Klay Thompson may have just taken the Warriors and Grizzlies rivalry to the next level. The young beef that started in the 2021 play-in tournament is now baring its fangs. It’s nasty, it’s petty, and we can’t help but love it. After all, who doesn’t love a good rivalry story?
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But things are getting more and more heated with every game they play. Players from both squads are relentless in their need to win. The Grizzlies, who are young and cocky, desperately want to defeat the Dynasty that has defined the past ten years.
But the Warriors aren’t ready to give up yet. In fact, the Warriors aren’t even ready to let Memphis talk. They want to beat the Grizzlies even at trash-talking. And fascinatingly, it seems Klay Thompson has taken that charge from Draymond Green.
Klay Thompson discusses the technical foul
With less than 4 minutes on the clock, Klay Thompson pulled up for an exceptional jumper over Dillion Brooks. The shot went in and GSW led the game 115 to Memphis’s 101. Brooks, who was guarding Thompson, fell down after failing to stop the Splash brother.
As Brooks went down, Klay shuffled by his side and stared down the player. Apparently, he also taunted Brooks for failing to stop him. The 6ft 6″ shooting guard received a technical foul in the aftermath.
Interestingly, the Dubs received 6 techs in the game with Jordan Poole even getting ejected after dropping an impressive 32 points to help the Warriors gain a great lead.
In the post-game conference, when asked about the technical foul, Klay revealed that the trash-talk did not warrant the punishment. He justified his actions by calling it ‘good, old-fashioned’ smack talk.
Klay: “Just some good, old-fashion trash-talk. I didn’t think it warranted a technical but I forgot about the taunting rule. And it’s always fun to talk trash. We have been doing that since we were in middle school.”
The Warriors-Grizzlies feud is only beginning
What started on May 22 in 2021 has become a lot bigger than we had anticipated. The Grizzlies were ecstatic after ousting the Warriors from the play-in tournament.
But things became much more heated up after the Warriors took revenge in the 2022 playoff. The Grizzlies’ exit was followed by the Warriors winning the title. Klay Thompson, while basking in the glory of his 4th Championship, then taunted the Grizzlies.
Klay, during a post-game conference meeting, lashed out at Memphis for a tweet they sent out. He said:
“There was this one player on the Grizzlies who tweeted ‘Strength in Numbers’ after they beat us in the regular season and it pissed me off so much. I can’t wait to retweet that thing. Freakin’ bum. I had to watch that. I was like ‘this freaking clown.”
The player in question was Jared Jackson Jr., who, along with his teammates, did not take too kindly to the comments.
Hopefully, this rivalry bring us some incredible matches. However, it’s hard to believe a world where the Grizzlies could beat Golden State to win the championship.
