The New York Knicks are not a very good team so beating them is not exactly something to go nuts over. But after pulling out their first win since Kevin Durant went down with a knee injury, Draymond Green should have been in a good mood. At the least, he should have been busy talking about how there was never any doubt the Golden State Warriors would be okay without Kevin Durant.
Instead, he was too busy trashing the Knicks for something he deemed “disrespectful” and “pathetic.”
Knicks try to put focus on basketball
Did the Knicks play some anti-California music or display some video where the state of California breaks off into the ocean and sinks?
Did they hang Kevin Durant’s knee in effigy? Did Derrick Rose try to kick Steph Curry or Klay Thompson in the groin? Or do a skit during a timeout where they pretend Steve Kerr gets shot in a drive-by?
Did they do anything that a rational person would deem crude, rude, inappropriate, unprofessional, or just plain wrong?
No. They just didn’t play any music or use the video board during the first half of the game. That’s it.
To let the fans know, they displayed a message on the video board (ESPN):
The first half of today’s game will be presented without music, video or in-game entertainment so you can experience the game in its purest form. Enjoy the sounds of the game.
Odd, but okay. What’s the big deal?
Basketball is played all the time without music and other bells and whistles aimed towards making it more entertaining. Several players thought it was weird, but Draymond Green took his criticism a lot further calling it pathetic, ridiculous, and for some odd reason—disrespectful (ESPN):
“…It changed the flow of the game. It changed everything.
You get used to playing a certain way. It completely changed it. To me, I think it was completely disrespectful to everyone...to all these people who’ve done these things to change the game from an entertainment perspective.”
To be fair, he has a point. All the music and the things they display on the video board do add to the overall entertainment value of a game.
It can make a bad game seem more entertaining than it really is and a great game even better. But how is not playing music to pump up the home crowd disrespectful to NBA and Golden State executives? Did they create the sound system in Madison Square Garden? Did they build the video board? Did Golden State have some tribute video they wanted to be played?
No! What Green is forgetting is that people don’t come to games because they want to hear the latest version of Jock Jams blasting. They don't come to see replays on a giant video board. They come to see basketball—which is exactly what the Knicks tried to give the fans.
So, if anything, they were trying to be more respectful to the fans who dished out their money to see a basketball game.
Draymond Green was the disrespectful one--not the Knicks
If anything, he was the one who was disrespectful. During his rant, he talked about advancing things to make them better and not going back to what was bad. So just watching the game being played is bad? Wasn't it worth watching without a soundtrack?
When it is bad basketball—yes, the music is nice. Maybe that was Green's issue. The Warriors didn’t play well against the Bulls their last time out and looked like crap in the first half against the Knicks. Steph Curry warmed up in the second half and led the team to a win, 112-105, their first without Kevin Durant.
So—is Green really mad because there wasn’t anything to distract fans from how bad the Warriors had played?
There was nothing disrespectful or pathetic about what the Knicks did in the first half Sunday. Maybe someone should tell Green he should focus more on entertaining the fans by being a basketball player first and an entertainer second.
Oh—and that people still use paper even though we have computers.
