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Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski closes his eyes during a performance of the national anthem before a preseason game against the Sacramento Kings at Chase Center on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Brandin Podziemski<\/a> could have left. That might have been it, right there. He could have turned the key in the ignition, and pulled away from that gym in Wisconsin, seven years ago. You couldn\u2019t have blamed him. His coach had just kicked him out of practice.<\/p>\n Instead, a butterfly flapped its wings, a domino fell, and Podziemski sat at his locker at Chase Center on Saturday night as the humble owner of a new $110 million contract. Generational wealth, for a 23-year-old kid from Milwaukee. Enough for his parents, and grandpa, and aunts, and uncles, and all the people he hopped on FaceTime with Friday night\u00a0after finalizing an extension<\/a> with the Golden State Warriors<\/a>, and his future grandkids, too. He does not get here, he knows, without the day Antonio Curro threw him out of the gym.<\/p>\n \u201cThe day\u2019s special to me,\u201d Podziemski told the Chronicle, remembering.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n It was September 2020, and Podziemski was practicing with Curro\u2019s AAU team at a sweltering gym in Wisconsin dubbed the \u201cWarehouse.\u201d When anyone walked into the Warehouse, they probably noticed 6-foot-8 forward Jalen Johnson, now an All-NBA talent with the Hawks. Or five-star Patrick Baldwin Jr.<\/a> They did not notice Podziemski, at that time, a talented and precocious young guard with a curly mop. He wanted to be noticed. He was 17, and 17-year-old kids want the world, while understanding little of it.<\/p>\n The body language, that practice, was bad. Podziemski was going through the motions, with the motions of someone who thought he was already better than what was in front of him. So Curro sent him out, and Podziemski spent the entire practice sitting in his car.<\/p>\n He could have left. Instead, he sat. And thought. And thought about if he really wanted it. And returned to the gym, apologized to Curro, and heard him out.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n If you change, Curro told Podziemski, I\u2019ll change your life. If you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll be frustrated.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just kinda made me check myself, in a way,\u201d Podziemski said Saturday. \u201cCheck my ego. At the time, I just thought I was probably better than I was \u2026 just a turning point for me, and just made me realize, like, \u2018I\u2019m not good enough to be where I want to be.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so, from that day forward, it just kinda changed my mindset of how I approach the day-to-day process, of how I do things. And the rest is history.\u201d<\/p>\n Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski signed a five-year, $110 million extension, a sign of his value to the team now and going forward.<\/p>\n Jeff Chiu\/Associated Press<\/p>\n History is complicated. History is a 20-year-old young man dropped in the middle of a splintering dynasty, trying to grow in the space between the cracks. History has continued to pit an unyielding and prevailing self-confidence against how much assertiveness is actually needed with Golden State, which has a system and culture that has been in place for over a decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s had a couple sound bites that, make me want to run through the wall a little bit once in a while,\u201d joked Curro, a longtime mentor for Podziemski and the CEO of grassroots-basketball organization NY2LA Sports. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those where\u00a0\u2014 you see him, you just put your head in your hands. \u2018Come on, man.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Does Podziemski actually believe he can be better<\/a> than Stephen Curry<\/a>? No. The point is he will try to be. In those days in Wisconsin, Podziemski would try to beat Baldwin\u2019s scores in a shooting drill, as Curro remembered. Always believing he belonged in the room, and seeking out the best guy to prove it.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m fairly certain Brandin Podziemski was born into this world,\u201d Curro said, \u201cwith unbelievable confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Podziemski would not be here without it. But this has bitten him before. Self-confidence bred impatience, in those AAU days, as Podziemski\u2019s recruitment wasn\u2019t gaining much steam amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every missed shot brought visible frustration, because Curro could sense that Podziemski wanted it all now.<\/p>\n So, after Podziemski apologized that September, Curro told him he had to fix his mentality. And, thereby, his effort.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThe thought process was, \u2018When you came here, it was almost like you came here to use what we do for yourself, not to embrace the culture and then reap the benefit,\u2019\u201d Curro recalled.<\/p>\n Years later\u00a0\u2014 not that many years later\u00a0\u2014 Podziemski has gone through the same process in Golden State. He was thrown briefly, as Curro recalled, when the Warriors sent him to their G League affiliate in Santa Cruz in the early days of his rookie year in 2023<\/a>. He has yo-yo\u2019d in and out of coach\u00a0 Steve Kerr<\/a>\u2019s starting lineups for three seasons, trying to fit behind Klay Thompson<\/a> and Chris Paul in 2023-24 and next to Jimmy Butler<\/a> in 2024-25 until a final hint of full spotlight amid the team\u2019s rash of injuries in 2025-26.<\/p>\n Patience, Podziemski said Saturday, is a beautiful thing. He has learned it is hard to obtain. He is getting there at 23, and now has at least four more guaranteed seasons of growing with Golden State laid out in front of him.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a little harder, when I was younger,\u201d Podziemski said Saturday, asked on balancing his confidence with internal expectations of his role in Golden State. \u201cBecause, like, when you\u2019re a young player, you obviously want what\u2019s best for the team, especially if they drafted you. But you also want to establish yourself as an individual and show that you\u2019re \u2014 worthy to be around.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so, you fight that balance of team success and individual success, the feelings that come with both.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski receives congratulations from head coach Steve Kerr as he goes to the bench in a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers last week.<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Golden State still needs their 2023 first-round pick\u00a0to fit in, for whatever the final years of the Curry era bring.\u00a0 But this five-year, $110 million rookie extension is a clear sign, too, that the organization thinks Podziemski is a bridge between the Warriors\u2019 present and whatever is next. He is far from a star-level contributor, but has become a backcourt complement to Curry, having improved as a point-of-attack defender, and as a secondary offensive creator.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, the system fits him and molds around him,\u201d veteran\u00a0Gary Payton II<\/a> said Saturday, \u201cas well as he molded around the system.\u201d<\/p>\n The Warriors\u2019 new five-out offensive principles, as Kerr said Saturday, \u201cplays right\u201d into Podziemski\u2019s skill set. That has shown up this preseason. Starting possessions with five players around the perimeter has frequently opened up wide-open lanes for Podziemski to cut into the paint off-ball. He finished plus-18 against Sacramento on Saturday, with 14 points and three 3-pointers.<\/p>\n Podziemski, Payton said, will have to re-mold himself again once Curry and Draymond Green<\/a> are no longer in Warriors uniforms. That brought the question: does the 33-year-old Payton, as much a Golden State lifer as any role player on the Warriors\u2019 roster, view Podziemski as a player who can take the torch once the old guard is gone?<\/p>\n \u201cWell, yeah\u00a0\u2014 today,\u201d\u00a0Payton pointed, referencing Podziemski\u2019s performance against Sacramento. \u201cHe looks like he\u2019s one of those torch guys that, when that does happen, he\u2019s going to have the chance to run a team. If it\u2019s not here, it\u2019s going to be somewhere else, for sure.<\/p>\n<\/a>
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