Golden State Warriors center Andris Biedrins isn’t happy with his current employer, according to this interview he conducted with a media outlet in his home country of Latvia. In this translation provided by Warriors World, he dishes on several topics, including the decision he and his agent made to move away from the Warriors’ medical staff this summer:
“It was me and my agent’s decision, we decided to go our own way. It’s a risk, but, at the same time, after the first injury early in the year, the Warriors said that it’s nothing special. When I had to do surgery, my agent and I, we were a bit disappointed, we thought that, maybe, surgery was the right course of action from the start. The franchise naturally tried everything to keep me in, because if I had surgery early on then I might have missed the entire season. We felt like the team made me play to quick after the first injury; so we decided to go our own way on this – our doctors and experts.”
Biedrins also touched on his strained relationship with coach Don Nelson and his unhappiness with his fellow Warriors, saying, “most of my teammates are egoists.” Ouch.
There’s reason for Biedrins to be frustrated. His minutes dropped from 30 per game two years ago to 23.1 last season, and his scoring average cratered, from a career-best 11.9 per game to 5.0 per game over the same span.
According to ShamSports.com, the web’s best NBA salary database, Biedrins’ contract will pay him $36 million over the next four seasons, which is something to consider if the Warriors wish to cut ties with him. But there’s no reason why he can’t bounce back after a rough year. With new management and perhaps a new coach in place, he could get a fresh start in Golden State, where he’s spent his entire six-year career. And, as Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk points out, he “seems to have figured out how to be his own man,” so he has that going for him as well.