The Warriors were defeated in Memphis, but the banter between the two players was in focus before, during and after. The forward: “Anyone can win in March”
On the floor, Memphis defeated Golden State tonight (between Thursday and Friday) 110:131 and broke a streak of three losses, with the champion now standing on one of them. But most of the attention in the United States is directed to the confrontation, both in the media and physically during it, between Draymond Green and Dillon Brooks. It started last week, when the Grizzlies player was interviewed and said that he did not like Green, to which the Warriors forward responded in his podcast and claimed that it is not certain that the players Memphis likes to play alongside Brooks, who is known around the NBA as a playerDirty (and just a month ago pissed off Donovan Mitchell too). The latter decided to answer on the court, with 14 points and 6 assists in 35 minutes, when one of his baskets hit Green and after that the two exchanged things under the basket, apparently about what the “bad boy” of Golden State said on the podcast.
Green, who is one technical foul away from his 16th technical of the season, which under league rules leads to an automatic one-game suspension, realized that Brooks was trying to squeeze that whistle against him, and kept his cool during that confrontation. In the press conference after the loss, he scolded: “He thought I was taking the bait. I get technicals when I want, not when they try to knock me down, that’s probably the difference between meto his understanding If I had done that to him, they would have whistled a double technical because he would have reacted, it’s not a double technical because I didn’t react.” When Brooks was asked about his ability in the game, he shifted the focus to Green: “You have to pass the microphone to Draymond. He will talk about me. Let him keep talking about me, so I can play better. He is using my name to attract interest to his podcast. I didn’t mind what he said, because I know I’m a better player.” Here Brooks added a sting when he mentioned Green’s punch to his teammate, Jordan Paul: “The fact that he tried to incite my teammates against me, that’s a hit below the belt and that’s the type of player that he. These are my boys, usgrowing up together I don’t try to get into physical confrontations with my teammates, I sit and talk with them, not trying to break them but build them up”. The Grizzlies were defeated in the Western Conference semifinals series last year, after the Bears eliminated them in the playoffs a year before. Of course, Green was not oblivious, and continued to shoot: “Both teams need to win in order for a rivalry to be created. Pretty obviously we’ve won four championships and I think their organization has zero, so I can’t really consider it a rivalry. Everyone can win in March. what do I mean? I can barely get out of bedin March. What is a March game anyway?”.