When It Began

18/82  L Pelicans 83-128

19/82  W Clippers 124-107 

20/82 W Jazz 129-118

21/82 W Timberwolves 137-114

22/82 L Mavericks 113-116

23/82 W Bulls 119-111

24/82 W Rockets 120-101

25/82 L Pacers 104-112

26/82 L Jazz 123-124

While I watched all of these games in real time, I haven’t been writing about them in real time. I’m going to try to do better. Better yet, I’m going to actually do better. Which is kinda what’s been happening with the Warriors lately. A lot of authentic, true, important, trying to do better. And some actual doing better. But not quite enough of it consistently. 

I’m not going to go through all these games but there are some moments that stand out. 

The Nadir. The Pelicans game. Klay, Steph, Draymond and Wiggins sat and Looney only played a few minutes. It was notable only because I hope it is the hardest game for me to watch all year. It was the first time where the only reason I watched was because of this resolution. Usually, there’s something interesting to pay attention to, someone who doesn’t usually play who is getting their chance. But even those players seemed uninterested in this game, not catching passes, not running back on defense, missing layups. It was a slog.

The Really Good and Interesting Things

Jonathan Kuminga! The early days of bungled passes and shooting way too many 3s seem to be in the past. He makes a noticeable difference when he’s on the floor, and this is the time when someone who understands basketball better could explain what it is, but I can only speak in general terms. He’s playing harder on defense, I know that much. He’s not trying to do everything, just the things he’s good at. He has taken a big leap at the right time and as a result, he is often one of the 5 who close out the game.

The 2nd string in general. They’ve settled into a rotation of Wiggins, Draymond, Poole, Divincenzo and either JaMychel Green or Kuminga. With Draymond and Wiggins on the floor, Poole has more room to be himself, which is a very talented player who is still figuring out how to run the show. He had a high learning curve last year and an equally high and different learning curve this year. Fortunately, he’s a player who likes to learn. 

On a total side note, I realized this week that Poole and Divincenzo played against each other in the 2018 Villanova/Michigan National Championship. Villanova won, because of Donte’s stellar play off the bench. They both went to the NBA after that season. It’s a reminder that the NBA is a group of 450ish people, smaller than my PoliSci 101 class, and many of them have known each other for years, dating back to middle school tournaments. 

This most recent loss to the Jazz. Draymond, Curry and Wiggins were out, which seemed to be the building blocks for a blowout loss. Instead, it was a close, nearly well-played, interesting game. Kuminga was a stand out again and Poole was strong the whole way through. This group of bench players are developing an identity and chemistry that is noticeable. They are a team when they are on the floor together and that is new. I have tremendous faith in what’s happening there. Now–that doesn’t excuse the way they totally fell apart in the last 13 seconds and lost the game for themselves, but that part feels fixable. Kuminga and Poole are exciting players together. Divincenzo is a spark on both sides of the floor, and the bench players have been better than the starters in the last two games. 

The Less Good, More Puzzling News

What’s going on in the 1st quarter, when all 5 starters are playing? Sometimes they are great. But other times, like against the Pacers this week, and many times earlier in the season, they dig a big hole in the 1st quarter that they can’t climb out of. I don’t know what they need to do differently, but I’m sure they do and I hope they figure it out soon because they are making it hard on themselves. In a few press conferences lately, Steve Kerr has described the team as playing pickup games out there. Kerr is generally measured and slightly positive and calm in his post-game conferences—calling it a pickup game is significant statement for him.  

All in all, I am hopeful. They won games even though they weren’t playing well. A winning team has to do that. They are still not closing games well and they are sometimes not opening games well. I have yet to see them win a game that they should have lost–winning teams absolutely have to be able to do that. And they are not having many of those carefree blowout games that they had last year, but those feel possible. Anyway, that’s their business, not mine. My job is to show up and watch.  

At this point in the season, it’s time to share my origin story. I know part of the measure of being a “real fan” is how long you’ve watched the team and having a long history with a team is a considered a prerequisite for fan membership. So I must confess:

I have (only) been a Warriors fan since December 2020. 

That doesn’t mean I didn’t watch all those championships. I absolutely watched the Western Conference Finals and the Finals in the 2014-2019 run. But that’s part of being a San Franciscan-that’s not being a fan. A fan watches games beyond the playoffs and Christmas Day, and I didn’t do that until 2020. 

I grew up with a strong preference for college basketball over pro and solid disdain for the NBA. Even though I had only watched a handful of NBA games, that didn’t stop me from having strong opinions. The NBA regular season was...too long? meaningless? That’s what people around me said and I repeated those statements as if I knew something. Way more embarrassingly, for the first decade I lived in San Francisco, I didn’t realize the Golden State Warriors were my home team, just across the Bay in Oakland. As someone who loves maps and basketball, you have no idea how reluctant I am to admit this. I don’t know where I thought they were—Sacramento? Fresno? Some unnamed California city in the Golden State?  I didn’t think about it at all. 

Also, until 2020, I didn’t have a way to watch the Warriors without going to a local sports bar or some equivalent version of a sports bar at a friend’s house. Watching games as a way to drink beer has never been my idea of fun. 

I didn’t become a fan for the obvious reasons—all those championships, or watching Klay or Draymond or KD or Steph.

It was because of Jordan Poole. 

Jordan Poole is how I went from Person-Who-Watches-The-Playoffs-With-A-Group-Of-Friends-Yelling-at-The-TV to Person-Who-Watches-Every-Regular-Season-Game-Mostly-By-Myself.  

See I went to the University of Michigan and had basketball season tickets. We won our only national championship in my junior year. Michigan basketball matters to me. Jordan Poole was one of my favorite recent Wolverines–he was mesmerizing on the court. He captured my heart with his joy, his creativity, his confidence, and how he does something that makes my jaw drop every time he plays. I watched nearly every single one of his college games. When he left after his sophomore year, my heart was broken. But two years ago realized an obvious thing.

I can watch him in the NBA. 

I don’t know why I hadn’t put that together before. It was as if players left college and disappeared into thin air. 

Because of Jordan Poole, when the 2020 season started in December, I started watching games. I had to watch the entire game because you never knew when Poole would get a few minutes–or a lot of minutes. And since he was going back and forth to the G League, why yes, thanks for asking, I watched G League games too. 

(It’s true–all your beloved college players, or at least a lot of them, are in the NBA and it turns out you can watch them. This logic means that I lightly follow several other NBA teams with former Wolverines on them - the Miami Heat with Duncan Robinson, the Orlando Magic with Franz Wagner and the Pistons with Isaiah Livers.) 

And although in the spring of 2021, I was not attempting to watch every game–that started in the 21-22 season, I was watching a lot of games, even though the Warriors were up and down. 

Jordan Poole brought me in. 

I’m curious. What brought you in?  You can tell me in the comments.  

Before I close out, here’s a video for you. Roger Federer is my favorite athlete of all-time and the only person who would have me up at 3 am watching the Australian Open on my computer. Last night, he was on The Daily Show. Many people make comparisons between Federer and Curry, and I’m going to make them too. Both known for being humble, finding joy in what they do, playing with grace and artistry, defying the longevity odds and for being adamant at having lives beyond their sport. I hope you enjoy Roger and his goofy, slightly awkward, self-deprecating self.

And this morning, miracle of miracles, I woke up to the news of Britney Griner’s release. Amen.