Already on spot, Warriors draft pick scores in Italian
Nico Mannion handled his first pressure situation with the Warriors, well, like a pro.
Mannion and James Wiseman appeared at their introductory news conference Thursday in the plaza outside Chase Center. Wiseman, at general manager Bob Myers’ behest, produced a few sentences in Mandarin, which he learned as a high school student in Nashville.
Then the spotlight shifted to Mannion. He was born and spent his early childhood in Siena, Italy, so Myers figured Mannion could share a little Italian. And he did, on the spot, smoothly articulating … actually we have no idea what he said, but it sounded cool.
Mannion, a 19yearold redhead who played one season at Arizona ( head coach Steve Kerr’s alma mater), counts as an intriguing prospect. He’s a creative, passfirst, 6foot3 point guard who figures to compete for a roster spot, given Golden State’s perpetual search for a playmaker to back up Stephen Curry.
The Warriors selected Mannion in the second round of the NBA draft Wednesday night, with the No. 48 overall pick. Some family symmetry is at work here — the Warriors took Mannion’s dad, Pace, with the No. 43 overall pick in the 1983 draft.
Pace Mannion played in college at Utah, spent one year with the Warriors and lasted fiveplus seasons in the NBA before heading to the Italian league. He married Gaia Bianchi, an Italian woman who played volleyball for her national team.
The family lived in Bianchi’s homeland before moving to Salt Lake City and then Phoenix, where Nico attended high school. He has dual citizenship, played on Italy’s under16 national team ( he scored 42 against Russia) and also on its national team in 2018.
“Those experiences were great for me,” Mannion said Thursday. “I learned a whole lot. And it’s a different style of basketball over there in Europe. I kind of tried to learn that style, incorporate it and bring it back to the U. S., just to have more in my game.”
Mannion averaged 14 points and 5.3 assists in his only season at Arizona, earning firstteam AllPac12 honors.
Asked if he emulated anyone growing up, Mannion wisely mentioned “my pops” ( even though he only watched video of his dad’s career). Then he cited a familiar name to NBA fans.
“The player I looked up to the most, watched the most film on and studied the most is probably Steve Nash,” Mannion said. “Just because of his IQ, the way he sees the game and the kind of person he is off the court.”
Nash, a Hall of Famer and twotime MVP, played in college at Santa Clara and worked as a Warriors consultant in recent years. He’s now head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
The Warriors’ other secondround draft choice, former Boise State shooting guard Justinian Jessup, did not attend Thursday’s news conference. He is playing professionally in Australia, though the Warriors will retain his NBA rights and could bring him to the U. S. for the 202122 season.