Draymond Green is the biggest trash talker on the Golden State Warriors. Klay Thompson gets most personally offended by slights to his team. But the quieter Steph Curry may be the true Petty King of the Warriors.
Curry showed this at the end of the Warriors’ 133-110 decimation of the Houston Rockets, where he delivered a subtle, masterful movie reference to answer the provocations of injured Rockets forward Tari Eason.
For background, Eason posted a video of him quoting the 1979 film “The Warriors,” yelling, “Warriors! come to pla-ay-ay!” on his Instagram story. Draymond Green responded, saying it’s a bad idea to do that when you’re out injured, and considering the Warriors have hated Houston for a decade. Then Eason doubled down by wearing a Warriors shirt to the game.
If you’re confused by what Curry was doing with what appeared to be empty hydration bottles, here’s the scene from the movie.
Curry delivered 29 points, six rebounds, and six assists in a win that put Golden State four games ahead of Houston with six to play, while they also hold the tiebreaker over the Rockets. In the film, Luther, the bottle-clanker, pulls a gun on the rival gang but loses his weapon after the leader of the Warriors drills him in the wrist with a knife shot from distance. In Thursday’s game, the NBA Warriors destroyed their opponents by shooting 17-for-35 from three-point range.
Honestly, Luther, the leader of The Rogues, feels like more of a Dillon Brooks figure. He talks a lot of trash but doesn’t back it up, commits violent acts for non-existent or self-destructive reasons, and claims that he’s a victim. Thursday, Brooks met his archrival Draymond Green with a whopping eight points and four fouls.
Steph Curry doesn’t forget a slight. According to Andrew Bogut, also a Rogue, Curry would read critical tweets about him at halftime to motivate himself to prove them wrong in the second half. During the 2022 playoffs, he delighted in telling opponents “Night night” with a celebration both dorky and devastating.
This one was just cold. Even though the Rockets have exactly zero players remaining from the team that battled the Dubs in tough playoff series in 2018 and 2019, it seems like the team’s rivalry with Houston has been reignited. This game was so devastating that Houston coach Ime Udoka stood up in front of the media afterward and called out his players for being soft.
Curry’s teammates weren’t happy with Eason either. Thompson’s very Klay-like take was, “Bro, what are we doing?” whereas Green slyly told reporters he hoped Eason had a great summer.
Regardless, Thursday night the Warriors were good. Real good. Some would even say, the best.
Why did Eason wear the shirt, even knowing the NBA’s pettiest team would be even more motivated to end their season? As Luther might say, “No reason. I just like doing things like that.”
