Leandro Barbosa—Nothing’s Impossible; Everything’s Possible in Life

Leandro Barbosa: To me, I always carry this thing with me that nothing is impossible. Everything is possible in life.

I grew up in Brazil, Sao Paulo. Number one sport is soccer, as everyone knows. The reason that I got into basketball was because of my brother.

The streets where I grew up, the neighborhood, it was really bad. I can say that sport was one of the principal things for me to be out of there. When I put my name on the list to be drafted, it was a dream come true. You know, everything changed at that moment. Not only for myself but also for our lives as a family.

When I was with the Boston Celtics, I had a really tough injury. I went back to Brazil. I thought everything was done. I had a psychologist, I had a physiotherapy guy, I had a conditioning guy, all together, 24 hours around me.

I gave the mission for them to recover me, but not only my knee, my mental. And I was a free agent playing with the national team. We had an exhibition game against the USA in Washington and I had to play against Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry. So, Steve called Klay Thompson and asked him, "How is Barbosa?"

And Klay said "Oh my God, man, he's still fast, Steve. I'm not going to lie. He's quick, it's crazy." So that's when Steve Kerr made me a call and asked if I wanted to be a part of the Golden State Warriors as a basketball player. When you go to a new team, it's tough.

You know, relationships. Know everybody, know the organization, know the coaching staff. So I decided to go with the Golden State for that reason. You know, I knew all those people. I knew that those people could support me. It was the reason that they wanted me to be with the Warriors. I made a good choice because that year, that was '14, '15, we won the championship.

I was in Brazil finishing my career, you know, when Steve called me and said, "What do you think about coming back to the Golden State Warriors to be a coach?"

Steve Kerr: Everyone loves being around LB just because of his purity and his energy, his humor, and I think, beyond that, his basketball experience as an NBA player. LB has given us a really big boost and he's a great coach.

Leandro: You always have to be humble. You always have to look up behind and see what happened in your life, and now that you have stuff, that doesn't mean you have to change. You always have to keep it humble. I think that's it.