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GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 30, 2019Omari SpellmanOakland, California Q. I'm curious your take on Willie's injury. How does that potentially change your role? Do you see that as an opportunity to get some playing time right off the start? OMARI SPELLMAN: I'm going to start off by saying extremely unfortunate for Willie. Everybody wants to earn their spot and earn their keep, but that's never the way you want to earn it. Extremely devastated for Willie, obviously. I don't know the extent of his injury. We haven't really talked about it much, but I know that he was on crutches. That's all I'm going to say on it. I don't want to talk about my potential gain from someone's loss. That's weak. Q. Do you feel in shape to practice day one, and just where do you think you're at right now conditioning-wise? OMARI SPELLMAN: So just to share with you guys, because it's positive so there would be no reason to not share it, Summer League, I'm pretty sure you guys saw, I was pretty heavy. In Summer League I was about 315. This morning before breakfast I was 275, so still want to get down to about 265. That's my comfortable plan for myself, so that's where I'm at with myself. Q. You said 265 -- OMARI SPELLMAN: That's where I want to get to, yes. Q. What went into losing that much weight that quickly? OMARI SPELLMAN: A lot of help, a lot of help from the Golden State Warriors staff, just helping me being consistent, and that was something that I wanted to stress. I never verbalized it to them. They just kind of did it organically, helping me just with being consistent. I'm extremely grateful to them for helping them along this process. Q. They seem to be excited about your ability to potentially stretch the floor at the center position. Do you see that as maybe your primary role, especially within the offense, to just kind of stretch it out for Steph and D'Angelo? OMARI SPELLMAN: I mean, they spoke to me about shooting the basketball and my ability, but they've also spoken to me about rebounding, defending, executing, just trying to make as few mistakes as possible out there, being a young guy. I wouldn't say my role would be exclusively shooting the three ball. I think they still need other things out of someone playing the big man for this team. Q. The Warriors drafted Paschall. You're very familiar with him. You played on a championship team together. How can you describe his game and what type of player and person he is to the Warrior fan base? OMARI SPELLMAN: He is just the ultimate competitor, extremely versatile at his size, strength, athletic ability. Man, he just brings an element a lot of guys don't have the ability to bring, just with his ability to guard I feel like any position. He's just extremely versatile, and he's going to be really good. I'm just glad he's on my side and not the other side. Q. So there's always a regular season game in Europe, this year in Paris between the Hornets and Bucks. I'm just curious if you're interested in playing a game in Europe some day, and which city, if so? OMARI SPELLMAN: I mean, free trip overseas? Cool, I love it. (Laughter). It don't really matter the city to me. I'm pretty sure they'll put it somewhere dope. Yeah, do that. Q. Do you consider yourself a power forward or a center, and is there much difference between those two spots in your mind? OMARI SPELLMAN: I mean, I consider myself a basketball player. Whatever Coach asks me to do, I'm going to do that to the best of my ability. I think we're going into the direction of positionless basketball anyway, so wherever they think I match up best, wherever they want to use me or utilize me, I've just got to trust it. The guys on our coaching staff know a little bit more than me, so that's how I'm going to go with it. Q. Omari, what was your reaction when you heard that you were being traded -- OMARI SPELLMAN: Straight off, I cried. It hurt me. It was just something like very emotional to feel, as though someone that graced a first-round pick on me decided that my time had come to an end after only one year. That was extremely tough for me. But on the flipside, an organization that has been -- let's be honest, the best team in the league for like the last four, five years decided to take a chance on me. Extremely saddening at first, but extremely humbling and uplifting afterwards when I could see it for what it was in a different light. Q. How motivating is that going to be for you throughout the season knowing that Atlanta decided not to keep you after a year? OMARI SPELLMAN: I mean, no ill will or malice in my heart against Atlanta, but I've got some things I want to prove to myself. It ain't really nothing I want to prove to anybody else. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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