The epic “Haka” Dance New Zealand performed before getting toasted by Team USA earlier this week led to a brief spat on Twitter between Andre Iguodala and Thunder center, Steven Adams, the latter of whom is a native of New Zealand.
On Tuesday, the USA thumped New Zealand 98-71, just like they’ve thumped every other opponent in Group play, aside from the close three quarters they played against Turkey. Before the win, however, the New Zealand team performed their traditional “Haka” dance designed to intimidate opponents, but also to commemorate New Zealand’s culture.
Andre Iguodala decided to compare the traditionalist dance to the A Town stomp, from Hotlanta.
New Zealand thought they dance was gone intimidate us…. That ain't nothing but the A town stump! #GoUSA #FIBAWorldCup2014
— andre (@andre) September 2, 2014
Steven Adams, a native of New Zealand, took offense on Twitter before deleting the tweet. Here’s what he wrote:
Iguodala responded, but not to offer up an apology for his xenophobia:
I see I gotta go back to tweetin in code…
— andre (@andre) September 3, 2014
Iggy isn’t the first American to act boorishly during international events when the USA is competing, though as a member of the 2010 World Championship-winning USA team and the 2012 Olympic gold medal team, he should know better.
If we were Iggy, we’d think twice about going to the bucket against OKC next season. Adams has a pretty stiff jaw…
Plus, he handled a lot of grief from opponents during his rookie season, and he just shrugged and kept playing. It’s basically impossible to rattle the guy on the court.
The Warriors travel to Oklahoma City on November 23 for the first game between the two next season, so keep this brief exchange in mind.
(H/T BDL)
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