On Sunday, after dinner, I called my mother in Indiana. She had seen the name Yaxel Lendeborg go past, the Golden State rookie, eleventh pick in the Draft. She wanted to know why a twenty-four-year-old was telling people he had been scared.
I read her what he told BasketNews. He was on his phone when assistant coach Frank Vogel walked over and told him he was guarding Luka that night. He tried to look cool. “So I tried to act all cool and not spooked. But I was spooked, man. That’s crazy.” Then, when the team got to the arena, they told him Doncic wasn’t playing, he was resting for the night. “It was a complete shift of what I had planned in my mind.”
Let me tell you: I know that feeling. In 2000, in my first game in Charleroi, the coach told me in the changing room who I was guarding. A forward everyone was talking about, in the hall with the badminton lines. I played the calm American, the one who had played college ball. I wasn’t. I told nobody for twenty-five years. My wife found out over the phone, at the same time as my mother.
He told BasketNews, without waiting twenty-five years. And he played anyway: seventeen points, five rebounds, four assists, and a win, one hundred and one to eighty-nine. Steve Kerr plans to start him from the opening of the season. On 21 October, the season opens at the Crypto.com Arena, against the same Lakers.
My mother thought it over. She asked whether, on the 21st, he would already know who he’s guarding. I said I didn’t know. That they’ll tell him that one on his phone again, maybe.
She said: a boy who admits he was scared listened to the coach. The others pretend and listen to nothing. She said: see? I saw. That’s fundamentals too.
It’s true, we checked: BasketNews.
