Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green is a man of many opinions. This season his opinions have been directed towards one team and coach in particular in the form of the Los Angeles Clippers. For the most part, this season was quiet until one postgame interview bump at Oracle Arena turned things the wrong way.
Jonathan Abrams of Grantland did a great piece on Green and his path to where he is now, including his bad blood with the Clippers.
Green, however, remains bitter about the loss. “At no point in that game — until the very end when I realized we weren’t fitting to win — did I think they were going to beat us,” Green said. “At no point. I just felt like we were way better than they were.” Green said the Clippers did little talking during the series. “They talked more after than they did during the game,” he said. “You can tell when someone is uneasy about something, [when they] don’t really believe what they’re trying to show [you] they believe.”
And Green’s animosity toward the Clippers hasn’t dissipated one bit. This season, he’s had notable altercations with Blake Griffin, Dahntay Jones, and Doc Rivers.
“They have a cocky arrogance, like they’ve won something, and they haven’t done nothing,” Green said. “They pretty much been to the same spot in the playoffs we’ve been to. But they have this cockiness like you’re supposed to bow down to them. They ain’t proved nothing. They ain’t earned nothing. What respect have you earned?”
But couldn’t any Clippers player say the same thing about Green?
“I wouldn’t say that, because I don’t expect anybody to bow down to me,” Green said. “Nor do I expect you to respect me. I’m going to earn your respect. When it’s all said and done, you’ll respect me and our team.”
This is just pumping up the hype for a possible matchup somewhere in the playoffs between the 2 teams. It could happen in the second round, if the Clippers stay at the 5 seed out West, matched up with the Portland Trail Blazers. As long as the number 1 overall seeded Golden State Warriors are able to handle the 8 seed, whether it’s the New Orleans Pelicans or Oklahoma City Thunder has yet to be decided.
This rivalry died down a little bit but Green has single-handedly propped it back up and delivered us some great stuff. The back and forth between him and Doc Rivers was interesting as well with Green hitting Rivers with the classic ‘Cool Story, Glenn‘ which prompted Green to sell some t-shirts with the phrase on it but then he unfortunately stopped selling it before I was able to buy one.
Either way, the playoffs coming up may be the end all when it comes to this rivalry. There might be some hard hits and rough plays but as long as the NBA doesn’t let it get out of hand, it should be entertaining for everyone watching.
These 2 teams definitely don’t like each other but at the end of the playoffs, the better team will survive and advance, shutting up the other team and giving the proper team the respect they deserve.
