Anthony Slater: Kevon Looney will start at power forward tonight in Atlanta, next to Willie Cauley-Stein. Returns after 20 missed games. Will play in short bursts.
Willie Cauley-Stein Rumors
All NBA Players
Position: C
Born: 08/18/93
Height: 7-0 / 2.13
Weight:242 lbs. / 109.8 kg.
Salary: $2,177,483
Born: 08/18/93
Height: 7-0 / 2.13
Weight:242 lbs. / 109.8 kg.
Salary: $2,177,483
“With the face tats and all the jewelry and swagger, it just intimidates people,” Cauley-Stein told The Undefeated. “I’m a shy dude, believe it or not. I’m not going to go be the first one to talk to you, even if I wanted to. … Most of the time I got this look on my face like I really want to talk to you, but I don’t know how to talk to you. It’s mutual. “They don’t know how to come up to you either. They say, ‘Man, you got tattoos on your face.’ The first thing that they see. They’re not even looking in your eyes. They’re looking at the tattoos on your face. I made that perception on me because I felt like that’s part of my movement. I want to look like the ’hood but … I want to get past the perception of what people put on people. The stigma that they put on, on people that look like me.”
Willie Cauley-Stein: I had some tattoos [at Kentucky], but I hadn’t really gone crazy. And my mom was like, ‘You don’t go crazy.’ She knew all the things that come with having tattoos. She’s more tattooed than me, so she gets the stigma on it. And, to me, I want that. I want people to look at me, think I’m some thug and then talk to me and realize this dude is intelligent. Just completely different than what we thought. And that’s my whole movement. You can’t look at me and already put some tag on me and then not even have a conversation and confirm your tag.
Why did you sign with the Warriors last offseason? Willie Cauley-Stein: In Sacramento, they put a tag on me that I wasn’t invested or I didn’t care about hoops like that. A lot of stuff that this platform exited out. You can’t go to one coach or one trainer in that facility and say I don’t work hard. But that’s one thing that they used to say. ‘Oh, he don’t work hard enough, blah, blah, blah.’ Dude, you don’t know how hard I’m working. So, that was like the biggest thing for me was the clout that this team has. The championship. Got wins. But most importantly, they get it. They get it from a perspective that some teams can’t even get close to touching. … If I wasn’t invested in hoops, I would not come to the Warriors. The stage is too hard. Everybody’s looking at this. If I didn’t really like hoops, I’m going to go get a bag somewhere else. A little pretty bag.
You have a player option for next season, but it appears you love it with the Warriors. Willie Cauley-Stein: I love the guys. I love the environment. I love the city. And I haven’t been in a city like this. It’s all new and energizing in a way. And there is a lot of opportunity to grow in life, period, not just hoops. And that all comes from just being around these group of guys and the group of coaches, the atmosphere around the city.
Willie Cauley-Stein: In Sacramento, they put a tag on me that I wasn’t invested or I didn’t care about hoops like that. A lot of stuff that this platform exited out. You can’t go to one coach or one trainer in that facility and say I don’t work hard. But that’s one thing that they used to say. ‘Oh, he don’t work hard enough, blah, blah, blah.’ Dude, you don’t know how hard I’m working. So, that was like the biggest thing for me was the clout that this team has. The championship. Got wins. But most importantly, they get it. They get it from a perspective that some teams can’t even get close to touching. … If I wasn’t invested in hoops, I would not come to the Warriors. The stage is too hard. Everybody’s looking at this. If I didn’t really like hoops, I’m going to go get a bag somewhere else. A little pretty bag.
“They don’t know how to come up to you either. They say, ‘Man, you got tattoos on your face.’ The first thing that they see. They’re not even looking in your eyes. They’re looking at the tattoos on your face. I made that perception on me because I felt like that’s part of my movement. I want to look like the ’hood but … I want to get past the perception of what people put on people. The stigma that they put on, on people that look like me.” Cauley-Stein, who changed his middle name a few years ago to “Trill,” which means true and real, is a native of small-town Spearville, Kansas. Fans can catch him riding the streets of San Francisco on an electric bicycle and bringing a silver briefcase to work at the Chase Center. And, in his free time, he enjoys painting street art.
