The “bump heard round the world” just won’t die, already. By now, you’ve grown weary of the increasingly adorable beef between the Warriors’ Draymond Green and the Clippers’ Dahntay Jones. Green, you’ll remember, took umbrage with the way Jones lightly brushed his elbow during a post-game interview Sunday.
In the locker room after “the incident,” Green proceeded to not only mock Jones for being a seldom-used bench player, but went so far as to lobby the league offices to levy a fine on him.
“Getting bumped by him, I definitely expect that to be reviewed by the NBA. For him to look at me and look at me again, then bump me when I’m doing a post-game interview. That’s really smart, too, when it’s on ABC…he got some camera time, which he needed because there wasn’t much celebration from their bench today, so you didn’t see him much. So he got the camera time he was looking for, just expect [it] to be reviewed and see what happens.”
The NBA announced yesterday that Jones would be docked $10,000 for the bump.
NBA just announced $10,000 fine for Clips' Dahntay Jones for bumping Golden State's Draymond Green during Green postgame TV interview Sunday
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 9, 2015
Jones, to his credit, is downplaying any lingering animosity that might exist betwixt the two, but when speaking to the L.A. Times Monday, couldn’t help but squeeze in one last dig about Green making the most of his moment in the limelight.
“We never got into it, we never exchanged any words,” Jones said. “We never exchanged any glances. We never ran into each other. I don’t even know him as an individual, so there’s no bad blood. Somebody had a good game and wanted a little bit more attention.”
Green later added, with some thinly-veiled contempt: “I apologize if I hurt his feelings.”
Doc Rivers, as coach and elder statesman, had the chance to take the high road here, but instead, well, just see for yourself:
“Wow, that was such a violent bump!” Rivers deadpanned. “I’m telling you. It was amazing. I told Dahntay, ‘You’ve got to be careful. That was too hard.’ I guess that tough guy at Golden State, I mean, I think the bump was too hard for him, clearly, the way he reacted.”
Hilarious, yes, but also wholly unnecessary. Here’s hoping these two fierce rivals meet each other in the playoffs.
[Los Angeles Times; Vine via Steve Noah]
