SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Kevon Looney had navigated Chase Center\u2019s winding halls hundreds of times during his 11-year career.\u00a0But Saturday afternoon\u2019s trek through the glitzy San Francisco arena was his first as a visiting player, an unfamiliar experience for the former Warrior still adored by the organization and its fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I knew the Chase Center like the back of my hand,\u201d Looney, now a member of the Pelicans, said. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know where I was going, going to the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n
The home team is plenty familiar with Looney, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After being chosen No. 30 overall out of UCLA in the 2015 draft by the then-reigning champs, the 6-foot-9 Looney fought through injury concerns and developed into a dependable option at center, an iron man (289 consecutive games played) and beloved locker room presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the court, he blossomed into a rebounding machine, first getting major postseason minutes during the Curry-Thompson-Green-Durant team\u2019s title run in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so many memories that come back when I come through here, when I think about my time here,\u201d Looney said. \u201cI\u2019d like to be remembered as being a tough guy, a guy who showed up every night and brought his hard hat every night and didn\u2019t complain about anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time the Warriors revamped around the Big 3 four years later, Looney was an established veteran for coach Steve Kerr\u2019s team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He grabbed 22 boards in the semifinal clincher against Memphis in 2022, and then pulled in 18 rebounds to help closeout the Mavericks in Game 5 a few weeks later as the Warriors went on to win a fourth title of the Steph Curry era.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGoes way beyond the court stuff,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cJust his locker room presence, his maturity, the way he generated a professional atmosphere with the whole group. (He was) just a remarkable teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n
But his impact on the floor \u2013 averages of 5.0 points and 5.7 rebounds in 599 games \u2013 was dwarfed by what he did off it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looney became a go-to for young players who needed a shoulder to lean on as they learned the ropes of NBA life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among those who counted Looney as a mentor was fellow Milwaukeean Brandin Podziemski.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a big brother to me,\u201d Podziemski said after the teams played in New Orleans earlier this month. \u201cIt\u2019s sad to see him in a different uniform, but I love that man and he\u2019s done a lot for me on the basketball court, and mentally, away from it. I can\u2019t thank him enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
His leadership was not limited to only guards. Over the last few years of his Warriors tenure, the team brought in a series of bigs that could and did eat into his playing time. But instead of keeping the competition at arm\u2019s length, Looney welcomed them into the organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trayce Jackson-Davis and Quinten Post, both 25 and brought in over the past three seasons, raved about Looney\u2019s willingness to help them adjust to a pro locker room and a faster game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe does all of the little things, and there is no ego involved with anything he does,\u201d Post said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to follow a guy like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looney embraced that side of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel like you\u2019re doing a good job (as a mentor) but you never know until you actually hear them talk about you when you\u2019re not around,\u201d Looney said. \u201cFor them to give me high praise like that is something I really enjoy, and hopefully they do the same thing for the next guys coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an era of player movement, Looney was poised to became one of the last non-superstar one-team lifers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it was not to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the team remained in stasis as the Jonathan Kuminga contract negotiation dragged through the summer, Looney signed a two-year, $16 million deal with the Pelicans this offseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo hard feelings,\u201d Looney said. \u201cTen years, had a lot of great memories \u2026 it\u2019s all love, and those guys are my family.\u201d<\/p>\n
But after missing the first five games of the season with a left knee injury, and averaging around 15 minutes a night over his first seven appearances, Looney has been mostly dropped from the rotation by a revamped Pelicans coaching staff.<\/p>\n
With James Borrego replacing the deposed Willie Green, Looney has played in only two of the last seven games, and did not spend even a minute on the court when the Warriors played in New Orleans on Nov. 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that has not stopped Looney from learning to love his new town.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe food out there is great in New Orleans, the people out there are great, and Southern Hospitality is a real thing,\u201d Looney said. \u201cI\u2019m starting to really get myself in the community, and hope to do more out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even if he becomes a consistent part of the rotation for a rebuilding Pelicans team, he will \u2013 forever \u2013 be known as a Warrior.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot a little bit more anxiety for a regular season game than normal,\u201d Looney said. \u201cA lot of jitters, but I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other notables<\/p>\n
The Warriors announced that both Jonathan Kuminga and Gary Payton II will be available for Saturday\u2019s game. Kuminga has missed the past seven games with knee soreness. The team also announced that De\u2019Anthony Melton, who has been rehabbing from an ACL tear, is expected to be activated next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Kevon Looney had navigated Chase Center\u2019s winding halls hundreds of times during his 11-year career.\u00a0But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[2356,2243,355,5284,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-321465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-golden-state-warriors","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321465","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=321465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}