As the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies prepared for their Thursday night contest, all eyes were on Draymond Green and Dillon Brooks.
The two players exchanged words through the media in the days leading up to the game, the dislike for each other well publicized.
Brooks plainly stated that he disliked Green and the Warriors in an interview with ESPN and Green responded by breaking down Brooks’ quote piece by piece before saying Memphis wasn’t ready to compete for a championship.
WARRIORS’ DRAYMOND GREEN RIPS GRIZZLIES’ DILLON BROOKS: ‘NOT SURE YOUR TEAMMATES LIKE YOU’
The two finally had a chance to square off face-to-face on Thursday and had a chippy moment in the second quarter.
After stealing the ball in the backcourt and scoring to take a 74-57 lead over Golden State, Brooks and Green bumped chests before being separated by a referee.
After the 131-110 loss to the Grizzlies, Green told reporters that Brooks had tried to bait him into a technical foul.
"He thought he would like bait me, like he gets baited," Green said, according to ESPN. "I get technical fouls when I want to get technical fouls. I don't get baited into technical fouls. So, I think that's probably the difference between me and him. If I do that to him, it'd be a double tech, because he'd respond. But it's not a double tech, because I didn't respond. One of us are baitable, one of us aren't."
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Brooks, who had 14 points and was the primary defender on Steph Curry, said he was expecting Green to do a little more talking throughout the game.
"I kind of wanted that play, just to see what he was going to say," Brooks said. "But he took the media approach with that and didn't say nothing, which is cool. I was expecting him to talk a little bit more, but I guess he needs to get all his facts together and talk."
The dislike between the two teams has been brewing for the past few years with the two squaring off in the last two playoffs.
En route to their fourth NBA championship in eight years, the Warriors defeated Memphis in six games in the 2022 NBA Playoffs.
"One team has to win, and then another team has to win," Green said. "That's what creates a rivalry. Not because one team gets up for you and talk like they can beat you and then not. That doesn't create a rivalry. Rivalries are created by you win, I win. Clearly, we've won four times, and I think their organization has zero championships, so I can't consider that a rivalry."
