{"id":244434,"date":"2025-10-22T20:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/244434\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T20:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T20:59:07","slug":"gators-in-nba-rookie-earns-game-ball-in-debut-with-warriors-wruf-98-1-fm-850-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/244434\/","title":{"rendered":"Gators in NBA: Rookie Earns Game Ball in Debut with Warriors – WRUF 98.1 FM | 850 AM"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time Will Richard stepped onto the floor for the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday he ended the night by earning the game ball<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In just 14 minutes, the rookie guard out of Florida went 2-for-2 from the field, including a corner 3, added a rebound, one assist and one steal to help Golden State defeat the Los Angeles Lakers 119-109.<\/p>\n

Richard arrived in the NBA after a decorated college career in Gainesville. He transferred from Belmont after his freshman season and became the first commitment<\/a> to coach Todd Golden and his staff at Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He finished his Gators career ranked 33rd on the school\u2019s all-time scoring list with 1,275 points in 108 games and set career bests as a senior with 13.3 points per game, 80 3-pointers, 74 assists and 66 steals. In the 2025 national championship game win he led Florida with 18 points and eight rebounds.<\/p>\n

Selected 56th overall in the 2025 NBA Draft, Richard signed a four-year contract worth about $8.69 million, with the first two seasons fully guaranteed.<\/p>\n

In his debut at Chase Center, Richard didn\u2019t take long to make his mark. With 6:13 left in the second quarter he hustled to steal the ball from Deandre Ayton, pushed ahead in transition and fed Gary Payton II for an alley-oop.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He scored his first basket on a four-foot putback after grabbing a rebound off a missed 3 by Buddy Hield late in the third quarter. His second make, a corner 3 assisted by Stephen Curry with 5:40 left in the fourth, extended the Warriors\u2019 lead to 15.<\/p>\n

Coach Steve Kerr praised the rookie\u2019s poise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWill looks like he\u2019s in his seventh year. He doesn\u2019t look like a rookie out there,\u201d Kerr said.<\/p>\n

In a conversation at practice earlier this week with Kerr, Jimmy Butler agreed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows how to play,\u201d Butler told Kerr. \u201cWill\u2019s going to be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard\u2019s debut came on a night that also featured another former UF standout, veteran forward Al Horford<\/a>, coming off the bench for Golden State. The 39-year-old, entering his 19th NBA season, scored five points and grabbed five rebounds in 20 minutes. Horford is in the first season of a two-year, $11.65 million deal with a player option for next year. Kerr said Horford\u2019s minutes will be managed this season.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cAl is most likely going to play 50 to 60 games,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cHe\u2019s probably playing 20 to 24 minutes max.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horford, who won back-to-back national championships with Florida in 2006 and 2007, represents the championship legacy that Richard is now extending. The Gators\u2019 recent run under Golden has continued that tradition with Richard, Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin<\/a> forming the highest-scoring trio in program history \u2026 and now, all three are on NBA opening-day rosters.<\/p>\n

Category: Basketball<\/a>, Gators Men’s Basketball<\/a>, NBA<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first time Will Richard stepped onto the floor for the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday he ended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2241,73833,51870,133948,133949,2243,17721,355,55129,99,30534,3346,23427,5796],"class_list":{"0":"post-244434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-al-horford","9":"tag-alijah-martin","10":"tag-chase-center","11":"tag-florida-basketball-alumni","12":"tag-florida-gators-basketball","13":"tag-golden-state-warriors","14":"tag-jimmy-butler","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-debut","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-steve-kerr","19":"tag-todd-golden","20":"tag-walter-clayton-jr","21":"tag-will-richard"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}