Boris Diaw seriously does have an espresso machine in his locker
After the San Antonio Spurs’ Wednesday night blowout of the Utah Jazz, Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News offered a pitch-perfect dispatch from the winners’ home locker room:
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You’re gonna think I’m making this up. I assure you I am not. Boris Diaw has a working cappuccino maxhine plugged in at his locker.
— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) January 7, 2016
Also three tiny cappucino cups, with saucers.
— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) January 7, 2016
It seemed almost too good to be true. Of course the laissez-faire French big man, who always seems to get exactly where he wants to go on the court and do precisely what he wants to do despite operating at what might charitably be described as a leisurely pace, would choose to customize his cubby by ensuring he could enjoy a nice pick-me-up drink before or after practices and games. (It also serves as a wonderful capper to Diaw’s response to receiving the nickname “Tea Time” from new teammate LaMarcus Aldridge: “I’m more of a coffee guy.”)
McDonald’s tweet sparked an immediate “pics or it didn’t happen” response, but alas: NBA rules prohibit photography in the locker room. We had to take his word for it … until after San Antonio’s nail-biting 100-99 win over the surprisingly competitive New York Knicks, when Diaw (who chipped in eight points, four rebounds and an assist in 18 minutes of play) decided to bless us by blasting a quick ‘Gram:
“Still undefeated at home and an espresso, What else?” Diaw typed in the caption of his Instagram post, which he capped with the hashtags #nespresso, #coffeetime and, best of all, #borista.
Let’s be clear, though: Diaw’s no Boris-Come-Lately to the high-end coffee game. From a 2014 feature on Diaw by ESPN.com’s Marc Stein:
The capper comes from Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin, who […] was an integral part of the Suns’ front-office team when Diaw was acquired in a sign-and-trade for Joe Johnson orchestrated by then-Suns personnel chief Bryan Colangelo.
“Boris walks into the gym one day wearing flip-flops and holding his customary cappuccino, which was a staple for him every morning,” Griffin recalled. “It was during pre-draft workouts, so he sees the Vertec [machine] and asks what it is.
“We tell him it measures your vertical leap by determining how many of the bars you can touch. He asks what’s the highest anyone has ever gone, and we tell him Amare’ [Stoudemire] cleared the entire rack.
“Boris puts down the cappuccino, takes off his flip-flops and clears the entire rack on the first try. Then he calmly puts his flip-flops back on, picks up his cappuccino and walks away, saying, ‘That was not difficult.'”
Things don’t look all that difficult in San Antonio these days, either. After holding on against New York on Friday to notch their seventh straight win, the Spurs remain a perfect 22-0 at AT&T Center and stand 32-6 on the season, just three games behind the 34-2 Golden State Warriors for the top spot in the Western Conference. They boast a historically great defense, an elite offense, a legitimate MVP candidate in Kawhi Leonard, a deep roster full of savvy two-way playmakers and, perhaps most notably, a low-key mismatch nightmare wild card who at all times has an espresso, a giant picture of himself with a glass of wine and a stuffed hippopotamus on deck:
I don’t always go hard in practice. But when I do…I keep a painting of myself nearby. #BorisDiaw #Spurs 🇫🇷 🍷🏀 pic.twitter.com/15vzzN80Nv
— Casey Keirnan (@CaseyKeirnan) January 6, 2016
It’s actually a blown-up photo. Also the hippo is from the (not making this up either) children’s book he authored. https://t.co/AdrorZL1R8
— Jeff McDonald (@JMcDonald_SAEN) January 9, 2016
The next time a casual fan tells you he/she finds the Spurs kind of boring, make sure to introduce this soul to perhaps the world’s most perfect rebuttal: their finer-things-appreciating 6-foot-8 reserve point center, a man equally adept at making no-look passes, dagger 3-pointers, safari adventures and damn fine cups of concentrated caffeine.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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