GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 25, 2022

Jonathan Kuminga

Media Conference

Q. What are you seeing with the second unit?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: Great, especially going in my second year, knowing more stuff than last year. Man, it felt great just to be out there and seeing everybody healthy and practicing at a high level, and just seeing the second unit with the young core, it's good that we are actually getting to watch the starting five, our vets and stuff like that, picking at their brains. I mean, just having those type of veterans around, I feel like that will help us a lot.

Q. What was the summer like for a rookie who was on a championship team?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I mean, my summer was kind of busy. I was pretty much all over doing the right things, things that going to benefit me in the future or even training camp, just working out, strike and just seeing families.

Q. Were you able to enjoy being a champion with the trophy and everything?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I mean, I don't have to bring the trophy back home. We didn't make that happen but hopefully next time I get to bring it back home.

Q. But that's what you wanted to do?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I really wanted to do that, yeah.

Q. What about the people back home that know that you're a champion?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: Everyone was really excited, seeing me coming back, a lot of people was really excited just seeing me getting drafted, winning the Championship as a rookie. It was everything I ever dream of.

Q. What would you say, now that you have had time to reflect on your postseason run, what would you say was the biggest thing you learned throughout all of that process?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I would say throughout the process, I would say just being more patient. Working on my craft. Getting better every day as a person and as a basketball player.

I would say the biggest thing is just finding a way to grow.

Q. And what were some of the key focuses in your off-season program?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I mean, the most focus was just to get better every day. There might have been good days, bad days, just trying to push myself to get better.

Q. Were you part of the people pushing Andre to come back for one extra season?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I would say I was one of them. I was trying to like call him, text him, because you know, Andre is like smart, whole head. He's going to give you a different response to the point where you have to really use your mind to know what he trying to talk about.

He wasn't tying to tell you, I'm not coming back or nothing like that. He was just playing with people mentality. People like me, though. I was trying to make him go, we need you back, come back.

He was like, "I got things I got to do," things like that. I mean, I was one of the people forcing him to come back.

Q. Why is it important personally for you to have him back what does he provide you?

JONATHAN KUMINGA: I won't say just to me, everybody here, team-wise, coaching-wise, he helps sometimes, even if he one of the players, but sometimes go out there and help as a coach even if he is not a coach. Just having him around, he getting a lot of experience. This is 19th year in the league. So got to keep people like that around.