Ryan Rollins channels his inner… 2012 Warriors? “Once upon a time,” Steph Curry says
[GSW-MIL interviews/videos/transcripts]
The cure for the common loss? Reminiscing on something in the past. Try it. It works. It’s actually the basis of my Love Your Dubs Summit (relaunch) coming up real soon. Go check it out and register for free — the website will be updated soon with more info!
When you register for free, you get entered into a drawing on Thanksgiving for Shot Ready, the picture book by one Wardell Stephen Curry plus you get access to our curated Discord server (free version).
Steph postgame, at the 11:20 mark of his locker room with media, filmed by Joseph Dycus of BANG/SJ Mercury (full transcripts below) — after Milwaukee’s Ryan Rollins lit up the Warriors for 32 points on 13-for-21 field, 5-for-7 on threes, and 8 assists:
Once upon a time, that was what the Warriors were, back in 2012, pretty much. And there are certain games where it clicks and some games where it’s rough. And tonight we saw the game where it clicks. So it’s, again, there’s just a free kind of spirited energy you see when a team like that, who’s been playing pretty well and then coming in, we played-- obviously, Giannis (Antetokuonmpo) is playing at a high level and then, all of a sudden, he’s out, you got guys step up.
2012, Steph?! 🤔
Let me look: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/curryst01/gamelog/2012/
Ha! You right. Look at those scoring numbers for you — these are lockout- and injury-shortened results:
4, 21, 21, 10, 20, [missed 8 games], 12, 18, THIRTY-TWO, 15, 3, TWENTY-NINE, 11, 16, THIRTY-SIX, 14, 9, 8, 11, THIRTY-SIX, 11, 9, [injured again for four games], 12, 15, 10, 0, [shut down for rest of season, missing games 39 through 66].
😂 I get you now, Steph.
And yeah, no disrespect to Rollins. I mean, who are we to actually judge if Ryan is gonna have an up-and-down season the rest of the way? And who’s to say, he could very well end up an All-Star just like Curry did. But he’s just about as young as Steph was back then and, let’s face it, the 2025-26 Bucks >>> 2012 Warriors. It’s likely Steph saw a little bit of himself in Rollins last night, that’s all.
In fact, the second game in which Steph hit 36 that season, he and Monta Ellis both had over 30, but Tony Allen got a tip-in with five seconds left to give the eventual strong 38-28 Grizzlies, in their odd throwback green jerseys, the win.
Guess who the guy guarding Steph in the above photo is?
Wait, hold up. I was with GoldenStateOfMind.com back in the day! Did I write a recap? Doesn’t look like it: https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/archives/2012/2/1
I think we at GSoM messed up and no one wrote a recap for that one. I did a lazy post on the All-Star Break in Orlando, which I somehow attended. I don’t remember much from that weekend other than Christopher Chen of NBA Entertainment (I met him when I premiered his film Year of the Yao at the Palace of Fine Arts as a crossover with Dream League), walking by a stack of Rising Stars tickets in his NBA Conference room, asking me how many I needed.
I took, like, four and invited agent Ara Vartanian and his client at the time, Daniel Orton. Then we went to DO’s house in the suburbs and it was the last time I ever got drunk lol.
Oops, I went on a tangent.
Eight games later, the 2012 Memphis Grizzlies would crush Golden State, 110-92. Steph went back to modest ways with 15 points. Rudy Gay torched us for 26-and-12 and Marc Gasol 17-and-12. The Grizz were back feeling normal again and, well, same with the 2012 Dubs. No late game-saving tip-in by Allen needed.
Mike Conley with 12 assists. Sheesh, that guy can reminisce with Steph after all these years.
Don’t worry, DubNation, we’ll have our get-back on Rollins and the Bucks.
The only way we can laugh at a loss like the one to the Bucks last night is to draw from experiences and reminisce, remind ourselves that life ain’t that bad.
I’d take 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25, and 2025-26 over the 2012 Warriors, any day. Come on, now!
Oh and nah, I don’t think a basketball team can avoid letdowns like that. I tried thinking back to my time playing Asian leagues and tourneys.
We had a Rollins-like experience at the Mofufus Tournament in LA one time. We even got a favorable first-round draw. But their main guy went crazy. I can’t remember his name. Kelvin Bryant, maybe? Half-Japanese, half-white guy with a suspect jumper that always went in against us that day. I threw a clipboard a corner of it chipped off. Our point of attack, like Draymond Green would say last night, was pathetic. The tournament director said that was the one time out of ten that that team and that guy could beat my Bay Area All-Star squad.
I blamed it on the awesome uniforms I’d gotten the team just for that tournament. I had inadvertently placed a bullseye on my guys’ backs by having the best threads in the invitational.
So, sometimes basketball circumstances are basketball circumstances.
But if you’re “0-12” the past few years when a main guy like Giannis sits out last minute, as Steve Kerr joked on the podium, maybe it’s time to get nuts.
“Let’s get nuts!” — Michael Keaton Batman voice
The one thing I suggested on the livestream last night was maybe the coaching staff should just trash the rotation spreadsheet and treat it like a pickup game: whoever’s playing well gets to keep playing until he’s tired. That way, Will Richard — played great, again! — takes the floor and he never leaves until he needs a sub.
But… let’s be real. Have we really thought about what that would do to a NBA team on an 82-game schedule. You have to go back to normal rotations the next game. We’d probably have had 40 turnovers with different guys playing with each other, instead of 19.
Still, maybe a defensive assignment can change things. Maybe a hard, legal foul on Rollins does it. Maybe sic Gary Payton II on him 94 feet — which, by the way, they tried right before the half, but GP2 walked right into a screen before they were even at halfcourt and Rollins scored at the cup again.
However, it’s not the playoffs where you can just ratchet up a defense with physicality. There’s no time to game plan past a guy like Giannis, It’s just one of those weird regular season environments.
Last thing: coincidentally, Brian Scalabrine of NBA Radio brought up 2012-ish Curry in his latest Frank Isola podcast with Warriors assistant Chris DeMarco as a guest.
The conversation got to VJ Edgecombe, whom DeMarco coached on Team Bahamas, then Scalabrine brought up the competitive edge as he saw from a young Steph:
DEMARCO: It could be jumping on the floor. It could be getting a big time steal. It could be challenging somebody at the rim, just an elite finish with body control, whatever it is. Like, I’m winning this game, or I’m winning this competition, I’m winning this drill. I think it’s gotta be the compete level and I mean, I don’t know how you feel, Scal.
SCALABRINE: Yeah, I agree with that. That transitions into another question. When I first laid eyes on Steph in the pickup games, I was blown away by his compete level. I don’t know if I maybe saw Steph Curry like that before I worked for the Warriors. And then when you see him, you’re just blown, like you’re blown away by how the game could be 8-3 and he finds a way to win that game to 11. And it’s like, that’s like a special quality. And this is before he won MVPs and championships, all that stuff. But when you’re looking at Steph and he is, grown in that, is he more like that now? Is he doubled down on, like, his preparation and everything? Is he somewhat, how much has he changed over the last 10 years?
DEMARCO: Yeah, it’s like he just penalizes you for any mistake you make. Like, you’re right, yeah, other team’s up 8-3, mistake defensively, finds a way to get open, hits a three. You come down, don’t execute right back, all of a sudden he hits another one, it’s six points right there. And, obviously, players get better and there’s experience involved and all that, but I do think that compete level certainly doesn’t change from when you’re a young player and now.
ISOLA: And it’s interesting because when you watch him play, the guy’s accomplished everything you need to accomplish in an NBA career, but just early on, like you watch him making shots and he still has that joy and that competitive fight to him. Isn’t that like the key? Like you mentioned, you guys have a lot of veteran players. Isn’t it still, as long as they love playing and they want to compete, that’s what’s still gonna keep them going, right Chris?
DEMARCO: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s contagious. So you know whether or not you’re going through a tough stretch of the year, there’s injuries, losing streak, and your best player and this guy who’s won four championships is showing up and still having the right energy at practice and at film sessions, it changes everything for your team.
ISOLA: Is it the same now that Jimmy Butler’s there? You got Al Horford there, Draymond Green’s the vocal guy. Like, how do you, how is the leadership and, like, is there leader leadership by committee there with these veteran guys who have been to the finals and won championships?
DEMARCO: Yeah, no, absolutely. And it’s part of the reason we made the run last year in the playoffs where we almost got to the Conference Finals. And there’s just a calm and confidence that comes with this group. And now adding Al in here and, again, like, we’re really excited to see where we can be a few months from now.
You see the power of having experiences and reminiscing? Don’t have experiences, well then, let me share them with you with the Love Your Dubs Summit!
And that, my friends, is your reward for harkening back with Wardell to 2012 in the context of Ryan Rollins on October 30, 2025. Small price to pay! Basketball is much bigger than any one loss.
The full audio of the DeMarco-Scal exchange can be heard below the paywall, where I’ve placed the transcripts of Steph, Draymond, Jimmy, Brandin Podziemski and Steve from Milwaukee, too.
The paywall will be lifted some time next week…