Barbosa returns to mentor Warriors — will they drink the horse medicine?
Before flying to San Francisco for his new job as a playermentor coach for the Warriors, Leandro Barbosa made sure to pack his special horse medicine.
The green liquid, made from the leaves of a South American shrub called arnica do mato and best known for helping horses recover from injuries, has been an essential part of Barbosa’s daily routine for seven years. Each morning and night, he drinks it. Never mind that the liquid wasn’t intended for human consumption. As Barbosa proudly professed to reporters on a conference call Monday, “After I started drinking that thing, I never got hurt anymore.”
This is a big reason why the 37yearold Barbosa, who led the Brazilian league in scoring last season at 20.1 points per game, believes he could have played professionally for at least another couple of years. But when Warriors head coach
Steve Kerr offered him a position on Golden State’s staff, Barbosa figured he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
A willing mentor to younger players throughout his 14year NBA career, Barbosa has long known that he wanted to become an assistant coach once he retired from playing. Now, perhaps sooner than he expected, Barbosa can help bring along the next generation of players for his favorite franchise. Of the five NBA teams he called home, the Warriors were the only one that consistently made him feel like family.
In just two seasons with Golden State (201416), Barbosa reached two Finals, won a title as a key reserve, emerged as a fan favorite and built lasting bonds. Multiple times over the past few years, he visited the Warriors’ locker room during the playoffs. At the root of Barbosa’s return to Golden State was a desire to be around what he calls “the boys” — that is, former teammates Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney.
“I missed everyone,” said Barbosa, who first became close with Kerr when Kerr was his general manager in Phoenix (200710). “I’m just happy. It’ll take a while for me to turn off my (playing) motor, but the good thing is I’ll be able to practice with the guys.”
In his new role, Barbosa will sit behind the team bench during games, assist Kerr at practices and in meetings, fill in for injured players during scrimmages and pepper youngsters with advice. Much of what he’ll say will be passed down from Steve Nash, who, long before leaving his consulting duties with the Warriors earlier this month to become the Nets’ head coach, was an important mentor to Barbosa for seven years with the Suns.
As Barbosa estimated Monday, “Half of my game is because of him.” Such wisdom helped Barbosa emulate Nash’s longevity. Though Barbosa didn’t win two MVP awards in his 30s like Nash, he was a productive role player until his final NBA game with the Suns in 2017.
Over the past three years, Barbosa settled into a comfortable life as the face of his native country’s top league. He married Talita Rocca, a model, and bought a beautiful home in his hometown of São Paulo. Before the Brazilian league shut down, Barbosa led Minas — a club based in Belo Horizonte — to a 179 record and a shot at the championship.
Any semblance of normalcy ended in late March, however, when he tested positive for the coronavirus. Shortly thereafter, Rocca — then 38 weeks pregnant — discovered that she also had the virus. For the baby’s safety, she was induced immediately, with Barbosa forced to watch the birth of his daughter, Isabela, on FaceTime.
“The good news is we’re healthy now,” said Barbosa, who met Monday morning with Kerr to go over his new position ahead of team workouts next week. “Now I’m here in America, and it just makes me sad. As soon as I got to San Francisco, I got really upset because the city doesn’t look like it used to when I was here.”
Though these are uncertain times, Barbosa feels a bit more at ease knowing that he has plenty of horse medicine with him. A halfdecade or so ago, when he tried to turn his Warriors teammates on to the green liquid, they had one taste and vowed never to try it again.
But one day soon, Barbosa will bring it to practice again.
“Maybe it’ll help Klay, you know?” said Barbosa, referencing the torn ACL Thompson is rehabbing. “I’m going to give it to Klay.”