On Wednesday evening, Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors picked up a much-needed road win over the Orlando Magic as part of their second leg of the current Eastern Conference road trip they are embarking on. Curry had a relatively quiet game for most of the evening vs the Magic, but came alive late when the Warriors needed him most, ultimately hitting a big time three with under a minute remaining and hitting his signature “night night” gesture for the Magic (and Golden State) fans in attendance.
One major storyline that emerged earlier in the game was the ejection of Warriors power forward Draymond Green, who received one technical foul, continued to argue, and then promptly received another, sending him to an early shower just a few minutes into the first quarter. Curry was seen visibility frustrated after the incident, and the next day, former college basketball player Jay Williams, apparently on the look for some Twitter engagement, took the opportunity to question Curry’s leadership, as if he is meant to be Draymond Green’s–who is 34 years old–babysitter.
“Internally, it feels like he can’t make reads on himself,” Williams said on ESPN’s First Take. “Draymond Green is diminishing the ultimate legacy of how people are looking at the leadership of Stephen Curry.”
Now, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has responded to Williams’ mind-numbingly clueless comments.
“(Draymond) he’s a grown man. He’s got to handle his own business. Any mention of Steph being culpable is just ridiculous. The way Steph has carried our franchise represented our franchise for 15 years,” said Kerr, via 95.7 The Game on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter (via Willard & Dibs).
Indeed, Draymond Green has been in the NBA long enough to know how to handle his business, and Stephen Curry has enough children of his own at home to be expected to account for the actions of another one on his basketball team.
A bumpy season for Draymond Green
Of course, one of the major storylines of this NBA season so far was the lengthy suspension of Draymond Green earlier in the year following a dirty hit against Phoenix Suns big man Jusuf Nurkic. The incident called into significant question whether Green had legitimate, diagnosable self control issues that extended far beyond just being an edgy basketball player.
That incident, of course, was far from the first such incident in Green’s career. Although he has established himself as one of the most important players on the NBA’s biggest dynasty of the last 20 years, it’s a shame that Green might end up remembered more for his antics than his basketball acumen, which is among the game’s elite.
The fact that Curry is being expected by pundits in the national media to account for Green’s actions is quite the embarrassment and makes Kerr’s frustrated reaction to such remarks very understandable. Curry has enough on his plate trying to cash the checks that Green and the equally washed Klay Thompson write on a daily basis by making bold proclamations in press conferences.
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