Anthony Slater:
Steph Curry officially out with an illness for the Warriors’ game in Sacramento tonight. Jimmy Butler (back), Draymond Green (rib) and Brandin Podziemski (wrist) all deemed questionable.
x.com | Nov. 5, 2025
Baseball hasn’t left Brandin Podziemski completely. Aside from his first pitch in San Francisco, he also made one before a Milwaukee Brewers game last summer — a special moment for the lifelong Brewers fan. He hit some batting practice home runs along the way as well. He still watches the Brewers whenever he can. but he knows his heart is in the right place — and he’s playing the right sport.
“If I could play both, I would,” Brandin said. “I love baseball. It’s my first passion, first love of any sport. It just happens I was gifted with it and really good at it. Always a special place. I love watching in the offseason. I love going to games in the offseason. Just special for sure.”New York Times | Oct. 31, 2025
At four years old, John tried to sign Brandin up for different leagues. Kids weren’t supposed to be in a machine pitch league until they were six, but John was convinced Brandin was ready to skip T-ball. He still remembers putting the tokens in the batting cage machine so his son could get his chance to hit. The first time through, Brandin hit four of the 15 pitches. John fed the machine more tokens so that Brandin could get 15 more chances. He promised the coaches he wasn’t wasting their time.
“He hit 12 of 15 the next time,” John recounted proudly in a phone interview with The Athletic.
New York Times | Oct. 31, 2025
The 22-year-old Warriors guard recently made a bold claim: If he had stuck with the game, he could have been on a similar path to baseball’s biggest star.
“I think I could be the white Shohei (Ohtani),” Brandin said inside a near-empty Chase Center earlier this month. “I think I could do both. Maybe not to the degree he can do it, but I think I could for sure do both. Pitch, play the field, hit, all those things.”New York Times | Oct. 31, 2025
Brandin Podziemski’s first sports love didn’t revolve around the game many would expect. At just two years old, the
Golden State Warriors guard attended a “Sporties for Shorties” program near his Milwaukee-area home and picked up a Bamm Bamm Rubble-style baseball bat straight out of “The Flintstones” for the first time. He’d use the bat and a cushie ball to learn about the sport his father, John, played and loved growing up. An instructor quickly noticed Brandin had the kind of hand-eye coordination and processing ability that sets top-tier athletes apart. His dad watched from a distance and knew it, too. “He’s got it,” John remembers thinking.
Brandin’s baseball skill is still apparent 20 years later. When asked to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a San Francisco Giants game after being drafted by the Warriors in 2023, Brandin, a left-hander, hit 86 miles per hour on the radar gun. He’s convinced that if he spent a spring and summer just working on pitching, he could still throw it in the low 90s.
New York Times | Oct. 31, 2025
Warriors PR:
Warriors exercise team option on Brandin Podziemski.
x.com | Oct. 30, 2025
Anthony Slater: Steve Kerr on Brandin Podziemski pregame:
"He's not at his best right now. He's pressing a little bit. Brandin always wants to be great. Sometimes he just needs to relax and be good and that's when his play becomes great."
x.com | Oct. 27, 2025
That’s when Podziemski, near the end of his answer, says what rarely is admitted. It’s not so much an admission of his own doing but an observation. “To be honest, not everybody wants to be as great as Steph Curry. Some people say it, but not everybody wants to,” Podziemski says. “So it's how can you find that balance of what you want to do, and be as great as you can be." His five minutes of answering questions from the media looks to be over with those words. A follow-up was needed. I had to ask: Do you want to be as great as Steph Curry?
"I want to be better than him,” Podziemski said. “I think that's a tall task, but I want to maximize my talent in the league and get as much out of it as I can."NBC Sports Bay Area | Oct. 22, 2025
