Eric Paschall — Sports Commentary

SAN FRANCISCO — Chris Mullin knew all about Eric Paschall. “He used to kick our fanny,” said Mullin. That was when Mullin was coach at St. John’s and Paschall was a starter for rival Villanova.

Now Mullin is working as TV analyst for the his old NBA team, the Warriors, and Paschall is making an impact for his new NBA team, the Warriors, that not many other than Mullin knew was possible.

On Monday night, Paschall, a rookie, the 41st overall pick in this summer’s draft, had 34 points and 11 rebounds, and the Warriors — exhale, please — finally escaped the Curse of the Chase, defeating Portland 127-118, the first win in their new building.

It was going to come some night. After all, nobody goes 0-41 on their home court. But the Dubs had been without a victory in their previous four games at Chase Center, so there was a bit of anxiety.

Without Klay Thompson, injured knee, cheering from the bench, and Steph Curry, watching on TV at home, his broken left hand in a cast, the Warriors are not going to be a playoff team.

Yet with Paschall and another rookie, Kyle Bowman, playing well, the Dubs won. And that was despite Draymond Green missing the game because of a sprained injured finger.

These Warriors are not your father’s Warriors. Or even those of your brother, who would boast of those five straight finals appearances. These Warriors are a lot of guys who won’t get much attention from ESPN but are figuring out what the pro game is all about.

And keeping coach Steve Kerr as satisfied as anyone could be with a 2-5 overall record. He’s looking for hustle, for improvement, for basketball smarts. And slowly, progressively, he’s getting it.

And so are the suddenly alert sellout crowds, the fans Monday night responding vocally when, glorioski, they realized they were about to witness a small slice of history, the first Warriors victory at Chase.

Also a large slice of Paschall, a 6-foot-6, 255-pound forward who started his undergraduate career at Fordham, sat out a year and then transferred to Villanova, where he helped win the 2018 NCAA Championship.

“We really liked Eric because of his strength and his power,” said Kerr. “He was undersized, but these days, at that four position (strong forward), as long as you are really strong with that wingspan — well, we’ve seen it the last few years with Draymond.

“We felt Eric had a chance to have a similar impact, somebody you plug in and play particularly because he played four years (actually three) in a great college program. He didn’t look like a rookie at all from the first day of practice.”

He looked like a star Monday night on his 23rd birthday, scoring 17 points in the first quarter.

Apropos of nothing but pertinent to everything is the observation-joke about Michael Jordan’s career at North Carolina where he was restricted by the system, that the only person who could hold Jordan under 30 points a game was Dean Smith, his coach.

So Monday night Kerr alluded to that, substituting Villanova coach Jay Wright for Smith. Asked if he thought Paschall could hit the 30-point mark, Kerr answered, “Yes. I told Eric the only guy who could hold him under 30 points was Jay Wright. Jay’s my guy. I just wanted to say that.”

What Paschall, a humble sort, said was that confidence is behind his success. He believes in himself. And Kerr and Paschall’s teammates seem very much to share that belief.

“My teammates just find me and allow me to make plays,” said Paschall. “We have a great young group that just wants to play together, and we play hard. I felt like tonight we had fun.”

If getting that first win at home isn’t fun, they’re in the wrong business.