The two stayed together as teammates when Seattle relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008 until the Thunder traded Green and Nenad Krstic for Nate Robinson and Kendrick Perkins before the trade deadline in the 2010-11 season. Since then, Durant and Green have both stayed in touch and helped with various philanthropic projects for PG County. “They’re perfect role models for our area,” said Warriors guard Quinn Cook, who is also close childhood friends with Durant and Green. “They’re great basketball players, but they are better people and better human beings. They’re always there for the young guys. They’re there for advice if you ask any of the teammates. They’ve always been great teammates. It means a lot just to have guys like that with that talent.”
Quinn Cook Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: G
Born: 03/23/93
Height: 6-2 / 1.88
Weight:179 lbs. / 81.2 kg.
Salary: $189,832
Born: 03/23/93
Height: 6-2 / 1.88
Weight:179 lbs. / 81.2 kg.
Salary: $189,832
Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said he considered Cook a “solid player” that excelled as a shooter, running the pick-and-roll and creating off the dribble. But the Cavaliers cut him just before the regular season started and played with the Canton Charge. And though Cook chalked that decision party to a “numbers game,” Lue also observed Cook became too self critical of himself. “He gave it his all. but he tried so hard,” Lue said. “Sometimes he’d make mistakes and he was mad at certain plays and certain possessions.”
Connor Letourneau: Kerr on why Quinn Cook was on the floor late: “He’s a great shooter. … There’s no regrets. You only have regrets if you don’t take the shot.”
Quinn Cook was 14 years old when his father, Ted, died less than a month after falling into a coma during a colon procedure gone awry. Tears streaming down his face as he stood by his father’s hospital bed, Cook thanked his dad for showing him how to be a man and promised to look out for his mother, Janet, and older sister, Kelsey. Then he picked up his basketball and returned to the gym. For more than three hours, he hoisted jumpers in silence as his best friend, Norman Pope, rebounded. “He put all of his focus right back into the gym,” Pope said. “And I’m telling you: He didn’t miss too many shots after that. He was just so focused.”
Now, after starting 18 regular-season games with Stephen Curry sidelined by various injuries, Cook enters Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals Sunday in New Orleans as a key part of Golden State’s future, still guided by the man who shaped his past. “To this day, I still think about my dad all the time,” Cook said. “Somewhere, I know he’s looking down on me and smiling.”
A member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity at Howard University, Ted Cook loved Michael Jordan, a fellow Omega Psi Phi brother at North Carolina, and the Lakers, who wear Omega Psi Phi’s signature purple and gold. On school nights, when Quinn was in elementary and middle school, Ted often let his only son stay up past midnight to watch Lakers games on TV. “Ted was the coolest,” said Pacers guard Victor Oladipo, one of Quinn’s best childhood friends. “He was just one of those cool guys where everyone loved being around him, especially those young hoopers who were coming up in the area. If you ever needed anything, he was there for you.”
