“Ron Adams is our resident – is oenophile correct?”Kerr asked on this week’s “Hoops, Adjacent” podcast. “In fact, when I interviewed Ron to come aboard with the Warriors in 2014, my assistant Nick U’Ren and I took Ron out to dinner to interview him. We ordered a bottle of wine. It was an Italian restaurant. They didn’t have any California Pinots, which is what we were looking for. And the waiter said, ‘You know, if you want, I’ll bring you kind of the Italian version of a Pinot.’ We said great. “So he brings back the wine, he opens it up, he gives Ron the taste – you know, how you swish it around (in your mouth)? Well, Ron became the first person I’ve ever been to dinner with who sent the wine back. On a job interview!”
Ron Adams Rumors
Overall, Adams is feeling mighty positive about this Warriors squad in the wake of a 15-50 season (presuming the Warriors will not be asked to participate in the restart later in the summer). And again, this is all relative, because Adams never got too giddy about things even when the Warriors were clearly the best team in the league a few years back.
“It was difficult to watch, on the one hand,” Adams said specifically of this season’s defensive performance. “But going into the season, I knew there were pretty lofty expectations but it was pretty apparent to me this was going to be a season that tested all of us. … Having said that, I was really proud of this team from multiple standpoints. The first thing is I thought they were very competitive.
“We had some stinker games, but for the most part, regardless of who we were playing, regardless of the number of people we had active that night, the guys went out, they competed, they played pretty well together, they tried to play defense and it was pretty gratifying to see. I would say also that, to a man, they kept their enthusiasm during the course of the year. Especially with the last group that we ended up with, really a good group of guys, they kept their enthusiasm, they kept their work ethic. It’s not easy when you’re winning 15 games to come to work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And I would say that for the most part these guys did that every day.
“We talk a lot about team culture and the environment that we have with the Warriors and the environment that Steve (Kerr) had the foresight to embark on. And I think last year in many ways was, really, the culmination of the other five years. From what I saw exhibited on the part of the players, the coaches, the environment was healthy, it was vibrant. You know, we weren’t as irreverent as we were the first five years, because we had young players. It was a slightly different environment in that regard. But all the tenets were in play. I thought Steve did a wonderful job in guiding this group. It was a shock for Steve, too, because he’d never gone through a season like this. But I really feel this season in some ways, from a lot of standpoints, was one that any coach could take great pride in.
“Sometimes you have to do that during a tough season. You look at how your culture holds up, you look at how you perform, you look at your consistency, you look at the consistency of the guys going through this. You know me, I’m a pretty old-school guy, but I was really pleased with what I saw. I think it’s a real tribute to our leadership, in particular Steve and Bob (Myers) and the atmosphere that Steve continued on this season.”
Ron Adams has, in short, seen enough of Curry to develop a theory behind what disguises his internal inferno. “He’s a human being who lives his life with great joy,” Adams said this week. “He plays with great joy. The way he does it — and I’m not saying others haven’t or can’t — is really unique. He’s an outlier. That’s who he is and how he lives his life. He exemplifies the things that a good human being should possess.”
