Draymond Green calls Dillon Brooks ‘BAITABLE’

The continued war of words between the Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies wrote itself a new chapter on Thursday when Draymond Green of Golden State and Dillon Brooks of Memphis seemed intent on provoking each other.

After Green set the stage for the matchup on Wednesday by calling Brooks a ‘clown’ and that ‘your teammates don’t like you’, the pair met up on the court in Memphis.

There were some heightened moments of tension – including one weirdly confrontational moment where Green seemed to rub a basketball and his arms across Brooks’ face.

As the final buzzer sounded, with the Warriors unable to pull out a victory, Brooks suggested to TNT’s Jared Greenberg that he ‘should give the mic to Draymond, then we’ll talk about me… make him keep talking about me so I can play better.’ 

Green took that suggestion and ran with it – calling Brooks ‘baitable’ in the post-game press conference. 

Draymond Green (23) called Dillon Brooks ‘baitable’ after Golden State’s loss to Memphis

‘He thought he would like bait me, like he gets baited,’ Green said. ‘I get technical fouls when I want to get technical fouls. 

‘I don’t get baited into technical fouls. So, I think that’s probably the difference between me and him. 

‘If I do that to him, it’d be a double tech, because he’d respond. But it’s not a double tech, because I didn’t respond. One of us are baitable, one of us aren’t.’ 

Looking back on the confrontation, Brooks said he was surprised that Green didn’t respond on the court, mocking him for seemingly needing time to ‘get all his facts together’.

‘I kind of wanted that play, just to see what he was going to say,’ Brooks said, ‘but he took the media approach with that and didn’t say nothing, which is cool. 

‘I was expecting him to talk a little bit more, but I guess he needs to get all his facts together and talk.’

It’s just another part in a growing saga between these two squads: a Warriors team that is taking advantage of top performances for as long as it possibly can as its core ages out, and a Grizzlies team whose youth is its strength, but is prone to toxicity.

Green said that even though matchups between the two teams have been close, a rivalry hasn’t been developed yet – due to Golden State’s advantage in wins and through playoff series. 

Green sparked a war of words in the run up to the game, punctuated by heated moments

In the aftermath of the loss, Green says that a rivalry between the two hasn’t been developed

‘One team has to win, and then another team has to win,’ Green said. 

‘That’s what creates a rivalry. Not because one team gets up for you and talk like they can beat you and then not. 

‘That doesn’t create a rivalry. Rivalries are created by you win, I win. Clearly, we’ve won four times, and I think their organization has zero championships, so I can’t consider that a rivalry.’