As for facing Gordon’s teammate and the league MVP James Harden?

“There are a lot of things running through my mind when I am guarding James Harden. ‘Don’t reach’, because if I do that once everybody on the bench is going to yell and go crazy at me. And secondly, I always hear Draymond in the game yelling to ‘press up, press up!’”

Doug Looney was watching all of this in real time.

“I would ask him afterward stuff like, ‘why are you so far out if you think he is going to drive?’”, Doug says. “He told me the game plan was to make Harden drive and not give him that three-ball, make him earn his points. I was a bit more understanding after that and instead told him to make sure he always forces him to his right hand”.

Doug always grades his son after games and gave Kevon a B for every playoff series last season. Low in comparison to Kevon’s school days, it is high given his father’s grading system stretches from A to F.

Kevon’s dad has always been engaged with the game, and he remains the all-time rebounding leader at Schreiner University in Texas with 953. He and his wife are at Oracle Arena for every home game, and they watch the other half on their TV at home.

Without fail they hold a pre-game prayer, which kindly asks for two outcomes. “Number one that he gets in, and number two when he does get in that he does well. When we see it go well, well we just jump for joy”, Victoria says.

Winning a second championship with the Warriors was the peak of such joy, and though they say the first one is always the sweetest, it did not work like that for Looney.

“I told him after the Finals, ‘you hung in there and you found your niche and your role’”, Doug says.

“It was so exciting to see him have a role this year. Seeing what he can accomplish from the type of ordeal he put himself through last summer, I think he will be even more diligent towards his workout and his diet.

“We have not seen the offensive side of Kevon yet, and I think that is something he is going to be able to show this coming year”.

There will be struggles along the way. Diener is still shocked that Looney is shooting just 56.8% from the free throw line for his NBA career, a surprise given he was Hamilton’s technical foul shooter.

But because he is a Looney, Kevon will always be able to rely on his family to use the past as something that can help a bright future.

“When he was in fifth grade, he took part in an elementary school competition”, Victoria says. “He shot and made 30 free throws in a row, and on the last one the lights in the gym went out. I told him, ‘you made the lights go out dog’. Whenever I need to, I will say to him, ‘do you remember fifth grade?’

“He knows what I am talking about. He has worked so hard to get here and he will not stop now. Kevon was so dutiful, so faithful to the game.”

It has been another busy summer for the Looneys. Kevon pondered his future, family meetings made easy given their closeness in the Bay Area.



“Two rings later, we can truly say thank you to the Warriors”, Victoria says. “Thank you, thank you, thank you for believing in my son when nobody else did. I truly love that organisation and they have been a blessing to this family”.

Being the mother that she is, not even Warriors nostalgia will quell what she is really thinking right now.

“Write down that mum quote, ‘he did have cereal when he did not have hot breakfast!’

“I am getting ready to call him right now, acting like we didn’t have cereal.”

Kevon Looney fielded plenty of calls this summer, but that might be the toughest. Ultimately, he just wants to prove his family and coaches right.

“On the Warriors team, a lot of the time I just play the five position”, Looney says. “When other guys got hurt this year, I got to play the four and I think I played pretty well in that role and I think that really set me up for coach to trust me on the court in multiple situations. Even in the playoffs he [Steve Kerr] would play me and Jordan Bell together, and I think I can play more than just the five.

“I think I can play the four and I know I can hold the three, too”.

Kevon Looney will endeavour to conform even more to the NBA’s modern game because it’s the version he always knew. He is working hard to know it again.