On the Road With Brandin Podziemski, Who Learned How to Nap from Steph Curry

Do you sleep better in a hotel room than you do at home?

No, I love my bed here. I feel like I get the best sleep here at home. But it’s different. We just had a five-game trip for 12 days. That’s five different cities, five different beds, five different pillows. Each hotel—obviously, really nice hotels—bring something different. Maybe the pillow’s too hard in one place, the pillow’s too soft, but my bed here has everything that I like.

Do you still like hotels?

I think, as a rookie, you’re excited to see what hotels you’re staying in and what the plane looks like, all the little things that the average fan doesn’t get to see. The first time around was cool, but once you play in the same place twice and stay in the same hotel twice, you’re like, I’m kind of sick of it. You’d almost rather just fly in on the day of the game and get out of there. That’s actually not allowed per NBA policy, just in case the flight gets messed up.

How much travel did you do as a kid? Were you seeing a lot of these cities for the first time last year?

I traveled a lot via sports when I was younger, but it wasn’t these big cities. A lot of it was suburbs, so I didn’t really get to see what it was like. I’ve been to a lot of states in my life before the NBA, so I got to see quite a lot of things, but nothing on this level. If we have a day off it’s fun to go out. Last year a lot of people didn’t know who I was, so I could just roam free, find things for myself, and go see things. It’s really fun to do that.

Do you have hard opinions on favorite and least favorite NBA cities?

I’ll tell you my least favorites! San Antonio, Memphis, Portland…Cleveland is okay. Those are the ones where you don’t want to spend more time there than you have to.

You left out one that we hear a lot, which is Utah.

I think Utah has grown on me a little bit. The scenery, University of Utah is close, the mountains are right there. It’s obviously not something I prefer, but it’s nice to look at.

What’s the criteria for you? Being able to walk around? Weather? What makes a good city vs. a bad city?

I think it’s how busy it is. The shopping, the food, how close things are to the hotel, the scenery. It’s a bunch of everything. There’s a bunch of cities that are good. I’m not a big LA guy, but we stay in Beverly Hills so Rodeo is right there, which is nice. I like doing that. Going home to Milwaukee is nice. Chicago is nice, Minnesota is nice, Dallas is nice. You obviously have Miami and Atlanta. My favorite city that we stay in is Toronto, though.

The part of NBA travel that really fascinates me is back-to-backs where you play two games in two nights in two different cities. What’s been your key for adjusting to that and making sure you’re good to go for the second game?

It’s tough. I think our performance and medical teams do a good job of getting our bodies ready after that first game. You can’t avoid the inevitable fatigue from the prior night. With those games, it’s more mental than physical. It’s the team who brings more effort. The harder you play, the more the game rewards you, even if you’re not physically at your best. If the other team has had a back-to-back too, that kind of evens the playing field. Who wants it more?

As a young guy, you have older guys who are more fatigued than you, so it’s your job to bring the best out of them, bring the energy, find a way for them to get excited to play two days in a row in different cities.

What’s it like traveling with Steph? That level of celebrity must be fascinating to see up close.

I enjoy it. Whether it’s getting off the bus or leaving the hotel, I try to walk with him. That way, I don’t get stopped. I can just keep walking because everyone wants Steph. From his perspective, I imagine it’s pretty crazy. It’s cool, but he can’t live a normal life, you know? I said that I like to go out in the cities and explore; he can’t. It’s always a crowd around him. Obviously, everything he’s gotten, he deserves. People love him for a reason, and it makes sense. But if I was in his shoes it’d be like, “Damn, I can’t just go to a restaurant and get some food? I gotta have it sent to the room?” I don’t know how fun that is for him.

Draymond, even some of our young guys who are up and coming like Jonathan [Kuminga], it happens to them too. If I’m fortunate enough to be in their position one day, how am I going to go about doing that? Because I still want to be a human at the end of the day.

Do you have any fear of flying?

I’m all good with that. Lay my seat back, put on some TV shows, call it a day.

Yeah, Chris didn’t like turbulence. Him, Draymond, Cory [Joseph], Steph, and Klay [Thompson] always used to play cards at the back of the plane, and Chris didn’t like when there was turbulence, for sure.