Tony Allen had a tall task when his Memphis Grizzlies squared off with the Warriors in the second round of the 2015 NBA playoffs.
He had to guard Klay Thompson, half of Golden State's sharp-shooting Splash Brothers and in the midst of his first All-Star and All-NBA season. The assignment weighed heavily on Allen's mind during Game 1 of that series.
So heavily, in fact, that Allen hilariously walked directly in the middle of an on-court dance performance by a group of children at the Oakland Arena.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Once Allen realized what he had done, he immediately dapped up one of the young performers.
"I was just so focused, man," Allen recalled Friday on "Warriors Playoff Central," prior to Golden State's play-in game with Memphis.
"I was just so focused. I'm gonna take y'all through it: I was embarrassed. I said, 'Oh, they not done. They not done. They are not done!' "
Golden State Warriors
Allen's Grizzlies lost that game, and Thompson scored a highly efficient 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting and 2-of-5 on 3-pointers. Memphis won each of the next two games, before Golden State's in-series adjustments led to three straight Warriors' wins. In those victories, Thompson averaged 18.7 points per game while shooting 45.5 percent from the field, 60 percent from beyond the 3-point line and 100 percent on his free throws.
In other words, you can see why Thompson dominated so much of Allen's thinking.
RELATED: Penny believes Wiseman can have Bosh-type ceiling for Warriors
Allen joked that he was grateful to finally explain to Warriors fans why he wandered into the middle of in-arena entertainment during a break in the action.
He then asked for forgiveness.
"I truly apologize, man, for that," Allen said with a laugh. "Even to that kid, to the whole dance team. I remember seeing that [on] YouTube, it was a lady in the stands. If you keep watching it, she was in there while I was shooting free throws. ... She was mad at me, I want to apologize to her, too."