My second Media Day was a bit different from the first. Having done it before I had a better idea of what to expect and how the process would work, so I thought I'd also have a better plan worked out to get as many people as I could. It almost worked perfectly.
The first group consisted of Stephen Jackson, Marco Belinelli, DeMarcus Nelson, Dion Dowell and Rob Kurz. Obviously, Jackson was going to be the most popular one of that group among members of the media so I took advantage of it by getting everyone else done first. I'm sure I missed a few big questions for Jackson but I still think I got about ten minutes of stuff even after finishing with everyone else. The questions I asked the others were a little generic but from our perspective I think we want to know a little more about the rookies, invitees and younger players. The media's focus is on the bigger names first.
The second group consisted of Ronny Turiaf, Anthony Randolph, Richard Hendrix and Anthony Morrow. This was the one group I messed up my timing of enough to miss out on Morrow entirely. It got started a couple minutes late and by the time I sat in on stuff for Turiaf and Randolph and did a quick interview with Hendrix, Morrow was already off to another area. It's a little too bad because I would have liked to ask him about his hot shooting in the summer league and things like that. I didn't get the chance to ask Turiaf or Randolph anything because of those four the media stuck around them for obvious reasons.
The third group featured Corey Maggette, Marcus Williams, C.J. Watson and Kelenna Azubuike. Again, Maggette and Williams ended up being the main focus, though Azubuike had a few people around him at all times as well. I did get to interview Watson.
Finally, we had Andris Biedrins, Al Harrington and Brandan Wright. There was no chance to ask them anything for a couple reasons. First, Harrington was finishing up some photos so everyone huddled around Biedrins and Wright. I got what I could from those tables then most of the people moved on to Harrington so I got whatever I was able to there as well.
In between, I snapped photos of players giving interviews, plus a few of them at various other stations. This isn't just a 30-minute interview for each player and they're gone. Around that they're doing promos for the radio, pictures that will be going into the magazines sold at the games, other TV spots for various commercials, plus some sign jerseys, basketballs and other items to be given away or auctioned off during the season. It really is organized chaos in that sense.
The mood of Media Day this year was considerably different than the first one I was at. That's not really a surprise considering the expectations last year's team had compared to the uncertainty of this year's roster along with Monta Ellis being on the shelf for who knows how long. In general, people just don't know what to expect from this team right now. Some things will be figured out during training camp and the preseason, but there's only so much you can learn before playing the games that count.
At one point someone asked Randolph a question about Ellis and he said he couldn't answer it. It could be because he's new, but he could have been told not to say anything. Others did talk about Ellis along the way when asked, but some of the answers really depended on the questions being asked.
In general there was the feeling that the team has the potential to do some good things and some people like Jackson have that mentality of "We want to win a championship" no matter what, but it could be a long process in seeing how this group fits together. Going into the season, only seven players were with the team last year (not counting Ellis) and just three had what you could consider a large role on the team (Jackson, Biedrins and Harrington). The other four (Watson, Azubuike, Wright and Belinelli) will be question marks in terms of what they'll be able to contribute this year. On top of that, only time will tell how people like Maggette, Turiaf and Williams fit in along with rookies like Randolph, Morrow and so on. With Ellis out, the team could be in for a rough start.
On behalf of Warriorsworld I think it's important to thank Raymond Ridder and the organization for allowing us to have a presence at Media Day, no matter how small the role is. The primary members of the media have jobs to do and the focus is properly on them first, but there are spots where someone from a blog or fansite can get a few questions in as well.
Here are photos from the event. Interviews to follow soon.