Warriors enforcer Draymond Green is out, but the NBA Finals bad blood may have just begun brewing, particularly between Splash Brother Klay Thompson and LeBron James.
Green’s one-game suspension from Monday’s potential Game 5 clincher at Oracle Arena for his altercation with James drew angry reviews from the Warriors Sunday, especially Thompson, who tweaked The King for being overly sensitive. James appeared bothered by Thompson’s insinuation that “his feelings just got hurt.”
Uncharacteristically, James started yapping at Green toward the end of the Cavs’ Game 4 loss after an incident in which Green took a “retaliatory swipe of his hand to the groin” of James, according to the NBA. The swipe occurred only after James stepped over him. After the game, “The Chosen One” complained certain stuff shouldn’t be uttered on the hardwood.
Thompson was bewildered.
“Guys talk trash in this league all the time,’’ Thompson said. “I’m just kind of shocked some guys take it so personal. It’s a man’s league, and I’ve heard a lot of bad things on that court, but at the end of the day, it stays on the court.
“I don’t know how the man feels, but obviously people have feelings and people’s feelings get hurt even if they’re called a bad word. I guess his feelings just got hurt. We’ve all been called plenty of bad words on the basketball court before. Some guys just react to it differently.”
When a reporter repeated Thompson’s remark, James laughed and bit his lip, but not without conveying his anger.
“Oh, my goodness,” James said. “I’m not going to comment on what Klay said because I know where it can go from [here]. It’s so hard to take the high road. I’ve been doing it for 13 years. It’s so hard to continue to do it, and I’m going to do it again. At the end of the day, we’ve got to go out and show up and play better [Monday], and if we don’t, then they’re going to be back-to-back champion. But I’ve taken the high road again.”
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