Honorary Warrior For Life, Chris Chiozza? & Otto Porter Jr Vote Results

We let Dub Nation decide

The master list of Honorary Warriors For Life lists everyone already polled.

Introducing Honorary Warriors For Life

The concept is simple. You get to vote on the question “Is X an Honorary Warrior For Life?”

What does that phrase mean? I once tried to define it, and people found it more fun to bring in their own definitions, so it is now back to being kept vague, like “Most Valuable Player” or “Greatest Of All Time” or “Sandwich” or “Taco”.

You can vote at the poll at the end of the article.

The Nominee

Chris Chiozza was a hard-working, hard-celebrating, positive teammate on a Warriors two-way this year. As the 16th man, he was given scraps of playing time here and there, and handled it gracefully. He was not offered a qualifying offer by the Warriors this off-season.

Some fans had an unusual amount of complaint with Chiozza’s play, considering he was not even on the roster. It’s possible that other recent Warriors have set the bar way too high for two-way contract players, with Juan Toscano-Anderson and Gary Payton II playing so well that their two-ways were upgraded to proper NBA contracts.

Whether this was due to inflated expectations, or the feeling that his spot should have gone to A Mythical Big Man, or the feeling that he got his spot as a Kenny Atkinson favorite, he worked hard and I thought he did fine for his role. He handled the ball competently, though he didn’t create well off the dribble. His shot didn’t space the defense but he could punish teams that left him open.

He kept the offense moving and he competed on defense. He was the point guard on the floor when the bench made that great Spurs comeback…

And finally, he was a regular in my celebration analysis videos, with his squinting three-darts celebrations and his always looking 45 minutes into a good time with a bong.

Farewell and thank you for contributing to a championship, Chris Chiozza!

The Poll

Vote below, or in the comments. Comment votes count as 10 normal poll votes.

*** To have your comment vote count, you must put #YES or #NO somewhere in the body of your comment, exactly once. Please don’t vote more than once; it is rude and makes work for me.

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Otto Porter Jr. Election Results

The results are in from our previous vote at Honorary Warrior For Life, Otto Porter Jr?

• Weighted Vote: 34%.

  • Poll 54%, Comments 31%.

By my arbitrary 75% threshold standard, OPJ falls well short of Honorary Warrior For Life status, and even short of the 50% Honorary Warriors status.

He likely would have rater quite a bit higher by the old standard (“Will you root for him in a neutral setting?”) because comments had lots of love expressed for OPJ, but clearly DNHQ has been wanting to draw a line to show there are standards to reaching HWFL. That line now is drawn somewhere between Otto Porter Jr and Damian Lee. Very interesting.

For my vote, I vote yes on OPJ. Crucial part of a championship, great attitude. Yes his time was short, but I’ll always root for him in a neutral setting.

Dub Nation Speaks on Otto

• ForeverFoyled (8 ♡):

  I am going to vote Yes, in a futile effort for achieving HWFL, but for the sole purpose of trying to make sure the official records don't show him ranked below Oubre, as he is currently in danger of.

• Joe Barely Cares (7 ♡):

  My vote is NO. Not because I didn't love watching OPJ, I did, but his solid contributions off the bench didn't quite reach the level of excitement and impact that made me vote yes for GPII. I understood GPII leaving for a well-deserved bag, but OPJ already had his bag with $128M in career earnings. He left because he wanted to leave, not because he couldn't afford to stay.

• fzwinter (7 ♡):

  Gotta say no to OPJ as HWFL. Great guy and I hope he's happy and productive in Toronto. He did what was expected of him, got his ring, and now he's gonna get paid again. But compared with the stories of GP2 and JTA, who both came out of nowhere to find a home with the Dubs (and were also great community leaders), there's nothing but "good solid pro, nice addition" in OPJs case.

• Night Night (6 ♡):

  Inducting players that were around for a single season is the basketball fan version of dudes that fall in love with the cute barista that smiled when you ordered a pumpkin spice Frappuccino.

  You're playing yourselves.

• Run_TMC (6 ♡):

  Yes. Let me 'splain.

  I attach a special meaning to the term "Warrior" in the context of anything related to the Steph.Klay/Dray/Kerr years. It's more than just being a member of the team and more than the generic sports cliche of being a fighter. On the surface it's hard to discern the difference between OPJ and GP2 in one direction and Nick Young in the other. All one year players who contributed to title seasons.

  To me though being a Warrior embodies that special quality of team first inspiring play that I can not quite describe, but I believe that many of us who feel how special this iteration of GSW is feel deep in our bones. Some players fit this deeper definition of a Warrior to me and when they do, the superficial measurements, like years played or stats become less important to me.

  By this definition GP2 gets a huge boost (and KD, as awesome as player as he is, looses something by comparison). This is why I voted for Damion Lee and JTA. I probably wouldn't have voted for either if they'd only played one year (not enough contribution) and I wouldn't have voted for NIck Young even if he'd contributed to 2 championships (too much 'me' not enough 'team).

  OPJ is not quite as passion inducing for me as GP2 (I think people who voted against GP2 should be forced to do the naked GOT shame walk in order to be redeemed). As another poster pointed out he was drafted high and made a lot of money. However, he was a consumate team player with no 'me' at all that I saw in his game and he contributed to a championship. These are the guys I honor and HWFL (emphasis on the H) feels appropriate to me.

  (also, and no one has mentioned this anywhere on DNHQ, ever, he looks like he could be Wilt Chamberlain's grandson, which is kind of cool ;p)

• crusty quips (5 ♡):

  A championship season is worth at least ten non-championship seasons. More, if you spent many decades waiting for the Warriors to win a single one but YMMV on the exact amount. Anyone who contributes to a title is a special player for this franchise because banners hang forever and because most players that ever played for the Warriors didn't win a title for this franchise, even distinguished hall of famers.

  Don't really understand the rest of your anecdote as I've never had a pumpkin spice beverage nor have I ever tried to hit on a barista. Sounds like a retelling of a personal experience, sorry it didn't work out for you.

• stopnpop (5 ♡):

  Yes. See: Run_TMC's comment.

  There will be an end to this era and when we look back at the championship years, there will be many key role players that will come to mind. No doubt Otto will be one of them.

• Sleepy Freud (5 ♡):

  Core rotation player on championship team = yes on Wilt Jr., imo. Though I understand the arguments against.

• WGBC (3 ♡):

  I'd take OPJ over: Speights, Clark, GR3, Spellman, Allen Iverson, Damian Lillard, Thunder mascot, Bro-in-Law, Giannis, Cousins, Burks, Biedrins, Oubre, Paschall, Cook, Dlo. To be clear that is a maybe. Eh, Sleepy said yes so I'll vote yes.

• Chasing Rings... (3 ♡):

  The Bouncer at Club HWFL sees a tall shadowy silhouette in the night. It's a figure he hasn't seen in a while and it takes him a beat to recognize who it is... an ex Warrior who used to play years ago. Someone who could sure bring the party like no one's business, as the bouncer recollects with fondness.

  "Wilt is that you, you crazy SOB?!", he exclaims as OPJ steps into the light.

  "Ahh yeah, yeah it's me Wilt", OPJ answers, seeing if the old bouncer notices it's not.

  Squinting, the bouncer reacts, "Well I'll be. This Field of Dreams shit sure is whack in real life. You almost looks like you were when you were in your prime playing days!".

  "Uhh, yeah I get that all the time. I take it my names on the list?", says OPJ.

  "Sure is Big Stilt, right this way!".

  OPJ nods at the bouncer and takes a step inside the exuberant HWFL club. No sooner than he sees the surprised faces of all the members, he gets yanked back out the door and lands skidding on his ass.

  The bouncer looks down on him abhorrently.

  "YOU AIN'T NO WILT CHAMBERLAIN!", the bouncer bellows.

  "Sorry man. I'm Otto Porter Jnr, and I won a ring with the Dubs last season. I was just playing along to get in the club you know. What gave it away?"

  "They didn't call him 'The Big Dipper' for no reason. And you? You barely dipped to get under that door. Just cos you won a ring with the Dubs doesn't mean your entry in here is automatic."