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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

May 25, 2019

Kevon Looney

Oakland, California

Q. So, have you been getting hit up for tickets yet?
KEVON LOONEY: For sure. Definitely. Definitely getting hit up already. But wait and see what happens. Yeah.

Q. Do you -- you've been through this before. Is the same thing every year in terms of people like coming and looking like, can you get me tickets, can you do this, can you do that?
KEVON LOONEY: It's more this year being that it's a chance that we can play Milwaukee, so it's going to be a lot more crazier than years before. But during this time of year it's always a lot of people asking for tickets and trying to get to the game, but guys, we're used to handling this, we got people that we put in charge of that stuff, we just focus on basketball.

Q. Does that mean you're rooting for Toronto because it will be easier for you?
KEVON LOONEY: I don't know, it don't really matter to me. You don't get to go to The Finals that often, so if it's a chance for me to go home and play in front of a lot of my family and friends, then that is cool too.

Q. Are these people that you haven't heard from in a while, are some of the people, people that you haven't heard from in a while?
KEVON LOONEY: No, it's people I hear from a lot actually. When I go home I always make sure that I go see everybody that helped me out growing up and so it's a lot of people that I talk to and see, but I think that I already put it out there that The Finals is different than the regular season, so only the main people get to go.

Q. For those people you want to be able to help them and do that stuff for them, right?
KEVON LOONEY: Definitely. The regular season I always give a lot of tickets out, but during The Finals it's mainly I try to take care of my family and real close friends. A lot of times, regular season, I let friends of friends come, but this time I'm cutting it down, if it happens.

Q. There is sort of a national narrative going that if KD isn't available for the first two games or for this series that either Milwaukee or Toronto will be a difficult matchup for the Warriors because of their size and the length. What's your reaction to that?
KEVON LOONEY: I mean it's a -- without having KD it's going to be tough, but we're a resilient team, we're going to figure out ways to counter that and play without him. We won big games without him before, but The Finals is different, having KD in The Finals is, he's been dominating The Finals the last two years and he's a big help for us. But we know at some point he's going to come back and our job is to win games and play as hard as possible until he gets there.

Q. Given the outside conversation about -- there's that conversation that you mentioned and then there's also whether you guys are better without KD or different. How do you expect, given that talk, how do you expect him to play when he gets back?
KEVON LOONEY: I expect him to be himself. We know -- we don't listen to that, we know we're better with him on the court that's why we brought him in, to make us better, and we know that to win a championship we need a guy like that to be on the court with us. We need him to be himself and we need him to dominate the game and do what he was doing before he got hurt. It's not like he missed the whole season or a whole year, he only missed about four or five games, so we're better with him and he's a big difference maker for us and he's the best closer in the League and to have him in The Finals will be great.

Q. Do you expect the him back at some point in the series?
KEVON LOONEY: I think so. Never know with injuries -- and I've been hurt before and everybody's body is different -- so he's taking it a day at a time and whatever coach says or training staff says he's ready, he says he's ready, we expect him to be there. But until then we got to try to focus in and try to win without him.

Q. How is DeMarcus looking?
KEVON LOONEY: DeMarcus is getting better. He played with us a little bit yesterday and he's getting better each day, getting in better shape each day and I think he's excited to try to get out there and play and we're excited to have him back of the. And having him on the bench, just having that energy for us was big, even when he wasn't playing, so having him in a uniform will be great, he knows his body's been hurt before and so whenever he says he's ready we're excited to have him back.

Q. Is it sort of whatever you get out of him is a plus, even if he can't play big minutes yet?
KEVON LOONEY: Definitely. If he can't play big minutes we know whenever he's on the court he's capable of going off for 20 and 10 or 30 and 10 and we just want him, if he's out there, he's always going to be a plus for us. Our motto is strength in numbers and we always play center by committee, so having that extra guy to go out there and change the game a little bit will be great.

Q. This team's so talented that I think sometimes there's a perception out there that any coach could just roll the ball out and you guys would win 60. What does Steve Kerr do to maximize the talent that he does have on this team?
KEVON LOONEY: He instills confidence in everybody. He gives everybody a role. I think that in the NBA guys need to know their role and know what to do so everything goes smoothly and I think he does a great job of giving guys a role and giving everybody an opportunity to play and I think that that overall helps the bench and that helps everybody with their happiness and keeping guys locked in. And knowing that -- also, having stars and having this much talent it can be tough, because everybody wants to play, everybody wants to contribute, but I think he does a great job of talking to players and making sure that everything is going well in life and on the court and I think that -- I feel he's real personable and he makes everybody feel comfortable and confident so when we go on the court we all got a great chemistry.

Q. Is communication a big part of that, letting guys know where they stand and what the situation is?
KEVON LOONEY: Definitely. Definitely. Everybody wants to know what their role is in the situation. Nobody wants to go in the game not knowing what's going to happen, not knowing if they're going to play and I think Steve does a great job of telling guys when they're going to play, when to be ready and when their opportunity's going to come and that keeps guys happy.

Q. What have you been doing to kill all this time in between the end of Portland and the beginning of The Finals?
KEVON LOONEY: It's tough not having basketball on TV as much so -- usually I will watch basketball but right now just been hanging out with my family, just getting in the gym, getting a lot of shots up. But really just been chilling out, hanging out with my family. A lot of times we don't get to sit at home and we always are on the road, we're always moving, but these last couple days just been hanging out with my mom and dad, my brothers, my sister, my girlfriend, just chilling out and getting ready.

Q. The NBA schedule is what it is, you guys are always going and now you got this block of nine days. How strange is it?
KEVON LOONEY: It's kind of weird. You're home every day you're waking up like, man, I still got my suitcase packed from the last trip like, man, when we leaving again? So it's a little different and then, it being the Playoffs, only two, three teams left right now, you see other guys and they're in the off-season training already and you're still thinking about games, so it's kind of weird.

Q. Have you guys planned anything to watch this game tonight together? Is anybody getting together or doing anything like that?
KEVON LOONEY: I don't think. So guys are just really watching on their own, everybody's really with their family and just trying to -- but everybody's going to watch. We got a group text and usually we're talking about the game, did you see that play, did you see what happened, so we always talk about that. And we're with each other so much on the road and we got enough bonding time, we need to get away from each other sometimes.

Q. So it's okay.
KEVON LOONEY: Yeah, yeah.

Q. Who is the most vocal on the group text?
KEVON LOONEY: It depends on the day. You got some days it's Draymond or KD, Andre, and maybe and probably Boge, them guys they talk a lot in the group chat, so they're there for us.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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