No one will ever accuse young Warriors player Brandin Podziemski of being too humble. The 22-year-old always speaks his mind and his latest comments will dig him an even deeper hole.
In a recent feature on Podziemski in The Athletic, he said that if he had stuck with baseball he could have been a white version of Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani.
Brandin Podziemksi makes yet another bold comment about his skills
"I think I could be the white Shohei. I think I could do both. Maybe not to the degree he can do it, but I think I could for sure do both. Pitch, play the field, hit, all those things," Podziemski said.
The article focused on Podziemski and his connection with his father over the game of baseball. Podziemski played baseball when he was younger and clearly had some skill. When he threw out the first pitch for the Giants at Oracle Park he hit 86 miles per hour on the radar gun which is not bad at all for the shooting guard.
Maybe if Podziemski had stuck with baseball he would have had some success, but is a little but silly for him to seriously compare himself to Shohei Ohtani who is the greatest talent baseball has seen in quite some time.
This comes on the heels of comments Podziiemski made prior to the NBA season in which he said that he wants to be better than legendary point guard Stephen Curry. One has to love the confidence, but with each outlandish comparison he makes, he is only opening himself up to more criticism, and his teammate Draymond Green even seemed to think the young player went too far in his remarks.
To be sure, Podziemski is a promising young player. After a slow start this season, he has turned things around and has looked much better in his last few games. He is averaging 12.3 points per game in the early season, shooting 47.8% from the floor and 39.4% from 3-point range.
It is easy to imagine Podziemski being a key part of a future Warriors team when Curry and Green have retired or are on different teams. However, it is important that the young player stays within himself and does not feel like he has to live up to Curry's legacy because that is simply going to be impossible.
Podziemski is seemingly digging himself a bigger hole with each of his comments, so maybe he should keep any bold comparisons to himself going forward.