Advertisement - scroll for more content
One key member of that team was none other than small forward Matt Barnes, who appears to have some fond memories of those days, recently stopping by Paul George's Podcast P With Paul George, presented by Wave Sports + Entertainment, to share some of the wilder aspects of that era of Warriors basketball. “We won that series against Dallas and you would have thought we won the championship,” said Barnes, per Podcast P with Paul George on YouTube. “We was in the streets, before we get to Snoop, Jack (Stephen Jackson) lived in the same building as Nelly (Don Nelson) but Jack's on like the 12th floor, Nelly’s the whole roof. So we go down there pre-party at Jacks, go up there, and as soon as we walk in, this is our coach by the way, “fellas Woody is in the back rolling joints.” what the f— huh like I didn't know that he didn't give a f— that everyone knew. So we go back there and Woody Harrelson's rolling joints and we're back there smoking joints with Woody Harrelson bro it was unbelievable.”
Woody Harrelson is in a basketball movie. That’s nothing new. His 1992 role as Billy Hoyle in “White Men Can’t Jump” is one of the more iconic portrayals in sports films. He also played Ed Monix in “Semi-Pro” in 2008. But this time around, Harrelson isn’t a streetball ringer or an aging ABA veteran. He plays Marcus Marakovich, a hot-headed minor-league basketball coach who doesn’t work well with others in his new movie “Champions.” Because of a DUI, Marcus ends up in court with a judge sentencing him to coach a basketball team of players with intellectual disabilities.
Director Bobby Farrelly wanted Harrelson to meet the Friends, the team of players with intellectual disabilities, for the first time in their initial scene together. “I had a very difficult night’s sleep,” Harrelson told The Athletic. “I had so much trepidation about, ‘How am I going to go in there?’” It’s not that Harrelson isn’t unfamiliar with playing it by ear on film. This was just different. Not first meeting the team he’d be coaching on film? But trusting Farrelly was the right move. There is an authenticity in the scene when Harrelson first meets the Friends that resonates and lasts throughout the film. “I like improvising, but within a structure,” Harrelson said. “I get in there and like most fear, it’s complete bulls–t. I came in, and immediately everybody was amazing, and that little heart of mine just started loving every one of these Friends who were part of the film — and luckily, they started loving me back. It was great. The connection with them was amazing.”
Harrelson’s acting career has had some significant connections to sports. He played Woody Boyd on the sitcom “Cheers,” working as a bartender at a popular Boston sports bar. Then there was “White Men Can’t Jump,” where he starred as a streetballer opposite Wesley Snipes. “For some reason, people just seem to love that movie, and I’m glad,” Harrelson said of “White Men Can’t Jump,” which also featured Rosie Perez, Kadeem Hardison and Tyra Ferrell. “It was also important for me because it really started my movie career. Prior to that, I was a television actor. … Prior to that, it was a struggle to find out how I’d be anything other than Woody Boyd on ‘Cheers.’” “White Men Can’t Jump” hit theaters on March 27, 1992 — back when Harrelson was playing a lot of basketball in his free time. “I was pretty fit, but we still did a month and half of camp where we were really going for it every day and were getting coached,” Harrelson said. “I thought that also helped.”
Nellie? After leaving the Warriors in 2010, he headed back to his home in Maui and fell off the basketball map. In 2013, I visited him at his home in Paia. He greeted me in flip flops, looking trim and tan, and led the way to the patio to smoke stogies—he’d cut out beer—and watch the waves, his two dogs lounging nearby. Later, once he figured out the DVR, we watched a Warriors-Grizzlies game. He cackled a lot, praised Andrew Bogut, and cursed David Lee. He took life at its own pace. Long afternoons. Shuffleboard out back of the bistro he owned. And, best of all, poker games in his upstairs man cave. There, he and his buddies—including Woody Harrelson, Owen Wilson, and Willie Nelson—would get magnificently stoned and play deep into the night. Once, he told me, a beloved regular, Greg Booth, passed away right there during the game, his aorta giving out. The coroner was late arriving, and the group looked to Nellie, who said, “"He'd want you to play on." So they’d finished the game that night, stepping around Booth’s body to get to the veranda for a smoke. "Poor bastard," Nellie told me, "but he went out doing what he loved."
Advertisement
Brandon Jennings has become the union's underground ambassador, appearing in more pickup games than Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson. "Where they hooping?" he tweets in the morning, with a hashtag for his location. He considers all offers, and if he chooses one, he tweets the address in case anybody wants to stop by. He is like a taco truck, serving broken ankles. The day that Jennings went to Rowley, a group from El Camino College in Compton saw his tweet and came to challenge him. They might as well have walked into a sparring session with Floyd Mayweather. "He gave us a chance," says Mathew Rodriguez, an El Camino student and tutor. "But not much of a chance."
McRoberts played the part of Woody Harrelson's character, Billy Hoyle, and Rush was Wesley Snipes' character, Sidney Deane. "We're trying to get our man Josh into the contest," Rush said. "It was fun taking part in it. Everybody should like it." The scene, which was filmed at McRoberts' house, was from when Harrelson and Snipes are leaning on a graffiti wall at the end of the movie. McRoberts and Rush ordered the clothes Harrelson and Snipes wore in the scene off eBay.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement