When Houston was trying to chase down Golden State for the final play-in spot in the West, Houston’s Tari Eason decided to troll the Warriors on social media, referencing the 1979 movie “The Warriors.”
Rockets’ Tari Eason has a message for the Warriors 😅🤔
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 28, 2024
(via @TAR13ASON) pic.twitter.com/fiE0fcbSnE
Be careful which bear you choose to poke.
Golden State thrashed Houston 133-110 Thursday night, all but ending the Rockets’ postseason hopes (the Warriors are four games up with six to play). During garbage time, Curry used three water bottles to recreate the now legendary “Warriors, come out and play” scene.
Petty Steph 😭 >>>>>>>>> pic.twitter.com/ac9Xu17eIw
— Eli 🦋 (@OakTownEli) April 5, 2024
Klay Thompson didn’t hold back.
"That's pretty lame. Especially if you're not even playing."
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 5, 2024
Klay didn't hold back when asked about Tari Eason taunting the Warriors 👀 pic.twitter.com/w0rHuk5ZNu
“That’s pretty lame, especially if you’re not even playing,” Thompson told reporters in Houston. “It’s one thing if you’re playing, you’re out there competing and you can back it up. But if you’re just going to be trolling from the sideline, like bro, what are we d
oing? At times we talk mess, [but] at least we’re out there competing. That’s all I have to say about that.”
There was a time when this kind of petty retaliation might have seemed below the Warriors, but these are not those Warriors. This team has started to find a groove of late but has struggled all season and will take the motivation where they can find it — plenty of fans may think this was nothing from Eason, but the Warriors didn’t.
This follows in a long line of the greats using minor slights — real or just straw men — to motivate themselves. Jordan and Kobe were the masters, but Chris Paul, Jerry West, you name it they all did it. Curry blends right into that mold.