we’re not the strongest defensive team overall.

ESS: Second worst in efficiency.

Joe Lacob: It’s true. And I think we recognize it. Hopefully, overtime, we can teach defense and get these guys better at what they’re doing, have better defensive schemes. But the truth of the matter is, we might need to add some players that are better individual defenders in order to improve the overall team defense.

ESS: So you would say the attribution for the defensive shortfall this year is more on personnel than schematics?

Joe Lacob: I don’t think we have the best personnel to be a great defensive team. I think we can be better than we’ve been, though. And there are few great defensive teams in the NBA. And a lot of teams that are really (laughs) not that great.

ESS: It’s top heavy.

Joe Lacob: I think we need to get better, clearly, defensively. And that may involve some personnel changes over time. Specifically to that backcourt? We’re just going to have to wait and see. Who knows? I can’t tell you that anybody won’t be traded if the right deal came along. So I’m not going to sit here and tell you, “They’re definitely going to be here all year!”

ESS: (Muffled grunt)

Joe Lacob: We don’t know that. But we’re going to look at it and see how it works at the end of the year. I do like both players a lot. Maybe they’re not as good defensively as some other defensive players in the backcourt for other teams? But they’re pretty damned good offensively.

ESS: Do you think that the defensive shortfall is more frontcourt or more about the backcourt?

Joe Lacob: I don’t think we’re great defensively…anywhere…honestly. I mean, Dorell Wright’s a pretty good defender.

ESS: He is.

Joe Lacob: And no one would sit there and say that we’re great defenders at the other positions. I don’t think that’s honest.

ESS: (Sharp agreement grunt)

Joe Lacob: I think everyone would have to agree with that.

On when we can blame/credit the new owner:

ESS: You took a little heat in the San Jose Mercury News because confetti came out after a home win against the Nets. The writer Purdy was voicing impatience (with your reign). What I’m wondering is, at what point do you have a tangible impact on wins and losses? At what point should fans expect success?

Joe Lacob: Well, I expect success…this year.

ESS: (Surprise grunt)

Joe Lacob: I still think our goal is to be a .500 team and hopefully make the playoffs–the 8th spot. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t. And I do think we’re on path to do it. I can’t say “make the playoffs,” because that depends on what other teams do, but I’ll be very disappointed if we don’t. We have the personnel to do it. I think we have the coaching to do it. We did–I’m not trying to make an alibi here–but we did have the hardest schedule in the NBA.

ESS: (Acknowledgment grunt)

Joe Lacob: And now we have one of the easiest schedules. I think you’re going to see that makes a difference here. We also are healthy. You know, that’s luck, to some extent. So I think all of us will be disappointed if we don’t make a good run here and hopefully get to .500.

That’s the short term answer to your question. Longer term? We need to get better every year. And if we’re not, then I am not doing my job. Other people probably aren’t doing their job too (laughing), but I’m certainly not. And I expect to be held accountable by the fans. I don’t have a problem with it at all.

On team-building philosophy:

ESS: I know that Ted Leonsis (new Wizards owner)–has a slow growth approach like Oklahoma City. Do you favor an approach that’s quicker than what he is advertising?

Joe Lacob: Well, I don’t know if it’s a question of favoring an approach. I want us to get good, and relevant…as fast as possible. Nobody wants to pay their ticket price, come in here and watch somebody lose. So…no, not happy with that, not acceptable! Now, the question is, it’s not as much the approach, as it is, you have to have the situations. You have to be in the position to draft the right player. You have to be ready to make a trade if those players are available. And if they want your guys, (chuckles). It’s not always your fault. You can try, but they might not want to come here. You know, my job’s to make them want to come here. We want to make this a place where…

(Lacob begins pounding the table with every phrase)

The training staff (ding!), the medical staff (ding!), the facilities (ding! ding!)…everything about it is a place you want to be. Maybe we could help provide jobs for their spouses or whatever. Whatever it is, right? We need to be able to do those things to recruit those players. So that’s part of my job. Then we have to be prepared for that. We have to be prepared to succeed. We have to be prepared when the opportunity presents itself, to act on it. We also have to be smart, and not act before it’s time. So maybe this gets to different ways you go about this. You can’t just make a trade to make a trade.

ESS: But it seems like you’re going to have to do a lot of building through trades because the team’s not bad enough to get some of the draft picks that the Wizards would get.

Joe Lacob: Hope you’re right (laughs). You know the Celtics, when I was with them, they didn’t really rely on draft picks at all. They really made themselves better. Danny Ainge’s strategy, specifically, was to go and get free agents. And, that’s certainly one way to do it. We’re going to try and do that if we can, whether it be good free agents or trades.

I do think you can make good draft picks, though, mid round, somewhere in the middle this year…wherever we wind up. I do think, we have to be better at that too. Steph Curry was a great pick. I think Udoh will turn out to be a reasonable pick, maybe a good pick. We don’t know yet. I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that. But there certainly has been a history of not making good picks here. We can’t do that.

On the new medical addition:

ESS: Troy Wenzel was recently hired to head the Warriors training staff. Were you active in that process?

Joe Lacob: I wasn’t directly active. Larry (Riley) did that. It’s his responsibility. But certainly he talked to me through the whole process.

ESS: I was just curious because you’ve had venture capital projects that had a lot to do with health and technology. And the Warriors have struggled for a long time with injuries. So I was wondering if you were looking to find a competitive advantage in terms of injury prevention.

Joe Lacob: Yes, I think that is true, and that’s a good point. There’s a lot going on right now, so can I say that I made that my primary focus…to go look around the world for the best guy? No. I think we had to go find, pretty quickly, a guy that could be very good at what he’s doing, and hopefully he continues to be good, stays with us for a long time. And if not, we’ll go through the whole process and do that. We found a really good guy, we think, and we’ll see how it works out. And Larry was the guy who did it…consulted me through the whole process.

On the Melo-tinged trade season:

ESS: (New Jersey’s Melo rejection) doesn’t change anything at all in terms of deals you might be pursuing, chatter that you’re hearing?

Joe Lacob: No. We are…interested in making this team better through any means possible whether it be free agency, whether it be trades at the deadline, whatever it takes. And we are working…I don’t want to say round the clock, but we are a lot more engaged than some people might think. We don’t go talking about it publicly.

That’s actually something I don’t like about the Melo thing. I don’t know who was talking to the press. But there was a lot of talking going on about people’s careers–which I think is unfortunate.

ESS: (Restrained grunt)

Joe Lacob: Because now those people have to stay on those teams. So…we don’t talk about it. I think in the future, you probably won’t have good wind of the things we have done.

Twitter: SherwoodStrauss/Email: [email protected]

When I met Warriors owner Joe Lacob, I did so with roiling insecurities that could melt stomach butterflies. I’m poor for reasons I get, he’s impossibly rich from a business beyond my grasp. At the handshake, I noticed Lacob’s gleaming watch. The sparkling time keeper snickered at my 97′ Escort station wagon–the car with a super-glued side-mirror and unglued transmission. The rich are different than you and me, especially venture capitalists who accrue unfathomable money by methods inscrutable. In my eyes, Lacob was an alien from a smarter, cleaner planet–a walking brain, with gills that breathed rarefied air.

But, Joe sought not to intimidate. The new guy reaches out to fans, writers–anybody who takes interest. He’s a blur of smiles, questions and gesticulations. Lacob is happily present, and his mere existence feels like a Cohan rebuke. I’ll eventually post the entire interview, but I’m kicking it off with a Biedrins snippet. Andris is an oddly controversial player these days, and I wanted Lacob’s take on the center who stopped making (and shooting) free throws:

ESS: I thought when Lee combined with Biedrins, it would make for a really formidible team in the aggregate–and I was surprised when that didn’t happen.

Joe Lacob: Well, we’re 40 games into it, we’ve got 42 to go. We’ll see. Maybe that changes. You know, the thing is, Biedrins is capable.

ESS: 21 year old Biedrins is fantastic!

Joe Lacob: Ya, I know. He’s capable. So let’s see if we can get him there. And if we can’t, then we’ll have to go in another direction. I think that he’s an asset, that even though he’s struggling in certain respects, there aren’t many seven footers. And his rebounds per minute, when I looked last–and I haven’t looked in a few weeks–he was second rebounds per minute among centers in the NBA, he’s third among centers in rebounding. Now I don’t know if the data’s still right, that was three weeks ago maybe. So what does that tell you? There are not a lot of good fives in this league. It’s really hard to get this.

ESS: The most interesting Biedrins stat to me, and I’ll just throw this at you. He–in his prime–averaged 3.5 free throw attempts per game. And now he’s averaging .7 free throw attempts per game.

Joe Lacob: Clearly, let’s put it on the table. Clearly…that’s an issue. His problem more than anything else is, he doesn’t want to go to the line.

ESS: Ya.

Joe Lacob: He’s clearly struggling with that part of his game, and he probably doesn’t demand the ball as much inside because he doesn’t want to go to the line. I think that’s an assumption I’m making, and that other people are making. I read it, and it’s probably true. Maybe I need to get him a hypnotist? Let’s get team hypnotists (Lacob laughs)! Because, he’s capable.

(Note: After the Warriors win over Indiana, I mentioned the .7 free throw attempt average, and asked Keith Smart if Biedrins was “purposefully avoiding contact.” Smart said: “No.”)

Twitter: @SherwoodStrauss

Play this man, let him foul, play this man

(Interview snippet)

ESS: “Jeff Van Gundy has advocated for adding a seventh foul. Would you endorse that policy?”

Andris Biedrins: “Oh ya…(chuckling) that would be great! That would really help me out!”

ESS: “What about an eighth?”

(Andris stops laughing. He pauses, and in a manner almost wistful, cites a sport that doesn’t really exist: AB remembers Summer League, the surreal place where victory is worthless, where scouts try to prove themselves wrong, and where emerging wunderkinds lose playing time to hopeless strivers. Andris’s eyes widen, his demonstrative hands talk themselves into blurs.)

“I remember in the Summer League…one time I had nine or even ten fouls. I don’t remember but it was like, a really big number in those fouls. So it worked out for me…really well for me.”

“Summer” conjures relaxation-inspired joy, euphoria that’s eventually thrown from your reality, relegated to your reveries. At least this is what I took from “Summer Nights,” when a day care grated “Grease” cheese onto my grade-school brain. People love this season, because it’s about the moment–not about time-sensitive worries.

When Andris Biedrins plays, fouls perpetually threaten to yank him from the moment, reduce him to its spectator. Even if Biedrins gets lost in what he’s doing, I certainly don’t. An opposing guard careens towards “Goose,” I cringe in anticipation of the whistle that screeches action to a halt. In real terms, these  foul calls minimize his footprint on the game: He plays less, sits more. And I wonder if the foul spectre makes Andris play a less instinctual, less effective brand of defense. We’ll never know.

So, let Biedrins foul. Let him foul freely, foul often. I say this because the idea of resting a foul-drenched starter, rests on the presumption that he’ll see the fourth quarter. The second spectre–free throw shooting–keeps Andris soldered to a bench during crunch time. So keep him in, even if a ref has designs to foul him out. AB will likely play more if he’s allowed to play his way to an early six.

Blame Biedrins for his flaws, but understand that he’s one of two players who support Golden State’s unthinkable rebounding advatange. David Lee holds up the other side of that furniture piece and I’d also hate to see him cede time to Vladimir Radmonvic. Speaking of which, let this slice of Vlad’s pick and roll defense haunt your dreams like a brush with death:

Foul trouble is nothing compared to VladRad trouble.

Twitter: @SherwoodStrauss

Email: @Warriorsworld.net

Biedrins forces Lee right, Lee makes the tip anyway

The pointy Biedrins elbow

I have a theory on why Andris Biedrins and David Lee aren’t shooting with their usual efficiency, though–as you’ll see in the quotes below–the two bigs aren’t backing it. My thesis: Lefties Lee and Biedrins are colliding on tip-ins from the same basket side, causing bunnies to go netless. Both players are accomplished offensive rebounders who grew up in systems where they were singular in that aptitude, singular in that role. Media often focuses on how scorers like Ellis and Curry must adapt to each other, while rebounding overlap tragically goes begging for attention. But, I intend to over-focus on how the bigs untangle their wiring as the season progresses. I spoke to them after a Jazz game that reminded me of World War I:

ESS: “Do you think, you and Andris going for the same rebounds is impacting the shooting percentage on the tip-ins?”

David Lee: “I don’t know, all I know is, if he takes another one of my rebounds (his voice quivers with mock anger, he shakes his head)… Just kidding. No, no, that’s my boy! If there’s anybody I’m giving a rebound up to, it’s him. And he did a great job going after them. The problem isn’t when two guys are going after the same rebound, it’s when no one’s going after the rebound, and we’re giving up tip-ins to them.”

(It was then that I repeated my grating concern over how Lee is adjusting to his power forward role. In these spaces, I’ve mentioned how Knickerbocker David used speed to burn opposing centers on slipped screens. This would lead to easy buckets and help pad an already gaudy shooting percentage. These days, Biedrins is clogging the lane, and fleeter men are marking Lee.)

ESS: “Do you miss being able to slip screens against opposing fives like you did with the Knicks?”

David Lee: “It’s fewer easy buckets. But, the flipside of that is that I have Andris helping me on the boards, and getting my back, rotating to bigs, so not playing with fives..no big deal”

ESS: “So, harder offensively, easier defensively?”

David Lee: “Yea..not harder offensively. It’s just going to be a different look I gotta get used to.”

(Lee is no longer an undersized center, he’s an averaged-sized power forward. The early returns have hurt his offensive statistics, but I suspect his defensive numbers will improve. Odd how he can score more against taller men, and give up fewer points to shorter men.)

ESS (Talking to Andris Biedrins): “You and Lee are rebounding well, but your shooting percentage on tip-ins is not at where it usually is. Do you think that’s because you’re often colliding, trying to go for the same rebounds?”

Andris Biedrins: “Today was not our day. Maybe next game we will tip eight out of ten in. It’s just kind of a game of luck.”

ESS: “So you think it’s more random chance as opposed to you and Lee going for the same ball?”

Andris Biedrins: “Yes. Totally random.”

Germane to nothing, at Shootaround, I asked Biedrins about whether he has a better hook shot than Brandan Wright. Biedrins jokingly replied: “Of coure mine’s better! But what kind of question is that!”

Randolph Regret Index: +17

Twitter: @SherwoodStrauss

Will someone--other than a fan--wear this on Friday night?

Stephen Curry practiced with an ankle hugged by what looked like Samsonite suitcase scraps. He was mobile and fluid in shooting drills. There’s no commitment to a Friday start, but that’s what my non-existent money would be on. Since Curry hasn’t played in two games, questions were ankle-centric:

ESS: You have the brace right now, do you plan on playing with that in the future?

Stephen Curry: I hope to take it off because it’s kind of limiting–a little bit–for where my ankle is right now. I definitely think it’s a necessity to make sure nothing happens to it while I’m rehabbing to get it back to full strength. So you won’t see it till December.

ESS: Have you been playing with any tape on it?

Stephen Curry: A little bit, there’s nothing I need, other than this brace–sort of like a Robocop thing. So, if I roll my ankle in this, I’m breaking my whole leg.

ESS: Have you ever seen any of that tape the Celtics wear, that Kinesio tape–the stuff on KG’s leg?

Stephen Curry: Oh ya, I got that on, I wear that when I go home. That’s the last thing I put on before I leave the training room. Breaks up the fluid that’s in my ankle so, I don’t wear it when I play though.

ESS: Why not?

Stephen Curry: Our philosophy here is not to wear it while we play.

ESS: Do you resent the insinuation that Eric Gordon may have crossed you up?

Stephen Curry: (Laughs) Nah man, it happens to everybody. But–upon further review of the video–I did clip… Blake Griffin’s foot…just enough to throw me off balance. And then my weak ankle took over.

I should add that Curry’s speech became jokingly stilted in response to this question–as though he was imitating a defensive politician.

…

When I spoke with Dorell Wright about the wonder of pump fakes and shooting efficiency, he beamed. I had nothing to do with it–he’s probably just like that upon shoving Anthony Morrow’s soul into his 6-8 frame. Wright’s clearly confident coming off his recent performances, regression to the mean be damned. I don’t expect this level of productivity to stretch into the horizon, but he seems to loving the good life, while it lingers.

ESS: I was looking at your shot-data, and so far 93% of your shots have been assisted. So you’re shooting off the catch quite a bit. Do you think you shoot better off the catch, or better off the dribble?

Dorell Wright: I think I shoot better off the catch because the system I’ve been playing in for the past six years was all spot ups, that’s second nature to me. When Steph or Monta are penetrating or when Andris and D-Lee are getting double teamed and they’re in trouble, I just spot-up, get into an open spot behind the defense when they’re not watching me.

ESS: I’ve noticed that you’ve been pulling up in transition. Is that a big part of your game now?

Dorell Wright: Ya, I’ve worked on that A LOT this Summer. Just coming up on the wings, and in transition, stop and pop.

ESS: So, in the game coming up with the Jazz, Al Jefferson is a great one-on-one scorer. But he’s not the best passer. Do you see yourself blitzing him as a second defender and trapping him?

Dorell Wright: Ya, we’re going to throw a lot of different schemes at him because we know how effective he can be. Not too many big guys can pass the ball well out of the double team. We got quick guys who run the passing lanes, get easy baskets out of transition if we can go down there, and bother him.

ESS: You’re going to be matched up against Andris Kirilenko a lot. You use the pump-fake quite a bit, do you see yourself using that more as a tool because he’s a shot-blocker?

Dorell Wright: I’ma’ use it against anybody! I don’t care if it’s a point guard, I’ma use it (laughing)…because most guys go for it, they don’t realize if I raise up on them, they won’t be able to block my shot because I’m 6-8. It looks like I’m going to shoot the ball every single time because I go hard and put so much into it. And with me making shots now, guys are really going to have to respect it. So you’ll see a lot of pump fakes.

ESS: You got the Rashard Lewis thing working.

Dorell Wright: Oh for sure. I got (shot-faking) from my little brother a long time ago. He was always smaller than everybody. So that’s where I got it from.

ESS: Do you see yourself doing a lot more, Kevin Martin-esque pump fakes that lead to fouls?

Dorell Wright: I’ma’ get a lot of those. Last year I got a lot, I paid a lot of attention to Dwyane Wade. He’s a master of driving somewhere hard, a big guy, little guy switches on him…get that contact on the way up.

Twitter: @SherwoodStrauss

What I took from Open Practice at the O:

1. The Warriors have fewer shooters and feel they must compensate with greater ball movement.
2. They still want to run a fast pace.
3. Way too many people showed up. Scientists should study the Bay Area’s unrequited NBA love affair.

My goal in questioning Keith Smart’s crew was to flesh out just how it’s different this time. Every team will chirp about getting better on defense, offense, etc. I yearn to know if the Dubs are still running, and if this traditional lineup will last. Is this year’s strategy meaningfully different from last year’s lack of it?

After practice, I approached David Lee. He was seated, cradling sliced fingers that should belong to a mountain climber. That’s concerning, but it wasn’t germane to our falanges-free discussion. Lee is articulate about basketball strategy in a way that transported me to a lecture hall:

Q: I noticed when you played for New York, you specialized in slipping screens against the taller guys that matched you up. Are you concerned about not having that speed advantage against the fours you’ll now be matched up against?

David Lee: It’s a little bit of a difference because in New York I was a five, so the rest of the floor was spaced. Now we have Andris down on the block, so his man will be kind of waiting there, so slipping isn’t going to be as effective. Picking and popping or roll and replace is going to be more what we’re running this year, and I can do that too. So it’s just making the adjustments and taking what the defense gives us.
Continue reading “Open Practice: Talking with Lee, Curry, & Smart” »

WarriorsWorld TV welcomes R&B artist London to the show as the Oakland native breaks down his love for the Warriors and more.

Continue reading “WarriorsWorld TV Exclusive sit-down with R&B artist London” »

By:  Sherwood Strauss

WarriorsWorld.net was invited to an event on Thursday which had Stephen Curry demoing Ubisoft’s new Wii video game Red Steel 2.  We caught up with Curry during the event for an interview, check it out.

WW.net: Are you a big gamer, in general? I know Tim Duncan has got a little bit of a rep for that…

SC: I’m a pretty big gamer, I play a lot of sports games, I’m also like that Call of Duty, So a lot games I play, and it’s just kind of my road activity. We have some pretty competitive guys on the team.

WW.net: So, who’s the best gamer?

SC: Probably Ronny Turiaf, he’s probably the best.

WW.net: Does he do crazy victory dances?

SC: Yea, he’s just real animated, he talks a lot of trash too, so, it’s hard to keep him down because he plays a lot.

WW.net: Seems like one of those guys who would play Madden standing up.

SC: (Laughs at my lame joke) I don’t have the same room with him, but I’m pretty sure he would.

WW.net: Speaking of hobbies, I’m interested, that you’re a golf addict.  It seems that you write a lot about it in the GQ Magazine blog, and I’m wondering: Do you think that helps you, do you think that helps your basketball game at all? Is there some crossover there?

SC: It just gives me an outlet, after, during the course of the season, you kinda get swamped with basketball and all that stuff. There’s a lot of pressure involved with that so, it’s just something that I go out and have fun, and kind of a mental release, a little break, I have a lot of fun with it too, over the Summer it gets real competitive, with me and my dad, and guys I played with so, it also becomes like my second sport, competetive wise so…

WW.net: That makes sense, maybe this is a little off topic, but will you be rooting for Tiger first week of April for the Masters?

SC: I will be. Off the course, issues he’s dealing with, but on the course, he’s still one of the best, and I think, he won’t miss a beat. Once the Master’s comes around, once he gets in front of the fans, they react how they’re going to react, and he deals with it, he’ll be fine. So I’ll definitely be watching,

WW.net: And, sort of related to that, Tiger has a name that a lot of people don’t know of, his first name’s Eldrick. Your first name is Wardell if I’m not mistaken. Why don’t you go by it?

SC: My parents just never called me—I went by Stephen from what I can remember. I’m actually a Jr., my Dad is named Wardell too, so he took off the “War” part of it and just went by Dell so it’s just our family name, and I go by Stephen so that’s turned into “Steven,” “Steph,” all sorts of names, all my close friends call me Wardell, not many people know that (laughs), they kind of joke around, call me “Wardell.”

WW.net: So I’ve been reading the GQ blog, and I think that interest—well not many athletes are writers or have a blog like that. And I think a theme in there is the transition from being a kid to having a profession—how it’s bittersweet. Would you agree with that?

SC: No doubt. It was something I always wanted to do. But especially coming from college it was so much fun, all the memories I had being at Davidson, knowing that the class I came in with my freshman year is still on campus, and still has school. That kind of makes it a little more bittersweet than it probably would be normally so, when I went back to Charlotte for the first time to play, that kind of put it all into perspective, of how much I miss being at home and miss being a college student, but I’m definitely happy with that situation and I wouldn’t change it if I had the opportunity to.

WW.net: I thought it was interesting how you were pointing out that your family was in the fan section, you greeted them like fans and how that was different, how it was surreal.

SC: There was 150 people that I personally knew that came to the game. That was just weird. Because that was the best way to say ‘hi’ to everyone. It kind of took the emotion out of it—like going down a conveyor belt kind of thing: ‘Ya, how you doin, thanks for coming.’ It was kind of weird, but family came back to the house and stuff…

WW.net: I just thought it was a cool observation and I’m wondering: Would you ever write a book about playing in the NBA?

SC: I have a lot of things from my Dad’s career, that I watched when I was growing up, and how I see it as a player myself. So there are some differences that I noticed and definitely would think about. I have a lot of ideas especially in the GQ blog. Some day I can go back and look on my rookie season.

Part 2 of the interview drops next week.

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