OAKLAND — There’s been a lot of smack talked on the court between the Warriors and Cavaliers through the NBA Finals, a fair amount of it between the always chattering Draymond Green and LeBron James. After Game 4, LeBron said that he felt some of what was said crossed a line.
“I’m all cool with the competition,” LeBron said after the loss. “I’m all fine with that, but some of the words that came out of his mouth was a little bit overboard, and being a guy with pride, a guy with three kids and a family, things of that nature, some things just go overboard and that’s where he took it, and that was it.”
In the wake of Green’s suspension for Game 5 (not for words but a low blow to LeBron), Klay Thompson commented on the smack talk and LeBron, voicing the feeling among the Warriors that the Cavaliers lobbied for the Green suspension.
“I don’t know how the man feels,” Thompson said of LeBron. “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. I mean, we’ve all been called plenty of bad words on the basketball court before. Some guys just react to it differently.”
When told of this, LeBron just laughed.
“I’m not going to comment on what Klay said, because I know where it can go from this sit-in,” LeBron said, shaking his head. “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.”
LeBron then went on to give a banal quote about the Cavs needing to play hard in Game 5.
The Warriors Mo Speights made his feelings known on twitter.
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— Marreese Speights (@Mospeights16) June 12, 2016
None of this talk will impact Game 5 — the Warriors are motivated with Green out; the Cavaliers know the door to a title that seemed closed has been cracked open.
Just don’t expect the jawing to stop.
That is part of the Finals, too.