Podz eager, ready for the second Warriors season after the summer renewal originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
LAIE, Hawaii – Brandin Podziemski’s first NBA offseason had a little bit of everything. He saw the business side of basketball when Klay Thompson and Chris Paul moved on to other teams. He competed against the best competition as a member of the USA Basketball Men’s Select Team and showed up in the few summer league games he played for the Warriors.
With the most free time he’s ever had in his young basketball life, Podziemski, 21, was given the most important advice to find other things he loved outside of basketball. Podziemski listened and traveled with friends, attending a few Team USA games at the Summer Olympics in Paris. He even went back to his baseball roots, throwing out the first pitch at a Milwaukee Brewers game and taking batting practice at Oracle Park before a Giants game, where he launched one over the right field wall.
Brandin Podziemski’s summer extended the Warriors’ standout rookie into Year 2, both as a person and as a player.
“I’m glad I got to do that, but I also put a lot of time and work into my game, knowing that these two legends have moved on and that there are opportunities open for someone,” Podziemski said in an exclusive interview with NBC Sports Bay area. “Why not me?”
Those last three words are how Podziemski views almost everything. No one expected him to be a first-round pick after getting little playing time as a freshman at Illinois before transferring to Santa Clara and excelling as a sophomore, screwing up the draft boards and finishing with the Warriors at No. 19 overall . The thinking at the time was that he would spend a lot of time in the G League with the Santa Cruz Warriors.
Instead, Podziemski became the most trusted rookie ever under coach Steve Kerr, leading to a First Team All-Rookie selection.
With success comes higher expectations, and Podziemski believes he is up to the task and is already taking on a bigger leadership role in his second season.
“I fully embrace those expectations and want to exceed them in every way possible,” Podziemski said.
That’s where Steph Curry comes into play. Not as someone who has higher expectations for Podziemski, but as someone the young guard can continue to lean on — whether it’s shutting down trade rumors this offseason or being an example of work ethic and how to go about things.
“Having Steph as a mentor is the best thing you can ask for in sports,” Podziemski said. ‘He is all the success in the world. Now, with his Olympic gold medal, he has done everything you would want to do as a basketball player.
“When you see him and see how he accepts criticism and how he accepts winning and all his achievements, you just want to replicate that as much as possible. Although I am far behind him, I am trying to take small steps to reach that level.’
Podziemski’s motivation is not hidden in the dark either. He knows all 18 guys drafted before him. He also takes notes on social media for the whole world to see.
Whether it’s the retweets, quoting tweets or liking negative comments about him and the Warriors on Instagram, there’s always fuel being added to fuel his fire.
Since high school, he and his father have had a thread of doubters, which were added to the long list this summer when the Warriors failed to add a second superstar to Curry, leaving Podziemski as owner Joe Lacob called him a future All-Star . in Las Vegas during the summer competition.
“It has always been a driving force for me to prove those people wrong,” says Podziemski. “I have lofty goals that might make people on the outside look at me crazy because I believe I can be an All-Star, a multiple All-Star. Why would you sell yourself short if you are in this type of industry?
“For me, we just use it as motivation and he does a great job of reminding me that people say this, this and this. I’m going to attack things every day to prove people wrong.
Guarding guys like Curry and Jrue Holiday this summer, and watching Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Haliburton as role models from the Select Team to winning gold for Team USA, served as other motivators for Podziemski over the summer. He credits Warriors assistant Anthony Vereen, who led the summer league squad, with pushing him to become a leader both on and off the court.
Brandin Podziemski’s summer is over. Off the field, he became a traveler and took a walk down baseball memory. On the court, he has scaled back his floaters and hook shots in the lane for more three-pointers as someone who has the ball in his hands a lot and is being pushed to be more of a scoring option. All the little things that made Podziemski stand out in his debut Warriors season don’t go away either.
Taking charge and diving for loose balls. Have a knack for grabbing rebounds from bigger players. Whatever it takes to win. And now, according to him, an offensive explosion is coming.
As Podziemski himself says: why not?
“I felt like I always had more to give this past year,” he says. “And not caring more in the sense of playing harder, but I think I could have done more – however you want to look at that. Playing hard is something that I have always had, regardless of the sport. And I will continue to do that, whether I am the best player or the worst player on the team.
“You’re still going to see the attacks, you’re still going to see the rebounds, whether I make five shots or 15 shots. With the higher role you would obviously expect the opposite, but that’s just me.”
There’s no one else the Warriors want him to be, and now Podziemski is ready to show everyone what Phase 2 is all about.
Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast
