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Teams in the Western Conference have long resented the Golden State Warriors for a five-year reign of terror atop the league, but many players have been looking forward to the crumbling of their empire to exact revenge on them for their antics — particularly two-time MVP Stephen Curry and former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green.
“It got old with the antics,” one Pacific Division player told Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report. “Now that they've come back to reality, you want to beat the hell out of them and see Steph with that towel over his head in the fourth [quarter]. … But the team now isn't the Warriors. [You're not going to punish] Glenn Robinson III and D'Angelo Russell. This is about Steph and Draymond.”
The Warriors are now a shell of their former selves, with Klay Thompson on the shelf with a torn ACL, Curry out for three months with a broken hand, and Green to miss several games with a finger injury.
The star-less Warriors are losing at a record pace and it's no surprise that they are — but that won't keep every team from wanting to beat the pulp out of them in efforts to get some sort of vengeance from the endless string of losses their teams have piled up against Golden State.
“You think anybody in the league has any empathy for Draymond Green?” said San Antonio Spurs forward Rudy Gay. “No, hell no. He's a good dude and everything, but everybody has their time and everybody has their day, and it's time for another team to step up. They took full advantage of their time at the top. And not just them—the fans, too. This is the real NBA, man. You don't have some of the best players in the league. You still have some great players, but those wins aren't going to come as easy no more.”
The Warriors will have to scrap for wins this season, but it seems they won't be doing so too hard with a top-10 NBA Draft pick in their sights.
