Getting Ready For The Season

Established 1946 | 7-time NBA Champions

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There are many rungs a rookie must climb before playing his first NBA game, and Harrison Barnes is certainly making his way toward that top step. Since he was selected by the Warriors with the seventh pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, Barnes has balanced his on-the-court preparation for his first NBA season with trying to find a Bay Area home and familiarizing himself with his new Bay Area surroundings.

The 6-foot-8 swingman from the University of North Carolina averaged 16.8 points for the Warriors’ undefeated Summer League squad in Las Vegas last month and he continued his offseason prep work with a series of workouts at the team’s Downtown Oakland headquarters. Barnes, a proud native of Ames, Iowa, is currently back in his hometown, and rest assured he is getting his work in there as well. The video below will show you just what kind of gym rat this rookie is, and he has no plans of slowing down anytime soon.

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While his workload is certainly impressive (and keep in mind a lot of this is on his own doing – there has yet to be a veteran to bark in his ear that he needs to come to training camp on October 1 in tip-top shape), he manages to squeeze in a little fun here and there. The self-proclaimed Chipotle aficionado (you've got to love a 20-year-old athlete’s metabolism) made a San Jose Earthquakes game one of his first stops in the Bay Area earlier this summer and he’s even instructed youth at a Warriors Community Basketball Clinic. In addition, Barnes is quite active on the social media front. You can like his Facebook page by clicking here and/or follow him on Twitter (@HBarnes) and Instagram (@blackfalcon40). And you can expect some upcoming contests involving the Warriors rookie in the near future (P.S. It will help if you’re socially savvy).

But when it all comes down to it, Barnes is about basketball. He knows that. His peers recognize that, and they even voted him as the second-most likely 2012-13 NBA rookie to have the best career – Number 1 pick Anthony Davis took the top honor – in a recent NBA.com poll. And if that prognostication doesn’t come to fruition, it won’t be for a lack of effort, as he already has the hard work part down pat.