TOKYO — Moses Moody and his father Kareem took a nighttime walk last month through a park in Tokyo’s Chiyoda City ward, where they gawked at the lush green grass – perfect for a picnic or nap, Kareem said – and were awed by the late-night serenity within the bustling city of nearly 14 million people.
When one car hummed by, Moses quipped, “That car sounds like it runs on Voss water.”
Don’t even get them started on how clean the city is, even with no trash cans in sight.
“It’s crazy that that’s even possible,” Moses exclaimed.
This trip wasn’t necessarily something either Moody ever envisioned happening. Of course, Moses dreamed throughout his childhood of playing in the NBA, but a basketball business trip to Tokyo? No way.
It’s just the latest in a wild run of events for Moses, who grew up tagging along almost daily to Kareem’s job as an afterschool program director in Little Rock, Arkansas. Now the tables have turned.
“We call it ‘Take Your Father To Work Day,’” Kareem said of the trip to Japan.
The last 15 months have been a whirlwind for the Moody family, beginning with the 2021 NBA Draft, when the Warriors selected Moses with the No. 14 overall pick. Since then, there have been many times that Moses and his family wondered when they’d awaken to the sound of a buzzing alarm and this would all be an elaborate dream.
“Yeah, I’ve been pinched,” Kareem said. “I’m pretty bruised up. Everything kind of tops the next.”
After being drafted No. 14 last summer, Moses earned rotation minutes as a rookie — even received 11 starts — and played meaningful playoff basketball alongside future Hall of Famers Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green deep into June.
It all culminated with a title-sealing Game 6 win over the Celtics on the iconic TD Garden Parquet floor.
“It’s cool” to be part of history, Moses said. “That’s a surreal thing being around these dudes that I’ve been watching all this time. But at some point, you kind of just got to believe it. It was cool in the beginning where it’s like, ‘It’s crazy, I’m here with these guys.’ But at some point, you just gotta be like, ‘Yeah I’m here with the guys, let’s hoop.’”
And here’s the thing: The 20-year-old is just getting started.
Moses stayed in the Bay Area this offseason to refine his game as he prepares to carve out a bigger role in the rotation this season. And he entered training camp Sept. 24 bigger and stronger than a year ago.
“He’s more explosive,” coach Steve Kerr recently said of Moses. “He’s had a couple of dunks in practice that you wouldn’t have seen last year.”
Moses attributed what he called his “newfound athleticism” to Kevon Looney, who turned him onto Joga, or yoga for jocks. The workouts have helped Moses deal with routine aches and pains.
“I told everybody… when I got there, ‘Coach, my knee’s been hurting, it hurts when I play. But if we get my knee fixed out, I promise you there’s an athlete contained up inside me,’” Moses recalled. “And so we got that worked out and so now I’m being able to showcase that.”
Moses has always been known to his family and peers as being reserved and mature beyond his years. Kerr called him an “old soul.” Many of his teammates forget that he was born in the new millennium.
Despite living the fast-paced NBA life, making $3.7 million this season (115 times more than the median income of his hometown) Moses has remained true to the blue-collar values that were instilled in him at a young age. He’s respectful and humble, speaking only when he feels it’s necessary.
He’s also been praised by the Warriors’ front office and coaching staff for taking his work seriously.
Moses said his work ethic was inspired by his older brother when they were boys. The younger Moody remembers looking outside his bedroom window and seeing his older brother, then in sixth grade, running uphill drills through makeshift cones made up of piles of leaves.
“I was like, ‘Man, I ain’t going out there today,’” Moses recalled. But “‘once I get to the sixth grade, then I know I got to turn it on.’”
And that’s exactly what he did.
In middle school, Moses kept true to his promise and locked in. He’d wake up his father at 5 a.m. before getting dressed. He’d come back to his parents’ bedroom to wake up dad again, this time so they could go to the gym for Moses’ first of two daily workouts.
“I fell in love with the work,” Moses said. “It feels good to prepare, to be doing all that rather than doing other stuff that might seem fun but it’s taking stuff out of the tank. I’d rather be putting stuff in it.”
That work ethic has carried on to the NBA level.
Growing up, Moses was known around town as “Kareem’s son.”
“Now it’s Moses’ dad,” his father said.
And Pops is more than alright with that.
“He’s no longer a kid,” Kareem said. “I like feeling like my kids are progressing on, and kind of taking the reins and as they come of age, that’s pretty cool to see and witness, so I ride with it.
“He takes me places.”
San Francisco, Boston, Tokyo — and his second season hasn’t even started yet.
Source: www.mercurynews.com