The summer before Will Richard entered high school, he stood on a scale inside a doctor’s office and couldn’t believe the numbers staring back at him. The young athlete wanted to be able to run faster to chase down his dreams, but he knew he needed to make a change.
Long before he broke into the NBA with the Golden State Warriors, Richard was a kid from outside Atlanta pushing himself to get stronger and fitter. That trip to the doctor’s office for a checkup not only altered the course of his future — it changed his life.
“I was a little chubby kid growing up,” Richard recently told The Athletic. “So, I didn’t really start feeling athletic or feeling like I could run on the floor like that until high school.”
Richard was 230 pounds that day in the doctor’s office and entering his freshman year at Woodward Academy. A transformation started with discipline, going from “eating whatever” to partaking in a pescatarian diet for a year. He also began working out more and jumping rope before school.
Richard’s father, Al, played a crucial role in helping his son reach his athletic potential. Al played college football at Clemson and hoped Will would follow in his footsteps, but Will felt a pull in another direction.
“I played football ’til, like, eighth grade,” Richard said. “But basketball was always my first love. I didn’t really like getting hit like that. I got hit one time, and that was all I needed. I was like, ‘It’s not for me.’ That flipped the switch.”
Al supported his son’s quest to pursue basketball and wanted to help him reach his goals. So, father and son created a plan that Will could commit to. Ultimately, it paid off.
“Dropped down to like 195 (pounds), and everything started transitioning,” Richard said. “I was starting to feel good. I was able to run.”
Little did Will know then, that plan would put him on the path to becoming the rookie guard that shares time in the Warriors backcourt with Stephen Curry.
Every player who reaches the NBA has a moment of realization when they believe his skills can eventually lead to basketball’s biggest stage. Richard’s belief came later in his high school career at Woodward. As a junior, he led Woodward to the 2020 Georgia 4A State Championship. As a senior, he earned first team All-State honors from the Georgia High School Association.
He could finally see the work he was putting into both his game and his body was paying off, and he wanted more.
Aside from the dietary changes he had already made, Richard started running more as part of a training program that he stuck with as the months rolled by. Richard said that despite coming in last during one-mile runs as a freshman, he could feel himself changing.
“People would be doing six-minute miles, and I’m coming in at, like, 11 minutes. Always the last one,” Richard said. “As I kept working out and running and stuff like that, I found myself competing with those guys, building my way up, and I was like, OK, I’m moving in the right direction.”
It has worked out for Richard. After playing his freshman year at Belmont University, he transferred to the University of Florida for his final three seasons. He helped the Gators win the 2025 NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship and became a second-round steal for the Warriors, cracking the starting lineup early in his first NBA season.
By the time the Warriors made their 2025 draft-night deal with the Memphis Grizzlies to acquire Richard, the routine the rookie started in high school was already offering regular dividends.
In a video released by NBA Entertainment during Warriors training camp, coach Steve Kerr praised Richard for a cut he made on the floor. A few moments later, he walked back to the sideline to have a conversation with star swingman Jimmy Butler.
“That kid’s pretty good,” Kerr said. “Will.”
Kerr and Butler described his ability to know where to go on the floor and what to do.
“He knows how to play,” Butler said.
It’s a scene that has played out often throughout the first three months of Richard’s professional career. Teammates and coaches alike continue to rave about his demeanor and feel for the game at such an early stage of his career. The praise that Kerr and Butler have for him has only grown stronger.
“He’s a really mature young guy,” Kerr said. “He just has a great sense for the game. He’s not afraid of anything. Shoots every time he’s open … we’re really lucky to have him.”
But what has impressed Warriors personnel almost as much as the 6-4, 206-pound guard’s play — he’s averaging 8.5 points and 2.8 rebounds in 19.1 minutes a game — are the intangibles he brings to work every day and his self awareness to ask questions and truly hear others.
“He’s a winner,” Butler said recently. “He’s hella smart. But I think the thing that I love the most about Will is his ability to listen. You tell him what to do, to the best of his ability he’s going to do it. Whether it’s offense, whether it’s on defense.
“It’s really hard to try to please everybody because you can be told five different things from five different people, and he’s the type of human being that’s going to try to do all five of those things that everybody’s telling him. They could totally contradict each other, but he’s a hellafied listener.”
Richard, who turns 23 on Wednesday, has earned playing time early in his career by knowing where to be on the floor, but he’s also earned respect within the locker room by being able to listen and learn from those around him. One of the first things Kerr praised Richard for a few days in training camp was the fact that the rookie asked Curry questions and watched his routine. Richard wasn’t the first young player to follow that route, but three months into his first pro season, it’s clear that he is taking the advice and implementing what he’s learning in his game.
“I’ve always been good about asking questions. But I feel like in college, that set me apart,” Richard said. “Asking questions of the coaching staff, making sure I’m on the same page with them so I’m on the right spot on the floor and I can help everybody else on the team.”
Richard took the advice from his father in high school and literally ran with it. He built on that foundation in college and became an NCAA champion. Now, he’s taking advice from those around him again in the NBA and becoming the type of rotational fixture that the Warriors can build around in years to come.
As he reflects on his rise to the league, one that started eight years ago on a weight-loss program with the help of his parents, Richard is enjoying the fact that he can learn from the players he looked up to every day. He watches how Curry, Butler and Draymond Green carry themselves. He sees the work ethic it takes to stay at the top of your game. He garnered more respect from his teammates and Kerr over the weekend after scoring 20 points in Saturday’s win over the Phoenix Suns. It was a performance made even more impressive by the fact he sat out the previous three games because he was out of the rotation.
For Richard, the man who listed former Warriors great Klay Thompson as his favorite player in his Gator bio, the opportunity to play for a team he followed when he was younger comes with a responsibility that he is embracing.
“I wouldn’t say it’s pressure,” Richard said. “I feel like it makes it fun for me. Those guys, they made my childhood. They were the reason I fell in love with basketball and stuff like that. So, I get to be around greatness every day. It’s more of a motivation for me. … It’s something that I can learn from and try to use to benefit myself and hopefully have a long career like those guys had.”
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