Thursday night’s game between the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors was preceded by some rather personal media back and forth between Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks and Warriors forward Draymond Green. 

Brooks, in a feature on ESPN.com, went out of his way to chastise Green, beginning his commentary on his fellow big-talking, technical-fouling defensive ace with the direct, “I don’t like Draymond at all.”

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Green responded on his podcast this week in particularly harsh fashion, offering a line-by-line counterpoint on Brooks’ ESPN quotes, including this thesis statement of sorts:

“If you’ve ever wondered why the Memphis Grizzlies is not ready to compete for a championship, look no further than this idiot right here.”

Did the Grizzlies see this? 

Asked about Green’s remarks before the game, Jenkins allowed that he’d heard them, and dubbed the exchange “competitive banter.”

Well, “competitive banter” between Brooks and Green — and Brooks and Stephen Curry and maybe just Brooks and the world — continued after tipoff, through a second quarter moment in which Brooks scored on Green and went nose to nose with him on the court, through a final 21-point Grizzlies victory and right into the team’s postgame locker room, where Brooks donned gold-plated sunglasses and held court. 

Brooks is notably absent from social media, but that doesn’t mean he hadn’t seen and heard Green’s commentary about him. 

“Yeah, my teammates showed me,” said Brooks. “I don’t really watch (social media), but they showed me and I watched the whole thing. There was some funny stuff, you know. I’m ‘not a championship player.’ I feel like the stuff that I said was facts. And we’ll see at the end of the year what they do with him.”

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Brooks was alluding to Green’s upcoming free agency and future with the only NBA team he’s ever known, a summer uncertainty that Brooks and Green share. 

Brooks took particular issue with Green’s suggestion that other Grizzlies players don’t like him. It was a setup for Brooks to mention Green’s eve-of-the-season scandal of sorts, when he sucker-punched teammate Jordan Poole in practice. 

“The fact that he was trying to pin my teammates against me, that was a low blow,” said Brooks. “But that’s the type of player he is. (My teammates) are my guys. We do it all together. I’m not out there getting in physical altercations with my teammates. I try to talk to them. Not break them down, but build them up.”

Has Brooks ever punched a teammate?

“No, never, as much as I want to,” he said, laughing.

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Green, in the loss, had less to say about Brooks, denying that the Grizzlies and Warriors are a rivalry because the Grizzlies haven’t won a title, never mind that the two teams have alternated eliminating each other from the postseason the past two years. 

“Anybody can win in March,” said Green. “What does that mean? I have a hard time getting out of my bed in March. What’s a game in March mean?”

In truth, for these two teams, quite a bit. 

The Grizzlies are trying to steady themselves after a chaotic few days took away Brandon Clarke for the season and Ja Morant for an unknown period of time. 

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The Warriors are trying to defend a title, but struggling to avoid the play-in tournament. 

“They never forget who the Memphis Grizzlies are. They get up to play us,” said Brooks. “He should never talk. He’s making it a rivalry. He’s using my name to get his podcast up. He should at least say thank you.” 

When Green and Brooks went nose to nose in the second quarter, the game seemed to mean a lot. 

“I kind of wanted that play,” said Brooks.

Brooks leads the NBA in technical fouls. Green is close behind. It seemed like the classic “double technical foul” moment, but the referees let it go. 

Brooks appreciated the restraint. 

“I was waiting for that in Denver, you know,” said Brooks, who got his 16th technical against the Nuggets for jawing with Denver star Nikola Jokic, a number that got him a one-game suspension in the Grizzlies’ next game. 

“They should have done that with me and Joker, but they want to come and give both Ts. And refs, they talk. They know. I get the short end of the stick, but when I get to 8-10 years, I hope I get the same respect. 

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“I have friendly conversations with the refs, even though I get intense. I try to talk a little lower and give them their props. Because the game is so fast and the game is so physical. It’s hard for those guys to get up and down. Especially some of them, they old.” 

Green had a different interpretation of the lack of technical fouls on the play. 

“(Brooks) thought he was baiting me. I get technical fouls when I want to get technical fouls,” said Green. “So I think that’s probably the difference between me and him. If I did that to him it would be a double tech because he would respond. But it’s not a double tech because I didn’t respond. One of us is baitable and one of us (isn’t). That’s just kind of how it goes.”

If Brooks was offering a little generosity toward the officials and none whatsoever to Green, he split the difference for the Warriors star upon whom he was actually more focused during the game: Stephen Curry, who really got cooking in the second quarter, with Brooks on the bench. 

“I told coach in the second half to match my minutes with him. We can’t have those runs again,” said Brooks. 

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The strategy on Curry?

“Just being diligent in my coverages, not letting him shoot a lot of 3s. That’s the main thing. He’s going to find a way to get them up, but I want to try to make them as difficult as possible. And then just fighting through all the illegal screens they set.”

The key to preparing to guard Curry?

“Take a nap before the game.” 

What’s enjoyable about it?

“Just talking with Steph. We were having great dialogue over there. I was just telling him he can’t take me one on one. That’s my go-to. He was laughing. But he knows. He needs a ball-screen.”

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Was beating the Warriors satisfying? 

“No. Not yet. We want to see them in the playoffs.” 

Maybe Green was on to something about March.

One last thing? What about the Grizzlies locker room amid their current drama?

“We’ve all got the same type of mindset,” said Brooks, those sunglasses not quite obscuring an ever-present mischievous grin. “There’s no cancers or poisonous guys. The worst guy we’ve got? You’re talking to him right now.”