Warriors still shaking off China jet lag
As he sat at the interview table, Warriors reserve center JaVale McGee did not just wrap up the end of his workday. It might have been the end of his day, period.
With his sleep pattern “still messed up” after last week’s trip to China, McGee woke up at 5 a. m. Thursday and could not go back to sleep. So he might be due for an afternoon crash.
“It’s been real sporadic,” McGee said. “I’ve been waking up at weird times and going to sleep at weird times, too. It’s just weird.”
So weird that McGee took an unwanted nap at 5 p.m. Wednesday, only to wake up two hours later with a crook in his neck. Instead of sleeping early Thursday morning, McGee rose at 5 a.m. and spent his time scrolling through Instagram, watching videos and making avocado toast before heading to the gym.
McGee’s adjustments aside, though, Warriors coach Steve Kerr sensed more normalcy during Thursday’s practice. He jokingly proclaimed that “today is officially the last day we’re going to talk about China” after seeing a much more productive practice than on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Our guys were actually here, present emotionally and physically,” Kerr said. “The last couple of days, we were sleepwalking, and clearly the time change with all that was a factor.”
Kerr had a light session Tuesday only to tell his players to leave early. The Warriors had a more prolonged practice Wednesday, though Kerr still sensed some rustiness. Though he saw his players “running in boots” at the beginning of Thursday’s session, Kerr noticed “the light went on” about halfway through as they scrimmaged.
“I felt like the speed and the pace came back,” Kerr said. “Hopefully we’re over the hump.”
As McGee experienced, though, that process might still take some time.
“I haven’t been taking naps on purpose. I’m trying to avoid that,” Kerr said. “I get really tired at night and I lie down in bed and I stare at the ceiling for two hours. I don’t know. It’s weird and a really tough reentry.”
Mom stands by Curry after Trump flap
It took only one tweet for Sonya Curry to reconsider her stance on using social media, on her parenting and on keeping her composure. President Donald Trump had just posted a tweet that reverberated around the sportsworld and ignited an early- morning storm in her son’s household.
“Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team,” Trump tweeted nearly 2 ½ weeks ago. “Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!”
Stephen Curry received praise for criticizing Trump’s rhetoric. He also received criticism for saying he would not visit the White House to celebrate the Warriors’ 2017 NBA championship. As the supportive and hateful messages appeared online, Sonya Curry’s motherly instinct suggested that she do one thing.
“I wanted to get on social media and I wanted to take up for my child,” she told the Bay Area News Group. “I’m not a big social-media person. But that was the one time I wanted to tell a whole lot of people off.”
Before she began typing her 140 characters, Sonya Curry’s husband spoke up.
“Chill out,” said Dell Curry, a former NBA player and father of Steph.
Sonya Curry has kept that mindset in the weeks since then. Before and after games, she usually has sent her son text messages filled with Bible verses or “encouraging words,” as Stephen Curry put it. When it came to talking to her son about being outspoken toward Trump, though, what perspective did Sonya Curry offer?
“Actually, none,” she said. “There’s one thing I’ve always prescribed to as a parent. You really only, as a parent, have so many years to influence your children in a more direct way.”
Instead, Sonya Curry made a deliberate attempt not to hover over her 29-year-old son as he fielded various questions that did not pertain to basketball. Among the topics: Trump, the rejected White House visit, NFL players kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and many more.
“That’s part of him being himself, and it’s what he believed,” Sonya Curry said. “I was proud of him for having the courage to do it and do it in a respectful way. We always try to say, be respectful. A lot of people wouldn’t do it. He has nothing to be ashamed about.”