Comedian and New Orleans comedy theater founder Chris Trew is a New Orleans Pelicans fan who has a single season ticket directly behind the visitors’ bench inside New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center, where he intently listens to and interacts with the opposing team’s players and coaches. He will be documenting his experiences here for us in a regular column called, Behind the Bench. You can follow his in-game interactions live on Twitter at @ChrisTrew. The Pelicans’ opponent in this column: the Golden State Warriors, who visited New Orleans on Friday, October 20th.
Between the Warriors’ opening-night loss to the Rockets and their complete meltdown in Memphis, the defending champions were in the Big Easy. So was ESPN, a couple members of the first-place (!!) Saints, and every single Warriors fan in the greater New Orleans area. According to their cheers, they absolutely love Steph Curry, they are split on Kevin Durant (but enjoy it whenever he makes a good play), they like Klay Thompson (exclusively when he shoots threes), and they are neutral on everyone else.
https://twitter.com/christrew/status/921932885598310401
Now, this column isn’t the place for in-depth on-court analysis and extreme number crunching, but I believe the above tweet to be 100 percent true. The Warriors’ frustration off Beale Street on Saturday actually started off Bourbon on Friday. The coaches and players griped more than usual; their body language was more “we are here because we have to be” and less “we are hype to defend our title.” They came away with the victory because they are the most talented team in the league, but they almost screwed it up because maybe they are also the most entitled team in the league. On to the observations!
An exciting perk to arriving early to the arena is witnessing the various NBA reunions up close and personal. Tonight’s featured reunion was former Warrior-turned-Pelican Ian Clark. While Clark is not a marquee player, he was comfortable enough to put something into an assistant coach’s pocket as a goof. The assistant coach looked pissed, then looked behind him. Upon spotting Clark they smiled, hugged, and (I guess) talked about running away with the league last year.
The Warriors appear to have extra security, understandably so. This security team has some extra time on their hands as the biggest consistent threat to the safety of the people they are hired to protect are kids wanting autographs. During player introductions, two of the guards were huddled up close and taking an interest in who was getting cheered (Steph Curry) and booed (Kevin Durant). They seemed surprised at the results, which in turn surprised me. How can you not expect Kevin Durant to get a mixed reaction?
Kevin Durant was also surprised, and actually leaned over his row of seats and sort of confronted a fan who was putting a lot of effort into booing the Finals MVP. He said “really?” which froze the passionate hater. Note: most players, especially superstars, can easily disarm a fan coming at them by simply engaging them. Sure, some fan’s drunken bravado blocks this from working but most fans are just flat out stunned that someone they spend a lot of time thinking about, tweeting about, complaining about in bars, has acknowledged their existence, if even just for a a few seconds. “I love you too,” finished Durant.
On the other side, the Pelicans were introducing all of their players, injured or not, as is custom for home openers. When controversially-pricey, injured, cheeseburger-loving Omer Asik’s name was called, the Smoothie King Center was not having it. Many players on the Warriors side seemed surprised, but I didn’t have time to explain the salary cap. Plus it was really loud. By the way, I have it on extremely good authority that Omer Asik orders and, I assume, consumes multiple cheeseburgers after a lot of home games.
When DeMarcus Cousins was introduced, the crowd responded with a drawl-y “Booooogie” which, if you’re a step behind, can sound like a “Booooo.” The Warriors were a step behind and wanted to know why Cousins was drawing the ire of New Orleans. He wasn’t, all is good, and the Warriors continued to be a step behind all first quarter. Unrelated, probably.
Alvin Gentry got some disapproving sounds from the crowd and the Golden State coaching staff all made those “uh-oh” faces. Coaches looking out for coaches, but also these guys know Alvin pretty well from his time in Oakland.
You probably heard about Kevin Durant losing his shoe and still getting two blocks in one possession. You may not have heard the “F*CK” Steve Kerr shouted that was so loud the levelheaded David West laughed, then pretended to not laugh when Kerr looked at him.
Golden State rookie Jordan Bell appeared to have gotten away with offensive basket interference in the second half. When he went to the bench after the next timeout, Zaza Pachulia reprimanded him. Jordan was adamant about being innocent but Zaza fired back “I saw the video! You touched it.” Bell said he didn’t, and that was that.
When the game was locked away for the Warriors, a fan got Andre Iguodala’s attention and asked him to sign his hat. Iggy took the hat and marker and walked it to all the stars on the squad. He got Steph and Klay to sign the hat while the kid’s jaw clung to the court. I’ve seen sweet gestures from players before, but nothing on this level. When you’re the kings of the league, you have responsibilities like this. The Golden State Warriors went above and beyond.
For more observations during the game follow @ChrisTrew on Twitter.
