You poke the Golden State Warriors, you get the wrath of the NBA’s MVP.
Members of the Los Angeles Clippers, most notably head coach Doc Rivers, and the Houston Rockets, most notably James Harden, have decided to send less-than-completely-loving-and-adoring feelings Golden State’s way. Rivers, per multiple outlets, riffed on the role luck played in their historic championship run. Harden maintained that he, not Curry, deserved to win MVP honors.
Turns out Curry heard them, and he would like to apologize.
Per ESPN.com’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss:
Full Curry quote on other teams talking pic.twitter.com/C1j2IZmPu5
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) October 13, 2015
Draymond Green commented on the situation as well, though he was less (sarcastically) apologetic, more blatantly pissed off or maniacally amused.
“If they saying that, they aren’t the champs. It’s simple. Gregg Popovich didn’t say that. That’s one organization I really respect. And you haven’t heard anybody in they camp say that. You ain’t heard anybody from OKC say that, some of the organizations that I really respect,” Green said.
“You see the ring fitting man over there? Jason of Beverly Hills, he over there fitting us for our ring? That’s pretty cool. So if they saying that, it’s some bitterness and some saltiness going around. They obviously not the champs. So who cares what they say. It is what it is.”
Repeat bids are supposed to be difficult. Championship fatigue is considered real, especially following a showing as dominant as Golden State’s. Players get complacent. They indulge satisfaction. Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has, in the past, even cited that as a fault of his dominant San Antonio teams. The Warriors should be on similar ground, perhaps subconsciously struggling to replicate the drive and aggression that highlighted last season’s title.
But the opposition—direct Western Conference opposition, no less—is giving them a fire to fuel, a reason to believe that they, one of the best teams in NBA history, has something to prove.
And, to be honest, knowing how good the Warriors were last season, when they didn’t really have anything to prove, because they weren’t being identified as a top Western Conference contender, the thought of them defending their crown, fully healthy, amid doubters and people who demean their accomplishment in any way, even if inadvertently, is scary.
