This piece originally appeared in our twice-weekly sports newsletter Section 415. Sign up for the newsletter here and subscribe to the Section 415 podcast wherever you listen.
Their names dot the pages of the Warriors’ record books.
Now, they dot the spines of the biography section at your local library.
From Steph Curry to Chris Mullin and now Draymond Green, Warriors past and present are putting pen to paper.
Curry’s “Shot Ready,” released in September, is a New York Times Bestseller. Tim Hardaway’s “Killer Crossover,” which debuted last month, shares details of how he persevered through a tough childhood in Chicago to score more than 15,000 NBA points. Green said this summer that he’s in the process of writing a book about his life, and in recent years, Andre Iguodala and Chris Webber have released memoirs.
Like a starting lineup anchored by sharpshooters and imposing defenders, the writing Warriors have range, too.
The most prolific authors are Adonal Foyle, the Warriors’ all-time blocks leader, and Tom Meschery, who became an All-Star when the franchise moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco in 1962.
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Foyle fell in love with writing while pursuing a master’s in psychology, and authored his “Too-Tall Foyle” children’s book series so that kids in the Caribbean could see characters that looked like themselves in literature.
He says students are his most honest editors.
“They critique you and they judge you and they want you to have more energy,” Foyle said. “So when you go out and read with kids, it is the most immediate feedback. It’s like, ‘Come on, entertain me.’”
Meschery, 87, was born to Russian parents who fled the country during the 1917 October Revolution. He spent part of his childhood in an internment camp in Tokyo, played 10 seasons in the NBA, and has been writing ever since.
“I’ve probably been a teacher and a novelist and a writer much longer than I was ever a professional basketball player,” Meschery said. “So that’s really how I identify myself now.”
These days, Meschery keeps an active blog (opens in new tab) with musings on the Warriors (he’s in favor of trading Jonathan Kuminga), poetry and literature, and even artificial intelligence.
“I see AI as a tremendous research platform,” Meschery said.
His feelings on using AI during his actual writing process, however, are mixed.
“There’s a lot of factual information that’s very useful, but nothing that’s gonna help me be creative,” Meschery said. “Unless you know, sometimes a word, just simply a word will kick you in the right direction.”
Foyle, who publishes for a much younger audience, shares some of Meschery’s hesitation to embrace AI.
“Oh my God, every day I’m like this, this AI thing,” Foyle said. “They’re smarter than us. They take our information and they can write better than us. But gosh, I still want to do great writing, too.”
The former Warriors center nevertheless believes that AI has created a “horizon that’s just unlimited” for writers who want to find new ways to connect with readers.
“I’m curious about how books are going to be reflected in the future with the amount of technology that is available to us,” Foyle said. “And how we will transform those experiences and make them more immersive for young people.”
For now, Curry and Green are still focused on playing, while neither Meschery nor Foyle appears all that concerned about book sales. Not that either player would mind if more Warriors decided to publish their work.
“If you put a noun and a verb together, I’m on your side,” Meschery said.