Players with ties to California hope for best as wildfires rage on
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Spurs players from California joined coach Gregg Popovich in expressing sadness Monday over the devastating fires in the state that have left at least 44 dead and forced thousands to evacuate their homes.
The 105,000-acre “Camp Fire” north of Sacramento, the most destructive fire in California’s modern history, has killed at least 42 and destroyed about 6,700 buildings.
Meanwhile, in Southern California, the “Woolsey” and “Hill” fires burning northwest of Los Angeles have resulted in two deaths while destroying mansions in Malibu as well as workingclass suburban homes. Guard DeMar DeRozan said his family is safe in Los Angeles, but that the Montessori school in Hidden Hills near Calabasas in the West San Fernando Valley, where his youngest daughter attends pre-school, was forced to close for the week because of the fire.
“They are out of school for the week until the fires calm down, but that’s about it,” DeRozan said.
Spurs forward Quincy Pondexter is from Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley, which is about four hours south of the fire in Northern California. He said his grandmother and several aunts and uncles live in Fresno and that he has ties to Southern California after living there recently.
“It’s tremendously sad to see so many people affected and lives being lost,” Pondexter said. “There are a lot of courageous firefighters and volunteers out there, trying to piece together what is left right now. It’s devastating, and it’s really sad to see.”
Said DeRozan, “It just sucks when these fires happen because they are hard to keep under control and a lot of people get affected. It always seems to happen when summer is over. Once those winds kick up, it makes things rough.”
Like DeRozan, rookie forward Chimezie Metu is a Los Angeles native who played at Southern Cal. Metu said the fires have not affected his family.
Popovich has several ties to California, having been a college coach at PomonaPitzur in Los Angeles before his NBA days and having spent so much time in the California wine country.
Popovich also was stationed as an officer in the Air Force at California’s Moffett Federal Airfield in the early 1970s.
“It’s unbelievable,” Popovich said of the fires. “Just so much misery back to back like that is hard to fathom. On the news, they talk about people couldn’t get out of their cars (before flames engulfed them). I can’t imagine dealing with a situation like that. It’s mindboggling, really sad.”
DeRozan said Californians are resilient and try to keep things in perspective when it comes to fires and other natural disasters that plague the state, including earthquakes and mudslides.
“We always look at it like we don’t get tornadoes, we don’t get hurricanes,” he said. “A lot of people back east say they wouldn’t know how to react to an earthquake.”
The fires in Northern California have resulted in poor air quality in Sacramento. There was some smoke inside the Golden 1 Center during the Spurs’ shootaround Monday morning, but DeRozan said it didn’t bother the players.
By pregame warmups, the smoke had been removed from the building.
“The Kings have done a great job,” Popovich said. “The gym is amazing compared to what I heard it was like. They’ve done a heck of a job getting ready for this game.”
Frontcourt help arrives: The Spurs’ injuryweakened frontcourt received a boost Monday with the return of forward Rudy Gay and center Jakob Poeltl.
Gay missed three games with soreness in his right heel. Poeltl sat out one game with a sprained right ankle.
Despite Gay’s return, Popovich stayed with the start- ing lineup of Derrick White and Bryn Forbes at the guards, DeMar DeRozan and Dante Cunningham at the forwards and LaMarcus Aldridge at center. Gay has started seven of the games he’s played this season.
The Spurs are still without center Pau Gasol, who is wearing a walking boot on his sore left foot. Gasol did not make the trip to Sacramento.