Getty Draymond Green #23 of the Golden State Warriors reacts after making a basket and being fouled by the Denver Nuggets in the second half during Game One of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Chase Center on April 16, 2022 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green was yucking it up on Twitter Monday night, which many interpreted as a slight against his former teammate Kevin Durant.
Durant’s Brooklyn Nets were swept out of the first round of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Playoffs by the Boston Celtics after falling at home 116-112 on April 25. The Nets had been favored not only to win the East, but to bring home a championship, with some sports books handicapping their chances to win it all as low as +250 prior to the start of the season.
But the inconsistent presence of Kyrie Irving, Durant’s chosen running mate after he decided to depart Golden State in 2019, and the subsequent trade of James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers left Brooklyn discombobulated and scrambling much of the season. They earned the No. 7 seed in the East by winning an NBA Play-In Tournament game over the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 12, but they would not win another game before being dispatched from the playoffs by the Celtics in four straight games.
Green took to Twitter during the second half of Nets/Celtics Game 4 on Monday night and posted two messages — one that was widely interpreted as an insult to Durant and the Nets, and a second that was a vague, half-hearted denial of that interpretation.
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Dubs’ Draymond Green Gets Cryptic About Nets, Durant on Twitter
GettyKevin Durant (left), formerly of the Golden State Warriors, tries to calm down teammate Draymond Green (right) after a foul in the second half of an NBA game against the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena on October 19, 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images)
Green’s first tweet was nothing but a string of two emojis, each repeated several times. It was this tweet that led to speculation Green was clowning his former teammate after a disastrous postseason in Brooklyn.
😂😂😂😂😂👀👀👀👀
“😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 👀 👀 👀 👀,” Green wrote online, offering no other explanation as to what he was laughing about or where he was directing his followers to look.
In less than 90 minutes on Twitter, Green’s emoji post had been liked approximately 75,000 times.
The Warriors star forward followed up on his first tweet with a second message approximately 50 minutes later, in which he indicated that he was not mocking Durant or the Nets. However, Green never offered an explanation as to what his first tweet actually meant.
Y’all thought I was laughing at the nets getting swept? I’m a little more blatant than that. Y’all can at least give me credit for that 😂😂😂
“Y’all thought I was laughing at the Nets getting swept?” Green wrote. “I’m a little more blatant than that. Y’all can at least give me credit for that 😂 😂 😂.”
NBA Legend Tees Off on Kevin Durant Prior to Celtics’ Sweep of Nets
GettyKevin Durant of the Brooklyn Nets was swept out of the NBA Playoffs for the first time in his career on Monday, April 25, by the Boston Celtics.
If Green was mocking Durant Monday night, he wasn’t the first to do so over the previous 24 hours.
Charles Barkley, an NBA analyst on TNT and a former professional basketball player himself, ripped Durant over the time he spent with the Green and the Warriors on Sunday night during an episode of “Inside The NBA.” In so many words, Barkley said that Durant was not the best, nor the most important player, on those Golden State teams, implying instead that player was two-time MVP Steph Curry.
“All these bus riders, they don’t mean nothing to me. If you ain’t driving the bus, don’t walk around talking about ‘you a champion,'” Barkley said Sunday night, referencing Durant going along for the ride with the Warriors, who had been to two NBA Finals and won one championship the two seasons prior to Durant’s arrival in Golden State.
“If you’re riding the bus, I do’’t want to hear it,” Barkley added.
Barkley’s co-host Kenny Smith challenged his assertion.
“You don’t think [Kevin Durant] was the best player on the Warriors?” Smith asked.
“No, I do not,” Barkley responded.
“He was the best player,” Smith said.
“He got MVP [of the NBA Finals], he wasn’t the best player,” Barkley replied. “[Andre] Iguodala wasn’t the best player. He got MVP.”
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Warriors Draymond Green Sounds Off on Nets, Durant Getting Swept