Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins meets news media.
Guber ready to oversee yet another blockbuster
Peter Guber sat in the front row for DeMarcus Cousins’ introductory news conference Thursday, pondering twists in the Warriors’ plot. Like a really good film, he surmises, this gets more interesting all the time.
“It’s a change of script,” he said. “That is very, very healthy.” As the Warriors’ co-owner, along with Joe Lacob, Guber is the entertainment guy. He’s in charge of the show, the spectacle, a product that doesn’t go stale. As a prime-time Holly-
wood movie mogul, he produced or executive-produced “Rain Man,” “The Color Purple,” “Midnight Express” and countless other blockbusters. He knows how to keep an audience engaged — and in the Warriors’ case, that includes the players themselves.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a Golden State team gunning for its fourth NBA title in five years, but there were hints of malaise last season. Weary of the 82-game grind, impatiently waiting for the playoffs to start, several players admitted it was difficult to stay motivated.
It’s not that they grew tired of each other, although there were shaded hints of occasional discord. Things just got a bit monotonous, that’s all (as players around the league roll their eyes). It showed up at Oracle Arena, where the levels of volume and craziness didn’t quite measure up to the past. How nice, the Warriors thought, if we could shake up this dynamic without breaking up the gang.
In signing Cousins, the Warriors broke the needle on the NBA’s Richter scale.
“Two of the most human needs are certainty and variety,” Guber said. “We’ve had a high degree of certainty over the last few years, but if you don’t have that variety, you get bored. Now we’ve fulfilled both ends. The new experience, new expectations — that’s so important in any entertainment component. It’s great for the team, the sponsors, the media and the fans.
“Now, of course there’s some uncertainty about that,” he said. “How will it fit together? Will it work? Will it tip over the boat? No. It won’t tip over. Because with this team and this coach (Steve Kerr), we’ve got a really strong tiller on the water.”
There were no veteran players in attendance for Cousins’ unveiling, but don’t take that the wrong way. “We told the guys to stay away from here as much as they can, just forget about basketball and get away,” said a team spokesman (Stephen Curry, for one, was undoubtedly immersed in the British Open golf telecast). It mattered little, because Cousins handled the assignment just fine.
At ease, with nothing in particular going on, Cousins wears a look of weariness, a sort of natural skepticism. That can happen when you’ve never played for a winner — he’s never been in the NBA playoffs — and the incendiary nature of Cousins’ temper is well documented.
That menacing face can break, though, and when it does, with laughter and a smile, an entirely new man is revealed.
Take the matter of Klay Thompson, for instance. Kerr calls him the coolest guy around, a star player completely unaffected by stardom, a guy who loves his dog, speaks in clipped sentences and watches his reputation grow organically. Thompson is currently on his annual trip to China, where he’s a veritable rock star.
“Just to put this out there, my favorite, by far, is Klay,” Cousins said with a chuckle as he sat between general manager Bob Myers and radio announcer Tim Roye on stage. “The short time we’ve spent together, for him to be as dull as he is, there’s never a dull moment.”
Cousins has requested the number 0 — not to be confused with the Warriors’ last great center, Robert Parish, who wore 00 in the late 1970s — that currently belongs to Patrick McCaw. What happens if McCaw, a restricted free agent, sorts out his contractual matters and returns to the team? “Let’s just say that Pat’s a tough negotiator,” Cousins said.
Someone mentioned the possibility of friction among Cousins, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant, three of the NBA’s most volatile, technical foul-prone players. “People think y’all are gonna fight,” a reporter said. “Is this gonna be an all-out brawl? Will you get it in, one time, just to get it out of the way?”
“Might as well,” said Cousins, and the room broke up in laughter again.
The truth about this signing is that the Warriors’ players wouldn’t have approved if they didn’t think Cousins is a good guy. They’ve seen too much evidence, off the court and as teammates in the USA Basketball program. They can’t wait to see how he handles himself in a winning atmosphere.
“I met (Cousins) at the Giants’ ballpark a couple months ago,” said Guber, who happens to be a primary partner in the Dodgers’ ownership group. “Magic ( Johnson) and I were sitting with him during the game, just talking baseball and sports, and he was a totally charming guy. Up close and personal, it’s a lot different than his court presence. This is a super-talented guy. A star. Bringing him here, it’s like ... I don’t know, ‘The Dirty Dozen’?”
Guber referred to the 1967 action film about a group of World War II soldiers assigned to parachute across enemy lines into Germany, with a star-studded cast including Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas and John Cassavetes.
“I hope he doesn’t wind up like Trini Lopez,” I ventured. Lopez’s character parachuted into some thorny vegetation and was killed before he could hit the ground.
“No, no, no,” said Guber. “I think he’s Clint Eastwood.”