Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski was not all about basketball growing up. His dad wanted him to be a baseball player but he eventually decided to settle with basketball, a choice that he definitely isn’t regretting, given how things turned out for him.
During a recent appearance on the “The Dinner Table” podcast, Podziemski shared how he revealed to his dad that it was basketball over baseball for him (h/t Jordan Elliott of NBC Sports Bay Area).
“My mom, she’s kind of go with the flow. So, whatever I want to do, she’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s fine.’ But my dad was so big on me making it in baseball, playing. It’s something that he couldn’t make it in, so he wanted me to make it in.
“It was a hard conversation, I remember we were driving back from a tournament in Nashville, and I just told him in the car, ‘I don’t think I want to play baseball anymore. I think basketball is something I love to do now, and this is just where I want to stop.’
In college, Podziemski played a year for the Illinois Fighting Illini before transferring to the Santa Clara Broncos for his sophomore year. With the Broncos, Podziemski blossomed into a star, as he averaged 19.9 points on 48.3 percent shooting from the field and 43.8 percent shooting from deep while contributing 8.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per outing.
The Warriors took notice of Podziemski and selected him 19th overall in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft. He made his mark in the pros right away, as he averaged 9.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in 74 games in his first year with Golden State while also finishing fifth in the Rookie of the Year Award voting.
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