You've read her great articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and listened to her insightful Chronicle Podcasts on the Warriors.... Golden State of Mind is proud to provide you with our Q&A with Janny Hu! Janny will be starting her third season covering the Warriors this Fall and recently gave us an insider perspective on the Warriors.
Here's our questions and Janny's responses:
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Golden State of Mind: What is the best part about covering the Warriors?
Janny Hu: The best part is probably getting an inside look at everything that goes into putting the team on the floor – all the scouting, practices, athletic training, traveling and pure logistics that go on aside from the game itself. It really forces you to appreciate the NBA in a different way.
Golden State of Mind: What was your personal favorite moment of the past season for the Warriors?
Janny Hu: I’ll take Jason Richardson’s spinning, leaping, buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat the Mavs in Dallas back in March. It was easily the most thrilling finish of the year. Of course, with the way the draft shook out, one more loss anywhere and Rudy Gay might have been a Warrior …
Golden State of Mind: Which current Warrior is the most friendly and fun to interview?
Janny Hu: You can almost always count on Troy Murphy for some laughs and down-to-earth bantering, but Adonal Foyle has the edge in terms of sheer friendliness. He’s supremely approachable and also takes the award for range of topics worth engaging him in.
Golden State of Mind: Is the Baron Davis and Coach Montgomery feud a product of national media hype or is it legitimate?
Janny Hu: Let’s put it this way: If Baron Davis had his choice of coaches, it wouldn’t be Mike Montgomery. But that goes for a lot of players and their respective coaches in this league.
Golden State of Mind: Because of the obvious local ties, a lot of Warrior fans seem to be upset that the team passed on Leon Powe in the 2nd round of the draft and opted for Kosta Perovic (we call him "Kosta Coast"!). Do you know what their strategy was in picking Perovic over Powe?
Janny Hu: How about six extra inches? There aren’t a lot of 7-2 center prospects around, and the Warriors had been scouting Perovic for years. Powe might have been the sentimental choice – and congrats to him for just getting a two-year deal from the Celtics – but ‘tweener forwards are available every year.
Golden State of Mind: Have you heard anything through the grapevine about any possible Warrior trades? If you had to predict one trade, what would you predict?
Janny Hu: Well, Derek Fisher is already gone and it’s no secret they want Al Harrington. Problem is, they need a sign-and-trade partner and are at the whimsy of the Hawks, who can afford to sit and wait for better offers. (Remember, the Erick Dampier deal didn’t get done until late August). If the Warriors open training camp with Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy at the forward spots, it will not have been for lack of trying to move them.
Golden State of Mind: Do you know how the current Warrior players feel about how the team did in the 2006 NBA Draft? Are they looking forward to playing with newly drafted Center Patrick O'Bryant (we call him "The Chef"!)?
Janny Hu: I can tell you that Andris Biedrins has his guard up. Realistically, though, I don’t think you’ll be seeing much of the draft picks anytime soon. O’Bryant improved over the course of summer league, but he’s still very much a project. And Perovic isn’t a lock to come over this year.
Golden State of Mind: Is there any advice you could give to fellow Asian Americans (East, South, and Southeast) about breaking into the sports journalism world?
Janny Hu: Only the same advice I’d give to anyone: Work hard and people will notice.
Golden State of Mind: I've [DJ Fuzzy Logic] been to some panels on Asian American journalism where the panelists discuss their experiences and the challenges that one's race, gender play out in the journalism world. Some mentioned how interviewees directly address the interviewer's race and thus felt they were less credible in writing about music--i.e. Rap or Rock. Has this ever happened to you? How has being of Asian heritage and a woman shaped your experiences as a journalist? Are there any particular episodes where it might have been an issue?
Janny Hu: I’ve been lucky in that most of those gender issues have been fought (and won) by women before me, so most athletes/coaches don’t think anything about having a female reporter around. The few who have a condescending attitude? There’s not much to be done. They have, and will continue to have, their own opinions. So you just go about doing your job.
As for race, I think some agents or GMs that I’ve talked to on the phone might be surprised when they first meet me in person, but otherwise, it hasn’t really come into play. I would hope it stays that way.
Golden State of Mind: Which will happen first: the Warriors make the playoffs or the Bay Area gets a WNBA team?
Janny Hu: I can’t believe I’m actually taking the Warriors on a playoff-related question!
Golden State of Mind: What are the chances that FSN Bay Area will also be televising San Jose Supersonics games in the next 3-5 years?
Janny Hu: San Jose Supersonics … it has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Even before the Sonics were sold to an Oklahoma City ownership group this week, though, I don’t think the odds weren’t good that the NBA would put another team in the Bay Area -- at least not without a huge fight from the Warriors.
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All of us at Golden State of Mind want to extend a special thanks to Janny for providing such thoughtful answers to our questions.
You can tell Janny is passionate about her work- she picked the Warriors to make the playoffs! Well, as much as anyone can be about the Warriors these days.
** Feel free to link to our Q&A with Janny Hu, but please do not freely distribute it across the web. Doing so is copyright infringement. Here's the direct link to this piece: http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/story/2006/7/25/13117/8920