Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski has shown he isn’t the type to lack confidence, and he has raised eyebrows with some bold comments to The Athletic. Podziemski believes that if he hadn’t chosen basketball over baseball in high school, he could have been talked about today as the White Shohei Ohtani.
“I think I could be the white Shohei (Ohtani),” Podziemski said. “I think I could do both. Maybe not to the degree he can do it, but I think I could for sure do both. Pitch, play the field, hit, all those things.”
Podziemski played baseball at St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy. He had a .469 batting average, driving in 10 runs and hitting two triples. Meanwhile, as a pitcher, he posted a 2-3 record with a 4.32 ERA. Podziemski managed to strike out 40 batters in total in 22.2 innings.
We’ll never know for sure how good Podziemski, whose ceremonial first pitch at a San Francisco Giants game in 2023 clocked in at 86 mph on the radar gun, would have been at baseball. He seems to reckon he’d have been a solid two-way player, but that might not have been enough to be called the “White Shohei.”
What makes Ohtani so special is just how elite he is as both a hitter and a pitcher. We just saw the three-time MVP record two of the greatest games in MLB postseason history in October.
Ohtani recorded three home runs and struck out 10 in six-plus scoreless innings on the mound in Game 4 of the NLCS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers on Oct. 17. It was a mind-boggling display, but the 31-year-old wasn’t satisfied with just one of them.
Ohtani would then hit two home runs, knock in three runs, and reach base nine times in the Dodgers’ 6-5, 18-inning win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 3 of the World Series on Monday. Regardless of how the season ends, we’ll be talking about these two games for a very long time.
Getting back to Podziemski, he ultimately made the right choice by pursuing a career in basketball. The 22-year-old wishes that he could play both sports, though.
“If I could play both, I would,” Podziemski stated. “I love baseball. It’s my first passion, first love of any sport. It just happens I was gifted with it and really good at it. Always a special place. I love watching in the offseason. I love going to games in the offseason. Just special for sure.”
Podziemski, the 19th pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, will have to stick to basketball, and he has done well lately after a bit of a rough start. He has shot 53.1% from the field in his last three games of this 2025-26 season after making only 36.0% of his shots in the opening three.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had acknowledged that Podziemski wasn’t at his best at the start, but was confident he would turn things around. The guard is now averaging 11.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.2 blocks per game for a Warriors team that is 4-2 on the season.
Jimmy Butler believes the Warriors’ depth should scare the rest of the NBA, and Podziemski is one of those role players he would be counting on to step up in the critical moments. They are in action next against the Indiana Pacers at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Saturday at 7 PM ET.
