Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski is heading home to Greenfield this weekend to serve as the keynote speaker at St. John's Northwestern Academy just five years after graduating.The appearance comes on the heels of a standout NBA season in which Podziemski became one of just 18 players in the league to appear in all 82 games."I've had a few teammates my first two years do it with Kevon Looney doing it in my rookie year, and Buddy Hield doing it last year. So I kind of got to see what that looks like in terms of how they take care of themselves and prepare themselves to be ready," Podziemski said.He also posted career highs in scoring, assists, and field goal percentage.Watch: Brandin Podziemski returns to alma mater as keynote speaker after standout Warriors season Brandin Podziemski returns to alma mater as keynote speaker after standout Warriors seasonWhen key players, including Jimmy Butler and Stephen Curry, went down with injuries, Podziemski stepped into a larger role an experience he said accelerated his growth."I think it taught me a lot. The experience that I got is something I probably wouldn't have gotten if they were healthy. It was kind of a blessing in disguise in a way. I think it's gonna benefit us down the road because a bunch of our young guys got an opportunity that they didn't necessarily think that we're going to have this early. And then when they come back into the fold healthy, I think it's going to mesh really well and help us in the future. I'm ready to take another step in terms of leadership and on and off the floor. So for me, when I was kind of put into that role, per se, this year, it felt kind of normal for me and somewhere that I was really familiar with," Podziemski said.With his strong season behind him, Podziemski is now eligible for a contract extension with the Warriors this offseason and he made clear where he wants to be."Yeah, I mean, I would love to be here. I love the Bay Area. It feels like home out here. I love it here," Podziemski said.Back in Wisconsin this weekend, Podziemski will address graduates at St. John's Northwestern Academy, where he said the foundation for his career was built."I think it taught me discipline, how to do things in a way to not look at yourself, but to look at others and to serve others. And that's kind of what the whole kind of goal is out there is discipline leadership and how can I serve others. And I think it's just helped me, you know, in the speech that I wrote and that I'll speak upon Saturday, I just wrote about examples of how it helped me at Illinois, how it helped me at Santa Clara and how it's helped me now, you know, both as a person and as a basketball player. So I'm excited to kind of share my story in a way and have the younger generation be a part of it," Podziemski said.His message to students will center on resilience and how to respond when life doesn't go as planned."How do you respond to things when things aren't going the way you had planned? And what do you do in those moments when it's kind of, you just feel alone and you feel like nobody's really got your back beside your family? Like, how do you respond in those moments? And like, that can really, you know, dictate like where your life goes from there. And so I just try to relate to them because everybody goes through such things like that in appointing their life. And it's like, those are the moments where like, you can go this way or you can go this way. And I just try to share my perspective on what my thoughts were on it and, you know, provide a little bit of motivation for them," Podziemski said.This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.Its about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for TMJ4 on your device.Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.Report a typo or error ...read more read less