Ex-player Durant’s sparring partner
PHOENIX — His goal of playing professionally, even in basketball’s hinterlands, was dead by the time he enrolled in graduate school. So Chris DeMarco turned his focus to business, a career that suited his intellect.
“I was a realist,” said DeMarco, an NAIA Division II All-America honorable mention selection at Dominican University in San Rafael. “I wanted to play professionally, but it didn’t work out for me.”
His alternative didn’t end up being so bad: At age 31, DeMarco is in his second season as a player development coach for the Warriors. Among his daily responsibilities are one-on-one drills with Kevin Durant.
An on-court sparring partner of sorts, DeMarco simulates the contact of a defender without trying to block Golden State’s prized offseason addition. The post-practice sessions, which sometimes persist long after teammates have finished interviews, are at the foundation of Durant’s sterling start.
The seven-time NBA All-Star joined Wilt Chamberlain on Friday as the only Warriors players to tally at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in each of their first two games with the team. Though the sample size is small, Durant is averaging 28.5 points
on 54.1 percent shooting, 13.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.0 blocks.
“Those are the guys you don’t hear about, but they’re big,” Durant said recently of DeMarco. “You just always want to get better, man, and that’s why I’m out here.”
As a kid growing up in Appleton, Wis., DeMarco didn’t daydream of the NBA. That was a bit far fetched for the pragmatist. Maybe, he told himself,
I’ll find a league overseas. After three seasons at Division III Edgewood College in Madison, Wis., he transferred to Dominican to play his final year of eligibility while working toward his MBA.
DeMarco started all 29 games for the 2008-09 Penguins, averaging a team-high 14.9 points and a conference-high 9.6 rebounds per game. A career in coaching had long intrigued him more than business. He hardly hesitated when John Fahey, a former Edgewood teammate and an assistant video coordinator at the time for the Warriors, contacted him about an internship opportunity.
His days were spent poring over video of opponents, detailing notes and cobbling together clip packages for the NBA draft. When Steve Kerr took over as head coach in 2014, he promoted DeMarco to advance scout.
“I would go look at games and break it down and put it into scouting reports,” DeMarco said. “It was a great experience. Being in the video room really helped me because that’s pretty much what a coach does is you break down what the other team does. It was just good seeing it live as an advance scout.”
As a player development coach, DeMarco works mostly with Klay Thompson, Ian Clark and Kevon Looney. But he relishes any opportunity to help someone fine-tune his game, and less than a week into the regular season, he is Durant’s go-to helper in post-practice sessions.
DeMarco had a cameo in a viral video Thursday. Fresh off a series of heated one-on-one drills with Durant, he stood drenched in sweat near the basket at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans as the 2013-14 NBA MVP hoisted jumpers.
“They say I ain’t hungry!” Durant yelled, referencing some of the pessimistic chatter that has surrounded his move to Golden State. “I’m out here!”
The 24-second clip, posted by ESPN’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss, landed on SportsCenter and numerous blogs. What went unmentioned: the role the man next to the hoop plays daily in preparing Durant.
“It’s good for KD’s confidence because DeMarco offers very little resistance,” Kerr said with a chuckle.
Added DeMarco: “Hey, it definitely beats the treadmill, right?”