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Steve Kerr chuckled at the memory. The Golden State Warriors had just wrapped up a training camp practice in Hawaii, and Kerr was standing near the corner of the gym on the BYU-Hawaii campus, retelling a story about the bond between his two longest-tenured players. Before the Warriors headed back to their five-star beach club for another night in paradise, the man who has coached Stephen Curry and Draymond Green for more than 12 years recalled a memorable moment from last season.
Anthony Slater: Snippet of Steve Kerr interview with ESPN out in Hawaii on the Steph Curry paycut, the cap space flexibility and Yaxel Lendeborg’s immediate major rotation role: “Frankly, he deserves it. Summer league or pickup games or now, he’s one of our best players already.”
Anthony Slater: Brandon Ingram doing light shooting/court work prior to Clippers first practice in Hawaii. Expected to miss start of the season after heel/Achilles surgery. Ty Lue: “As he gets closer, we got to start getting him on the floor and going through the plays, seeing what he likes.”
Joey Linn: Yuki Kawamura is excited to be around Darius Garland and Keaton Wagler, and also play against Steph Curry in Hawaii: “I’m learning from great point guards right now. I’m figuring out how I can help the team… it’s gonna be great for me.” On playing Curry and the Warriors: “He’s a superstar. I’m super excited to play against him. I have to prove myself during the preseason to get the contract. But I don’t want to focus on it. I just want to play the right way every single possession for the team.”
Malik Beasley wants a break from his federal travel restrictions ... so he can see his kids in California and then jet off to Hawaii for work. According to court docs, obtained by TMZ Sports, Beasley asked a judge for permission to travel from September 6 through 15, with stops in Rancho Mirage, Beverly Hills, and Hawaii.
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Dalton Johnson: The Warriors are heading to Hawaii for training camp where they will play the Clippers on Oct. 4 at the University of Hawaii After Media Day on Sept. 28, the Warriors will fly to Hawaii and practice on the BYU-Hawaii campus for the week leading up to Sunday's game
A little over a year ago, league sources say, Hawaii native Bobby Webster was quietly pursued by the University of Hawaii when the Rainbow Warriors needed a new athletic director. Webster, at the time, was still Toronto's No. 2 executive under Masai Ujiri. But there was no luring him away from the NBA or the Raptors — not even by the big school where he grew up — and that reality soon made perfect sense. One day after last June's draft, Toronto abruptly parted ways with Ujiri and would install Webster as his permanent successor some six weeks later.
Following the end of the Slam Dunk Contest, Jaxson Hayes spoke about whether or not he would partake in the Slam Dunk Contest again. As the oldest player in this year’s event, he didn’t fully shut the door on another appearance, although it is highly unlikely. “This is my seventh year in the NBA, I’m gonna be in my eighth year next year. You see these young guys got way more legs. I went up for my first dunk, I felt it right in my knees,” Hayes said. “I don’t think so. It was fun to do and to say I did it, but I don’t know. I’m not gonna fully shut out the dunk contest, but most likely no. I’d rather much be in Hawaii right now.”
The 29-year-old said his four-year, $108 million deal came together quickly as he vacationed in Hawaii. The Pacers couldn't quite match the money, which would have taken them deeper into the luxury tax than they cared for. "You can't really share everything that's going on, share everything that you're thinking. Suddenly it's a ticker on ESPN," he said of how people found out about his move. "I had a chance to reach out to everybody on the (Pacers, on a text chat). It's kind of bitter, you know what I mean?" he added. "You've been to war with these guys, these teammates are your brothers. You don't realize that's the last bus ride you'll have with those guys."
Josh Lewenberg: Bobby Webster on Masai Ujiri: "He's incredibly supportive. He wants us all to succeed... I kept him up to date on the process. Looking back, it was a really good pairing. A kid from Africa and a kid from Hawaii worked really well for a while."
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In August, the Clippers decamped for Hawaii, where their training camp was held. There, Van Gundy addressed the group. “He told us we’re going to be turning into a defensive-minded team and that it starts with coming into work and being willing to do the work,” Dunn said. Van Gundy had two primary goals for the season. One was to fix the Clippers’ rebounding issues; only six teams had been worse on the defensive glass the previous season. The other was to up their defensive pressure; only nine teams forced a fewer percentage of turnovers. Soon after, Van Gundy began implementing the team’s defensive schemes. “I got there late because I was competing [with France] in the Olympics,” Batum said. “And when I arrived, guys told me that with [Van Gundy] here things were different now.” Still, Batum wasn’t able to comprehend what that meant until he saw a Van Gundy practice for himself. “He’ll be like, ‘Don’t stand here, stand here,’ and then he’ll literally move you one inch,” Batum said.
Tom Orsborn: Jeremy Sochan on Chris Paul playing in all 82 games: "He could be in flipping, I don't know, Hawaii, doing nothing. And he's here in San Antonio, Texas, busting his ass 82 fucking games, just doing his thing. And I think that's what I've noticed, just the passion that he has."
The University of Hawaii’s men’s basketball program had a dismal 6-20 record during the 1969-70 season. Coach Red Rocha turned the program around by adding a strong recruiting class with Dwight Holiday, Freeman, Nash, Penebacker and Davis. Dwight Holiday was a junior college star at Hartnell College in Salinas, California, who said he once scored 56 points. Holiday said he received scholarship offers from La Salle University in Philadelphia and the University of Detroit, but didn’t want to leave California. While working at Dick Bruhn Family of Stores in Salinas, then-Hawaii assistant coach Bruce O’Neal called him there trying to convince him to play for the Rainbows. “[O’Neal] kept calling the store,” Dwight Holiday, 71, recalled. “And this old white man that worked there said, ‘Who’s this man that keeps calling the store from Hawaii?’ I said, ‘They want me to play there.’ And he said, ‘If I could go to Hawaii, I would go.’ So, I went. I didn’t think about it that deeply. I didn’t know it was that far and across water.” Holiday, Nash, Freeman, Davis and Penebacker became the starting five of the most beloved Hawaii basketball team after it put the program on the map nationally. They also happened to be the school’s first all-Black starting five.
Steve Kerr laid out the public directive during the Golden State Warriors’ first week in Hawaii: He wants to be a high-volume 3-point-shooting team, upping the output despite the loss of one of the most prolific shooters (Klay Thompson) in NBA history. Last season, the Warriors averaged 38.9 3s per game as a team, ranking fourth behind the Celtics (42.5), Mavericks (39.5) and Kings (39.3). Those first two teams have something in common. “Being a Finals (media) correspondent, I learned that Dallas and Boston were both top three in the league in 3s,” Brandin Podziemski said. “So I definitely think it plays a part (in winning). Based on our personnel, I do think it’s possible that we for sure can be top five (in attempted 3s), but leading the league is a possibility.”