Practice in Phoenix had ended and Brandin Podziemski was about to turn in for a nap when his phone lit up with a text message.
It was from Steph Curry:
“Hey, if you want to come golf with me, I’m leaving in 15-20 minutes.”
Podziemski hadn’t played a hole of golf in his life, save for occasional rounds of putt-putt with family growing up in suburban Milwaukee. But unfazed by unfamiliarity and undaunted by a one-on-one, 18-hole round with the American Century Champion, Podziemski leaped at the opportunity.
With a little guidance from Curry, Podziemski dusted off his old baseball swing and, by his count, had this golf thing down by hole 15 or 16. By Curry’s expert opinion, he started picking it up by hole eight or nine.
“Then you form a sense of expectation for what a good hit is and you lose it a little bit,” Curry said. “He didn’t finish strong, but the potential is there.”
A round of night golf in the Sonoran Desert was less about honing putting technique and more an opportunity for mentee to bond with mentor. That’s because Podziemski has found the player in the Warriors locker room he relates to most is its superstar.
“Me and him share similar stories,” Podziemski said. “We’ve always been overlooked.”
Sure, one is 20 years old and 25 games into his NBA career while the other is 15 years in with four championships and two MVP awards. But as Podziemski sees it, no player better understands how to break the restrictions of underestimation with irrational confidence.
On the golf course, Curry urged Podziemski to keep the times he was doubted at the top of his mind; to remember outsiders labeling the No.19 pick a bust after a poor shooting performance in Summer League. In Las Vegas, Curry was the first to text Podziemski that he wasn’t alone – even the 3-point king couldn’t hit one as a rook in Summer League.
Curry told Podziemski to cherish his ascension from the Santa Cruz Warriors shuttle to Golden State’s starting five, but to have on tap the frustrations he felt riding the bench his first year at the University of Illinois. That’s what drove Podziemski to transfer to Santa Clara, where he played last season, sharing honors as player of the year in the West Coast Conference and shooting up the NBA draft board.
“Going into college, I was a 6-foot-4, scrawny white dude who can shoot and play-make a little bit,” Podziemski said. “I didn’t fit the Big 10 model of bigger guards.
“We both don’t pass the eye test,” he said, referring to Curry, “but you don’t have to pass the eye test to perform on the court. My play speaks for itself.”
Curry built his “Underrated” brand on this premise.
“I would have had him on the Underrated basketball tour,” Curry said. “He just didn’t start quick enough.”
Podziemski’s basketball career began a few years later than most NBA players. It was John Podzeimski’s dream to have his son play Major League Baseball. The kid had all the tools: a left-handed pitcher, first baseman and outfielder with a sweet swing and a map drawn from childhood by his dad.
But when Wisconsin winters drove kids indoors, Podziemski wanted to stretch muscles baseball couldn’t stretch. So he picked up a basketball and started dominating rec leagues to a point that spectators asked John where his son was playing in the AAU circuit. His answer was always “baseball first.”
But his son’s eyes wandered.
On a drive back from a baseball tournament at Vanderbilt, Podziemski, then 13, broke the news that he wanted to play basketball full-time. His dad was devastated.
“I don’t love it. It’s boring. And it’s too easy,” the elder Podziemski remembers him saying of baseball. “And I was like, ‘It’s too easy? What are you talking about? You have a gift.’”
Podziemski didn’t want it easy.
“Of course he said that,” Curry said. “That says a lot about him right there.”
Podziemski is attached to Curry’s hip, and next door to his locker. Every day before a game, often with a bag of popcorn, Podziemski parks himself on the bench to watch Curry’s pregame warmup from the opening synchronized pointing with assistant coach Bruce Fraser to the final tunnel shot.
Podziemski is a sponge, but doesn’t want to be seen as a rookie.
“He’s cocky,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He knows he’s good. And I love it.”
When Golden State picked him 19th overall in the 2023 draft, Podziemski didn’t see the established core at his position of Curry Klay and Thompson along with Chris Paul and Moses Moody as a threat. Instead, he saw an opportunity to learn from the best. Most young players who have walked the Warriors’ halls throughout the dynasty years have said as much — but Podziemski assimilated fast.
Since preseason camps in the summer, Warriors veterans noticed the rookie’s unwavering assuredness; they called him a training camp stand-out, a student of the game, a pest, but with enviable confidence.
The rookie started the season out of the rotation, but his teammates and family alike weren’t surprised that he worked his way into the rotation. A team needing a youthful spark fed off his knack for read-and-react basketball with the gumption to make plays on his own – such as a gutsy game-saving charge in Portland that could have easily turned into a game-losing foul. He saved another game against the Clippers, foiling an inbounds play.
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“Rookies don’t break up plays,” Draymond Green said that night. “They (mess) up plays.”
Now Curry’s mentorship has come full circle. A Warriors team that’s gone stale and is often overwhelmed by opposing team’s youth and athleticism relies on Podziemski to inject some scrappiness, ball-handling and beyond-his-years intuition into a new starting five with Curry, Jonathan Kuminga, Kevon Looney and Thompson.
“I’m getting the best of both worlds right now, learning how to win but also being tested by starting with these guys,” Podziemski said. “You will see my growth more toward years three and four, where most top draft picks are shining now. You’ll see most of my growth in the years to come.”
Not only does Podziemski belong, his underdog style harkens back to what originally made the Warriors great: unwavering confidence the face of underestimation. He’s a quick learner, too.
