Warriors' go-to guy doesn't play a minute

NEW ORLEANS - Late in the fourth quarter of the Golden State Warriors' game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night, Eric Housen sensed that something was amiss as he sorted through gear in the visiting locker room at the Smoothie King Center.

The Warriors' Kevin Durant and the Pelicans' DeMarcus Cousins had just been ejected for saying some tough things to each other, and Housen heard a commotion coming from the hallway outside the locker room. He went to investigate.

As the Warriors' director of team operations, Housen juggles no fewer than a gazillion jobs. He packs the players' uniforms. He transports their bags. He books their hotel rooms. He washes their practice gear. He buys their snacks. He makes sure that the buses that deliver the team from the airport to the hotel to the arena arrive on time. He arranges the private planes for the team's massive traveling party, which includes family members and broadcasters.

In his endless quest to prevent various calamities from befalling the NBA's most glamorous collection of stars, Housen left the locker room Monday to find that Cousins was storming down the hallway in search of Durant, who was making his way off the court after his ejection and toward the locker room. Security officers, aware that trouble was brewing, quickly diverted Durant to a small corridor as several others slowed Cousins' progress.

Housen, meanwhile, ran ahead of Cousins and stood in his path. Cousins, who is 6 feet 11 and 270 pounds but somehow seems even more enormous when angry, was eventually persuaded by security to return to his own locker room, and Housen (5-10, 185) resumed the far more pedestrian chore of packing equipment.

He reflected on his act of valor/lunacy.

“I figure if they see little old me out there, maybe they won't do something,” he said.

Housen, 44, whom everyone calls E, is a behind-the-scenes force for the Warriors, who have employed him - with the exception of one season, when he followed Chris Mullin to the Indiana Pacers - since 1985, when he started as a ball boy. He was in seventh grade.

“Most important guy in the organization,” assistant coach Bruce Fraser said.

Where is that suitcase?

The day before the Warriors played the Pelicans, they were in Miami to face the Heat in the first of back-to-back games - and Housen was in hyperkinetic form two hours ahead of the tipoff.

Not long after the last of three team buses arrived at the arena, he learned that one player was running late. It was Klay Thompson, who was about to pull up to the loading dock in the back of a taxi. Housen tossed his laptop onto a pile of bags, sprinted outside to meet him and paid the fare.

Housen returned to the loading dock to double-check that the team's luggage - all 127 pieces - was on a truck and ready to go to the airport for the team's flight to New Orleans later that night. Armed with a flashlight, he inspected each bag with the help of the driver. Only one appeared to be missing: a suitcase that belonged to David West.

“He always takes a late bus, so I'm surprised it's not back here toward the end of the truck,” Housen said as he rummaged around in the dark. “Here it is!”

Once the game began, Housen sat on the floor in front of the Warriors' bench. He collected warmup jerseys and towels.Housen spent the second half in the locker room, where he supervised the caterers who were assembling dinner. He called the hotel in New Orleans with the team's estimated arrival. He double-checked “out of my own fear and paranoia,” he said, that the team's breakfast spread would be available until 1 p.m. And he called ahead to the driver of another equipment truck that was set to meet them at the airport in New Orleans.

Grocery bill for $521.45

On Monday afternoon, before the game against the Pelicans, Housen went grocery shopping, which is something he does each day that the team is on the road.

He filled his cart: sunflower seeds, deodorant, sliced bread, bananas, granola bars, four six-packs of beer, nine bottles of wine. The bill came to $521.45. Housen, who does not consider himself a sommelier, leans on Stephen Curry and Shaun Livingston for wine expertise. Their rule of thumb: pinot noirs and Cabernet Sauvignons that are a 2012 vintage or older.

Housen knows his players' habits and daily rhythms. He knows, for example, that Thompson will wear the same socks until he puts holes in them, so Housen will pre-emptively swap them out. He knows that Nick Young wants the insoles removed from his sneakers. He knows that JaVale McGee has the largest feet on the team (size 19). And he knows that Pachulia does not like to leave the arena with damp hair.

It is not a stretch, Kerr said, to suggest that Housen affects team performance. He eliminates stress, and the players benefit from more rest because everything is on time.

“It seems like he spends his entire life setting stuff up for everyone else,” Kerr said.