The Golden State Warriors put together another great season and finished with the fourth championship in eight Finals’ appearances. Former Warriors’ center Festus Ezeli talked about the philosophy behind the franchise success.
“The reason why [the Warriors] are still good is because they learned something: after every game, they count all their passes,” Ezeli said in a NBA Africa Day panel discussion alongside basketball coach Liz Mills.
“There are some games where we win by 30 and [the] coach is like: ‘That’s not acceptable, because we didn’t hit our number of passes we were supposed to get.’”
Ezeli was part of the Warriors’ team from 2012 t0 2015 and helped the team to win the first championship before leaving the team in 2016. His career was derailed by injuries but he learned valuable lessons during his stint in Bay Area.
“The idea is, the ball is energy. If you move the ball, everybody is included. Back to the original point I gave you: it’s amazing what can be accomplished when nobody gets the glory,” Ezeli noted.
Ezeli recently returned to professional basketball signing a contract with the Westchester Knicks of the NBA G League and appeared in two games. He continued in the Basketball Africa League with Rivers Hoopers.
However, before playing a single game, he was injured and replaced by Robinson Opong. In 170 NBA games, he possesses averages of 4.2 points and 4.3 rebounds. He appeared in 55 playoff games with the Warriors.