Behind-the-scenes: Steph Curry salsa dancing, Quinones & Santos moonwalk + more
[DubNation Digest]
Here’s the latest “DubNation Digest” of random Warriors-related things I came across. I’ll try to make this a more regular thing.
We got treated to two dancing exhibitions in the win against the Grizzlies: Stephen Curry salsa dancing and Lester Quinones and Gui Santos busting their best Michael Jackson moves, particularly with the moonwalk, as Trayce Jackson-Davis and Curry looked on. Thank you Catherine, our follower from Japan who made another annual journey out to The Bay to catch a couple games at Chase Center, for capturing the pre-“Just us!” tunnel run before layup lines on Wednesday:
Here’s the Reels/TikTok version, if you want to cut to the chase without any context:
Hhh
Also shout out to Nico aka “DubNationFr” who also made his yearly excursion to San Francisco with his dozens of French companions. I got them in to see a Hennessy-sponsored podcast episode of Club520 starring Jeff Teague and Baron Davis after the recent game against the Spurs, and here’s their clip from the event:
As you may have seen already, Klay Thompson went on a pregame hike today before the Pacers game:
Here’s a look at Steph’s pregame breakfast meal, courtesy Ayesha Curry:
Steve Kerr and Festus Ezeli paid a visit to Peet’s Coffee yesterday. There’s clips in the embedded bts video above, but here are a few pics, including what their autographs look like:
Chris Paul visited the Golden Gate Bridge on Tuesday. As he mentioned on the podium Wednesday night, his son and his AAU team were in town:
Jet Liu of World Journal snapped some stills of Jonathan Kuminga dunking against Memphis the other night, but I thought this one in particular really resembled Michael Jordan:
Getting away from the visuals and back to the realm of actual NBA news that might affect the Warriors:
• HOU having trouble with CHI late makes the recent loss to the Bulls less painful: No team has been in more – or won more – games that were close in final 5 minutes than the Bulls with a 24-15 record in those games, including win against Rockets. They have won 7 of their 8 clutch situation games since the All-Star break. Rockets up 18 with 5 1/2 minutes left. (Jonathan Feigen)
• Brandon Ingram hyper-extended his knee and will have an MRI: “It’s extremely difficult to see him go down," Willie Green said. "Our prayers will be going up tonight. Hopefully, we get some good news tonight.” (Christian Clark)
• Jusuf Nurkic apparently still isn’t aware of that thing called “karma”: “I asked Nurkic why he’s getting hit in the face so much. ‘I don’t have an explanation.’ Laughed and said, ‘I wish I had one.’” (Trevor Booth)
• With the news today that Kevin Huerter is out with a labrum tear and dislocated left shoulder, it is worth noting that he sustained a similar injury in 2019. He missed 11 games with almost identical slap-down contact when Nikola Jokic bailed out and raked him across the left forearm. (Kevin Chouinard)
• Ingram underwent an MRI after hyperextending his left knee during the third quarter of last night’s game against the Orlando Magic. The results of the MRI revealed a left knee bone contusion. Ingram will be re-evaluated in two weeks and additional updates will be appropriately provided. (Pelicans PR) — NOP at GSW will occur on April 12th which will be exactly three weeks from now.
And you’ve got Draymond Green on his podcast, saying Taylor Jenkins “milked” an apparent injury from the scuffle with Desmond Bane in order to draw more than a technical from the refs:
GSW PR man Raymond Ridder made a pitch for Kuminga for Most Improved Player, and it makes me wonder if they’ll start sending out little trinkets to voting media members and what that might look like, if that ever happens — i.e., team PR departments have often, in the past, sent token gifts to voting media members for their MVP candidates and the like. https://x.com/doubler_pr/status/1770924160891408792
Speaking of Gui, here’s a background story from Santa Cruz:
Jason Dumas of KRON had a sit-down interview with TJD (one minute clip)
Full 5-minute interview:
Gary Payton II had a wine mixer fundraiser for his foundation:
Via Marc Spears of Andscape, emotions hit GP2 hard after hearing how proud his Hall of Fame father Gary Payton, Sr. was for the first time at his charity event. The Golden State Warriors guard advocates for dyslexia awareness and raised $80K-plus. https://andscape.com/features/gary-payton-ii-has-made-his-hall-of-fame-father-proud/ (I didn’t have time to pull excerpts from this article)
Steph’s Underrated Golf Tour is now sponsored by KPMG:
New State Farm commercial for CP3:
Dumas again, this time with Donte DiVincenzo on his relationship with Steph, plus Jalen Brunson on Donte:
Melissa Rohlin of FOX Sports tracked down the Kerr look-alike, Steve Gillis: https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nba/the-steve-kerr-lookalike-swears-its-all-just-a-coincidence
"Our club is sponsored by Nike, so I'm in Nike clothes all the time," said Gillis, who was an assistant coach on the US Men's National Volleyball team in 1998 and currently runs the Summerlin Volleyball Academy, which he founded alongside his wife. "...There was no intent there in terms of how I try to cut my hair or anything like that. For me, it's kind of a funny similarity that works out."
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Security guards were so amused that they moved Gillis and his 10-year-old daughter as close as possible to the tunnel in hopes that Kerr would spot his doppelgänger.
"The policeman said, 'Dude, you could take a left and a left, meaning you could go down the hallway, down the tunnel and into the locker room and no one would say a thing," Gillis said.
The rest of the night was a blur.
Gillis felt as though the seas would part whenever he walked past fans. Former Spurs player Sean Elliott shook his hand. And at halftime, tennis great Roger Federer even approached Gillis as he walked into the tunnel alongside Warriors owner Joe Lacob.
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"Roger looks at me and says, 'Let's take a picture,'' Gillis said. "He takes three selfies with me. And then he pats me on the shoulder and says, 'Thanks.' ...The fact that he was so gracious and nice about it, I'm thinking, 'I wonder if he knew I wasn't Steve Kerr?'"
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"We had eyes quickly and then he gave me like a fist pump," Gillis said. "...It was nice for him to be that gracious to do anything. I didn't expect anything."
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"They go, 'Mommy, there's Daddy,'" Gillis said. "She said, 'No, that's actually Coach Kerr.' My kids can't tell the difference. They call me Daddy Kerr sometimes … I'm just glad this coach is a good human being."
Kendra Andrews of ESPN with exclusive quotes from Kuminga and Draymond: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/39755710/golden-state-warriors-draymond-green-jonthan-kuminga-bond
Green sent Kuminga messages after almost every game that he was away, filled with notes, video clips and voice memos about his performances.
"Him watching the games at home, it was him watching film, pretty much, and it actually helped me understand who I am," Kuminga told ESPN.
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"I wanted to pick up everything he knows," Kuminga said. "With him, he won't just give [advice] up if you don't compete big-time."
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They also have the best defensive efficiency of any two players in the Western Conference to play more than 500 minutes together, according to Second Spectrum.
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"You have to show him that you're ready," Kuminga said of Green. "Your mentality has to be different."
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"He is one of the reasons I even ended up here," Kuminga said. "Before they drafted me he called [former Warriors general manager] Bob [Myers] and told him to bring me here. I think that was one of the greatest things to have ever happened."
It was Green's former teammate, Jarrett Jack, who first told him to watch Kuminga. Jack played 13 NBA seasons, including the 2012-13 campaign with the Warriors, and mentored Green as a rookie. "That's my vet," Green told ESPN.
Jack finished his pro career in 2021 playing with Kuminga on the G League Ignite team. The biggest knock on Kuminga during the draft process was he needed more time to develop.
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…He texted Myers and urged him to pick Kuminga.
"You knew the gift was there," Green said of Kuminga. "He would just need a few years. And for me, having Jarrett Jack telling me he's good, that means a lot."
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"Joe said, 'I know you're going to play and lead and all of that, but I need one more thing,'" Green recalled. "He said 'I need you to take JK under your wing.
"I said, 'You got my word ...To me, that was a condition of the contract."
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"I identify with him in the sense that he takes care of everyone -- his whole family. You can tell he is the head, and I can identify with that," Green said. "Twenty-one years old, that pressure, I feel that. Through identifying that and understanding that, I just really want to help."
"[Green] was one of those people who knew me, but never knew me like that," Kuminga said. "It took him a long time, but he just started checking in every other day.
"He'd ask me questions that weren't related to basketball. ... He took that time to get to know me and that really bridged our relationship from just work to personal."
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"[Kuminga] came to me like, 'AV, if I just take one more dribble I'll be at the rim." Vereen said. "He saw that it opened up so much for him and the team, and then he committed himself to living at the rim and making the right reads."
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He has since (the January 4th loss to the Nuggets) started visiting Kerr's office on a more regular basis, and he's also brought members of his family to spend more time with the team.
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"That's the one thing he was waiting to see from me," Kuminga said. "How am I going to react to certain things? When that was right, everything just took off."
Steph congratulates Oakland Marathon runners. Eat Learn Play is a sponsor:
Norris Cole on Tidal League podcast, re Steph and how great players put in the hours behind the scenes to improve their games: “Steph Curry, he did a lot of drill work before he turned into what he is now... he's drilled so much it's become instinct.” https://x.com/tidalleague/status/1769469634980282733
Full episode:
Shaun Livingston vacationing in Tokyo:
Ezeli with bts with Kuminga at an event:
Zaza Pachulia’s son Saba gets accepted to De La Salle HS:
And that’s everything I have since the LA behind-the-scenes.
Here’s an old one that i left here in draft format, so you know I’ve been wanting to do these digests for quite some time. We’ll see if I’m able to incorporate it into my usual workflow, though…
Anthony Edwards yells, “Steph Curry!” as he hits a halfcourt shot in practice https://x.com/nba/status/1761171531168706610
👍👍💛💙