Podziemski’s intense competitive fire led him to NBA, and led Warriors to him

LAS VEGAS – Brandin Podziemski was supposed to leave with Trayce Jackson-Davis. Dripping with sweat in his blue Warriors hoodie, they’d done an hour more than their required work for the day, and Vegas was calling.

But the No. 19 pick stayed behind. Instead of heading out to enjoy his free time on the Strip, he parked his butt on a metal bleacher and took in an even rarer sight at the Warriors’ practice facility in Las Vegas.

Stephen Curry and Chris Paul, two future Hall of Famers and his new teammates, working out together for the first time since 2009.

“It’s a million-dollar experience,” Podziemski said. “Anybody would pay any amount of money to watch them two work out.”

Who would’ve thought the kid who didn’t take basketball seriously until eighth grade and rode the bench in college just two years ago would wind up here?

“It’s a super surreal moment,” Podziemski said.

Podziemski stayed for another hour and soaked in every piece of knowledge they were willing to share. They talked about handling point guard responsibilities and the nuances of the game. They also discussed the challenges that await Podziemski as he prepares for his rookie season.

All of it left the 20-year-old wanting more.

“I’m super serious about it,” Podziemski said. “I want to be the best that I can be and help the team win.”

Podziemski was far from his best in Summer League, and sees no reason to sugarcoat that fact.

“I played pretty bad,” he told reporters after the final game.

Podziemski averaged 9 points while shooting 26.3% from the field and 21.7% from 3-point range in five Summer League games. He led rookie shooting guards in assists (6.0) and was second in rebounds among rookies at his position (6.8) in Vegas, but he also turned the ball over an average of 4.2 times per game.

But Podziemski isn’t going to let his disappointing shooting numbers in the summer showcase shake his belief that he can be an impactful NBA player as a rookie. That’s not who he is.

He is ultra-confident, perhaps even borderline arrogant by some accounts. A day after the draft, he declared that he was going to one day be a “triple-double guy in the NBA,” despite never recording a single such game in two years of college ball.

Some might balk at such a declaration, but the Warriors were excited.

“I wouldn’t sell him short for what he can do,” Mike Dunleavy Jr. said of Podziemski on draft night. “He’s got a really high skill level. And when you have a really high skill level (and) toughness, you have a chance.”

Family, friends and coaches say Podziemski has always been like this. Even going back to elementary school, he’s had this edge to him, an unrelenting desire to be great and prove people wrong.

A 4-year-old Podziemski would challenge his father for a rematch when he lost “Washer Toss,” a game that involves tossing discs into an open pipe that the Podziemski men play during their annual camping trip.

As a sophomore at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academies outside Milwaukee, he walked into the gym and surveyed the wall where he saw coach DJ Mlachnik’s name next to all the 3-point records. He then turned to Mlachnik and said, “I’m taking all those down.” He later followed through on that threat.

Both Podziemski and his father, John Podziemski, suggested his upbringing is the reason he’s tough and determined.

“Growing up, my parents never let me win anything,” Podziemski said.

John described the Podziemskis as a “competitive family.” From a young age, he’d tell his son, “If you’re going to win, you got to win it yourself. You got to work harder. If you want to do it, it’s not going to be handed to you.”

From that, Podziemski later adopted a mantra: “The work’s always gonna win.”

Nearly every pro athlete has at least one story of going above and beyond in training during the climb to the top. That’s why Herb Sendek, who coached Podziemski at Santa Clara after he transferred from Illinois, said isolating one example of Podziemski’s hard work would diminish its totality.

“What sets him apart is his consistency with it,” Sendek said. “It’s just day-in, day-out, it’s a habit. It’s more of a habit than it is an example.”

Becoming an NBA player was not a goal or a pie-in-the-sky dream for Podziemski. It was an obsession.

“He’s an outlier,” Sendek said. “We’ve coached many guys who work really hard and want to be the best, but he is among the guys who I would say was most consumed with that.”

That drive pushed an unsettled Podziemski back to the Warriors’ off-Strip practice facility to work out for another hour and a half after playing 32 minutes in a Summer League game.

“My shots will start to go in!!!” he tweeted after going 1-for-10 from the field. “I trust my work and preparation!!!”

Podziemski received a text from Curry while in Vegas, reminding him that even Curry, now a four-time NBA champion, struggled with his shot during his rookie Summer League showing.

Podziemski said Curry reassured him that the shots will start falling and lauded his ability to impact the game in other ways.