Prior to the Golden State Warriors winning the NBA title, Harrison Barnes had never had a sip of alcohol in his life. And thanks to the delicious taste of tequila, he will probably never drink again.
In an interview with 140 KXnO in his home state of Iowa earlier this week, Barnes said that his first ever alcoholic beverage was a shot of tequila that Warriors coach Steve Kerr gave him.
He hated it.
“We go back to the hotel afterwards and have this big dinner, teammates all around. Coach Kerr comes over with a little shot,” Barnes explained, as transcribed by Ananth Pandian of Eye on Basketball. “I was looking at him, like wow this is a shot, I don’t know you drink this. Don Julio. I hated it, it wasn’t good. I don’t know why people drink.”
As it turns out, Barnes didn’t take any swigs from that bottle of champagne he was photographed holding during Golden State’s celebration. He anticipates the tequila being his first and last drink.
‘Yeah, it wasn’t for me after that,” Barnes added. “But it was probably good in hindsight, maybe (Kerr) was doing that to say ‘Look, we don’t want you to get started on this thing. We will give you the worst stuff right now so you don’t have to worry about this again.'”
Don Julio isn’t exactly Johnnie Walker Blue, but most booze tastes pretty bad in shot form.
We have seen other pro athletes avoid alcohol — this guy is probably the most notable — during postgame celebrations, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Every coach and owner probably wishes none of their players drank.
