The Golden State Warriors and Memphis Grizzlies have been engaged in an entertaining back-and-forth since the 2022 NBA Playoffs. Warriors’ star Draymond Green had some words for Memphis’ outspoken star Ja Morant, who asserted that his squad had no competition in the Western Conference during a December 2022 interview.
“I know everybody wanted to hear what I had to say about Ja’s take,” the Warriors power forward said during the Jan. 5 episode of his podcast, The Draymond Green Show. “I think you all know how I feel about that. I got a lot of love and respect for Ja; [a] young leader that makes his guys believe whatever he believes, and that’s a very powerful thing as a leader. He got that, has had it since day one, and you can see it. Glaringly noticeable since the time he stepped foot in Memphis.”
The 32-year-old continued with a smirk, “I’m not quite sure he can make his guys believe that one, which is ‘I’m fine in the west.’ You are fine, Ja, you are, but the Warriors [are] in the west now, champ. So yes, you are fine, Ja. The Grizzlies, on the other hand, that’s a topic for another day.”
The sarcastic yet confident tone in Green’s voice likely stems from the fact that the Grizzlies, following Ja’s comments, suffered a 123-109 loss to his Golden State Warriors team who played without two-time MVP Stephen Curry and All-Star Andrew Wiggins. In their following game, they lost 125-108 to a Phoenix Suns team without superstar Devin Booker, Cameron Payne, Cam Johnson, and Landry Shamet.
Ja Morant said, ‘I’m fine in the West,’ and the Grizzlies proceeded to lose back-to-back games to…
? The Warriors without Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins
? The Suns without Devin Booker, Cam Payne, Cam Johnson, and Landry Shamet pic.twitter.com/HtEJUsIukN— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) December 28, 2022
The Grizzlies point guard told NBA Today host Malika Andrews that he was only concerned about the Boston Celtics in an interview clip posted on Dec. 21. When asked about the west, he made the bold claim that Draymond refuted in just a few words and the Grizzlies’ performance following the claim.
Though Morant is one of the league’s bright young stars and the team has a promising future, he and the Grizzlies have ways to go before they can make such lofty claims as they have never made it to the NBA Finals and only made one Western Conference Finals, which they lost in 2013.
