Looney and Poole—Milwaukee Brothers to the End

Announcer: Now drives by Morris, bounce past to Looney for the dunk inside, Curry facilitating.

Jordan Poole: Loon’s my brother. So, however you would support your brother is the same way we do it, whether it’s a text, whether it’s a call, whether it’s a conversation, whether it’s just hanging out. There’s so much that we do. We just have a really natural connection.

We beat the odds by making it to college. We beat the odds by making it to the league. And we beat even more odds by winning championships, so that’s something that’ll last with me forever.

When I first heard about Loon was really earlier on in my basketball career, probably middle school or so.

Kevon Looney: I think I met JP, he was probably in sixth grade, so I was in ninth grade.

Jordan: I was really young, so I wasn’t going to go talk to him, but kind of knew of each other. Said a couple words, but kind of kept it going.

Kevon: Actually, my senior year in high school, I got to play against him while he was a freshman, so I got to see him up live and close that game.

Jordan: He was a McDonald’s All-American. He had committed to UCLA. I was just a really tiny, skinny freshman playing on varsity. We were going up against Loon. He only needed seven points or something to break the all-time Wisconsin scoring record. Our coach told him in the newspaper he wasn’t going to get more than 10 points or something just outlandish.

And we go. We play him. He has like 43 and they win the game. Just watching him and seeing that it was possible for you to make it out, for you to play at the highest level, for you to make it to the NBA, for you to be a champion was what a youth needed for motivation. And Loon is kind of one of the first people early on to kind of show us that path and it’s kind of taken off since then.

Just seeing him make it to the league was essentially enough for me personally to see that we can do it. We can make it. But just to see him thrive since he’s been here and kind of watch his journey over the way, he’s so relentless. He’s so mentally tough. It’s a huge testament to his character.

Kevon: When he got drafted to the Warriors, I was excited just to have another guy from Milwaukee on the team and get to build a better bond with him. And I always watched him from afar. But to get to know him up closer, it’s been great to have another guy from my city with me to go along this ride with me.

To have a guy, a flashy guy, with me and somebody that’s the complete opposite, doing his thing, has been great. All the success he’s getting now, he deserves it. He’s worked his tail off and I’m just proud to see all the leaps and steps he’s been taking. And I know he has another level he can get to and I just want to be there to help him get there.

I try to be there for him and try to support him, not just basketball, just in life. I know how difficult it is to be from Milwaukee and make it to move to a whole new city, a whole new world, and have to figure it out and try to be there. And he just kind of does the same thing for me. Not even talking about basketball, just talking about life, talk about going down memory lane, talk about back at home. So, just having that support system is always cool and always great.

Jordan: It’s really special to win a championship with Loon. It was always one thing for us to be on the same team, but for us to go and submit our names in history together was really cool.

Kevon:
Last year, we would be at the scorer’s table together and checking in to the game at the same time. We’d just look at each other like, this is crazy. We two kids from Milwaukee. We were getting in the game together, not just playing, but making a huge impact on one of the best teams in the league.

Jordon:
I don’t think he understands how pivotal he was to my development and my comfortability coming and being in this organization. I’ve just literally been following in his footsteps.

Kevon:
For us to both have moments throughout the playoffs and moments in the Finals where we both had a huge impact on us winning the series, it was just like, man, this is what we dreamed about as kids. And for us to do it together and on the biggest stage, it was amazing.