On Wednesday, ESPN.com published a rather salacious piece about Draymond Green and how his fiery persona has been a constant source of stress within the organization. Among other things, the article attributed a quote to former-Warrior Marreese Speights, who purportedly said that Klay Thompson was a frequent target of Green’s ire. Speights appeared to backtrack on those comments via Twitter, suggesting that he was either misquoted or never made those claims to begin with.
Thompson is now taking umbrage with another quote that appears in the article, which is attributed to an unnamed team official who allegedly said the Warriors played like “cowards” as they blew a 3-1 lead to the Cavs in the Finals. Here’s Thompson’s incensed response, via Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports:
“How are you not going to put your name to that quote?” he began. “It’s easy to point at someone and call them a coward, behind a shade or a shield you know? But why don’t you put your name to it, and then you can call us cowards. That’s fine. You can tell us that.
“But to say we played like cowards, and you’re not going to quote the guy who said it? That’s weak to me…That actually got under my skin, because I’m like, ‘You call us cowards but you’re not going to put your name to the (quote)?’ You know what I mean? You’re not going to quote who said it, just going to say ‘Oh, some executive said we’re cowards?’ Get out of here. That made me mad.”
“We played our hearts out that whole playoffs, the whole season, and then you’re going to call us cowards and not put your name on it,” Thompson said. “Get out of here.”
If it was indeed a source within the organization, then that’s a pretty harsh assessment and little wonder why they didn’t want their name attached to it. Thompson and the rest of the Warriors will just have to use it as added motivation to overcome the backlash that has accompanied their Finals collapse last June.
