Earlier this season, Pat Spencer was the feel-good story of the year for the Golden State Warriors and Brandin Podziemski was drawing the ire of much of the fanbase. Now, the narrative of both players has sensationally flipped toward the end of the campaign.
Podziemski has come on strong in recent weeks and has played much more consistent and solid basketball as the Warriors deal with a number of injuries. Meanwhile, Spencer has come back down to earth after he was absolutely on fire earlier in the season.
Pat Spencer and Brandin Podziemski have seen their fortunes flipped
In retrospect this seems fairly inevitable. Everyone knew that Podziemski had more raw talent than Spencer, but that was part of the allure of the latter's rise. He was seen as a scrappy guy who didn’t have the natural talent of other players but kept his head down, worked hard, and when he got his opportunity, took advantage of it.
Some of the most memorable moments of the year were when Spencer was on fire. His, “I’m that [expletive]” pronouncement in Philadelphia will always be legendary, and his story as a lacrosse star who decided to give everything to basketball is impossible not to fall in love with.
Meanwhile, for much of the season, Podziemski, somewhat unfairly, was seen as cocky and unwilling to be a team player. Many fans were upset with his comments about wanting to be better than Stephen Curry and every time he dribbled into trouble or had an off shooting night, it was used as evidence that he was nowhere near as good as he thought he was.
Things have now changed. Podziemski has addressed his past comments and fans seem to be going a bit easier on him since he's playing quite well. He’s young and said things he probably shouldn’t have, but that’s a part of learning and growing as a player and as a person.
The fanbase has not completely turned on Spencer by any means, but now fans are complaining when he's on the floor instead of Podziemski, something that was often the other way around several months ago.
Spencer is still a solid contributor and has done a lot of good things this season. He has definitely shown he can be a solid NBA role player, but it seems fans now realize that Podziemski is the superior player when on his game.
Obviously, things could eventually flip flop again down the road if Spencer gets on a heater for a week and Podziemski struggles, yet it certainly seems like Podziemski has the upper hand right now.