Eason’s taunt backfires in blowout
When the Warriors returned to their Toyota Center locker room, site of so many of their springtime celebrations, reserve guard Gary Payton II led a chorus of “Warriorrrrrrs, come out and play-ay.”
After Golden State’s 133110 blowout victory in Houston on Thursday, Payton and teammates happily returned the taunt injured Rockets forward Tari Eason had sent them via an Instagram post when the Rockets were on their heels.
Warriors veteran and frequent spokesman Draymond Green had responded via his podcast that Eason should not call out a team, especially with a message to “come out and play,” when he is unable to play.
Eason, limited to 22 games because of a preseason injury that required season-ending surgery, doubled down by wearing a shirt with that message, bringing more attention to his reenactment of a scene from the 1979 movie “The Warriors.”
The Golden State Warriors noticed. Late in the game, Stephen Curry shook three bottles together on the Warriors bench, as the character Eason was quoting had in the movie.
Klay Thompson repeated Green’s argument that Eason should not have talked — or sang — if he could not play.
“That’s pretty lame, especially if you’re not even playing,” Thompson said. “It’s one thing if you’re playing, you’re out there competing, and you can back it up. But if you’re just going to be trolling from the sideline, like bro, what are we doing? At times we talk mess, (but) at least we’re out there competing. That’s all I have to say about that.”
Green said more and visited with Eason for a few moments after the game. He stood by his statement on his podcast, but also complimented Eason’s game and praised the progress of the Rockets’ rebuild, even adding that he appreciated the Rockets’ frequent pursuits of the Warriors over the years.
“I love it, I love it,” Green said of Eason calling out the Warriors. “Like I said on my podcast, Tari if you’re going to say that, you got to play, though. You can’t come out and say that and not play. But I know what type of player he is. He welcomes all that. He welcomes the challenge. He welcomes the fight.
“I saw him play last year and fell in love with his game because he does the dirty work. That team is better when he is out there. Love the competitive fire. Hopefully, next year he’ll say the same thing and we won’t be fighting for the play-in; we’ll be fighting for seeding up top.”
Green said he spoke to Eason about his recovery from surgery and advised him to “have a big summer.”
He added that he appreciates the Rockets’ years challenging the Warriors, as if those seasons made the Warriors’ accomplishments greater.
“It’s more so a mutual respect for the battles that we’ve had,” Green said. “All those years of us battling back and forth, this is an organization that in order for us to reach where we wanted to go, we had to go through. There was no way around it. We had to go through this organization, and year after year after year we had to face them.
“Just the battles that we had, you just appreciate, have respect for this organization, for the guys that have been through it here and have been part of those battles,” he continued. “Because when it’s all said and done, you look back on your career, those are the things you’re going to remember the most, the battles that you had, the teams you didn’t necessarily know you were going to get through.
“It’s more respect for this organization than feeling we had one up on them. They brought the best out of us.”