The offseason was a bit of a ‘Dream’ for Ezeli

Festus Ezeli’s basketball future isn’t exactly cemented, but the Warriors’ backup center didn’t seem to have a care in the world when reporting to training camp this week after an adventu-refilled offseason.

The 25-year-old is eligible for a contract extension with the Warriors until Oct. 31. If an agreement isn’t reached, Ezeli probably would see a wide range of free-agent offers because of his seemingly endless upside and his history of injuries.

“I have not thought about that, because I have an agent to deal with that stuff,” Ezeli said.

Instead, Ezeli chooses to spend his time thinking about his dream-like summer. In June, the Nigeria native played in the first-ever NBA game in Africa and got a chance to meet his childhood idol, Hakeem Olajuwon ,in Johannesburg.

“He has the same story as I did coming from Nigeria and not having a basketball background, he played soccer,” said Ezeli, who moved to the United States in 2004. “But what I did know about him is how much handball he played and his footwork and his trickery. He was telling me in handball you can’t dribble and run at the same time, so you have to use the fakes to get your ball to shoot up and stuff like that.”

Ezeli went to Vanderbilt, but redshirted in 2007-08, because “I didn’t even know how to be part of the team.

“My vision of (Olajuwon), I’ve always thought about him as somebody that came from Nigeria with the same story and became great. After meeting him and talking to him, I have a lot of respect for all the work he put in. He was talking to me about working hard and staying humble and all these different things.

“At 54, he’s still got it. That’s what was crazy. At 54, we were playing one-on-one, and all the fakes and everything are unbelievable.” Barbosa doesn’t report to camp: Reserve guard Leandro Barbosa is having visa issues in Brazil, but the Warriors are hopeful that he can report to training camp in the next day or two.

In his 12th NBA season, Barbosa averaged 7.1 points in 14.9 minutes per game last season. He consistently scored for the second team when it couldn’t find baskets and initiated a daily postpractice shooting competition between the reserves. The more things change: Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said he’ll stick with last season’s motto: “Strength in Numbers,” and stick with last season’s starting lineup: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut.

“Why would we change what we did last year, when he had as much success as we did?” Kerr asked.