Poor Man’s Commish is a long-time credentialed reporter following the Warriors behind the scenes for years. DubNation Diaries is following him as he travels to the East Coast, meeting the Warriors on their recent road trip.
New York, NY. February 4, 2020.
The Warriors had their practice and morning shootaround all the way to the west-most point of Manhattan, at Chelsea Piers Fitness. That was a trek, especially in the rain, because the nearest subway station to Chelsea Piers is still a fifteen-minute walk away.
At practice, I asked head coach Steve Kerr if he was going to chat with KD and that turned into a tangent on how Kerr misses Durant’s post-practice routines where KD still makes the hardest cuts and jab steps, which set a good example for the young players.
Being the guy who actually filmed many of those sessions, I firmly agree, and that attention to detail is the type of thing this gym rat can’t help but film and make ingrained in my memory. I recall how spending hours of extra time at my college gym, the RSF at Cal, helped improve my on-court performances and seeing the most elite players in the world hone their own craft that way brings back those memories. That’s one of the reasons why basketball is so loved around the world — you get back what you put into it.
The next day at morning shootaround, I noticed Draymond Green and Jordan Poole joking around. Mostly it was Poole trying to distract Green during Draymond’s Q&A with us reporters. Also it was clear to me that Dray wanted to end the session sooner rather than later and was having a lot of fun with Jordan. I’ll stop short of saying they’ve been inseparable, but even Kerith Burke noticed recently Draymond giving JP a bear hug pregame. Again, their lockers at mini-Oracle are next to each other, so from the get-go they’ve been forming quite a bond. And we’ve had a couple instances of Draymond trying to catch Poole off-guard on his Instagram stories.
Brooklyn, NY. Feb 5, 2020.
I stayed at an Airbnb in Bedford-Stuyvesant aka “Bed-Stuy”, yes, “home of the boy Biggie,” although apparently per Google search, it’s become gentrified with an influx of orthodox Jewish communities.
My Airbnb host was of that ethnicity and the another little gem of a restaurant I found was run by three bespectacled men with black hats and long beards, with a Latino butcher and cook who prepared my meal.
I found it a little difficult to find the off-shoot green-coded G subway line, as the GPS for Sprint isn’t perfect there and the entrances going subterranean are just single stairwells that you can miss easily among the backdrop of all the old corner stores of New York.
Eventually I made my way to Barclays Center, which thankfully has a Target and Starbucks nearby to help replenish the sundries and hunger, and then the fun started inside, especially with the configuration of the arena quite amenable to shots of players coming in on the bus as well as the close proximity of the court to the locker rooms as well as the media room. The ambience of Brooklyn is special and very cozy. I would highly recommend DubNation give Brooklyn a try, although I can understand how Madison Square Garden will always have its own mystique.
I caught Stephen Curry making his arena entrance, then filmed a bunch of guys in between, including catching Alec Burks stopping to have a conversation with one of the Warriors PR staff, trying to find out where to go. It turned out Burks would end up not suiting up and reporters would tweet that he was on the trading block. So was Glenn Robinson III, although he still did his pregame workout and I filmed him as well.
Thanks PMC, I really enjoy these behind the scene peeks into the relationships of these guys. Kind of surprised about Dray and JP, but then again Poole is like a little kid and it brings out a playful side of Draymond you don’t normally see. That is pretty cool. The best fun about being on a sports team is spending a lot of time with a small group of people and seeing the friendships that develop.
I love reading these. Thank you for them. Reading about Jordan and Draymond's friendship makes me feel a little more at peace with the loss of Spellman, as I am reminded of the Janet Jackson snub.