The NBA is back. After the lengthy All-Star break, the Golden State Warriors returned to action by hosting the Los Angeles Clippers at Oracle Arena.
The Warriors were back at full strength, but got off to a slow start in the first half and found themselves being down 61-49. However, the Warriors decided to turn it up a notch and exploded with 50 points in the third quarter to re-gain the lead. The Warriors were able to cruise the rest of the way and won 123-113, giving them their 48th victory of the season.
This was a nice return for the Warriors after having several days off. Beating the Clippers is always nice, especially in front of your home crowd. There is no secret these two teams do not like each other and that was in display once again on Thursday night.
With only a few seconds into the first quarter, Draymond Green was already jawing with the Clippers bench. However, he directed his trash talk to one particular Clipper, Paul Pierce. Not sure what got Draymond Green started, but the two time All-Star did not hold back.
Green reminded Pierce that he is not getting a farewell tour because he is not loved and admired like Kobe was during his final season. Sports Illustrated’s official twitter handle tweeted out the video for all of us to hear:
Draymond just straight-up trashed Paul Pierce. “You can’t get no farewell tour, they don’t love you like that…You thought you was Kobe?” pic.twitter.com/SC0A0vxLTo
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 24, 2017
That’s one way to get a game started. Again, we are not sure what led Green to attack Pierce, but surely it was justified. Pierce is a trash talker himself, so it wasn’t like he was an innocent bystander. It’s not like Green was lying, Pierce is not at Kobe’s level, he was never going to get the standing ovations and the respect from the opposing fans.
Pierce is a Hall of Fame player and a one time NBA champion, but he is still the opposition and while surely Green respects all of his accolades, when you’re playing the game all of that goes out the window. In the words of Herm Edwards, you play to win the game and Green plays with emotion and trash talk. Some were not happy Green was disrespecting an elder statesmen, but quite frankly it is being taken out of proportion.
If Green would have made those comments after Pierce retires, then this is a different conversation. However, this was during a game where two teams have had bad blood for one another. Sometimes the truth hurts.