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Motivation through slights is the rage during NBA training camp. On the one hand, you have John Wall saving every criticism of his game into his phone. On another, you have DeMar DeRozan insisting that he needs negativity to prosper.
And then there's Dion Waiters. The Cavaliers guard kick-started a manufactured firestorm when he declared that it was "nonsense" to say the rival Wizards have a better backcourt. Many, including Wall, angrily fired back. Wall suggested Waiters can't talk because he hasn't made the playoffs and isn't really a starter anyway, which is exactly the kind of criticism Wall would store in his phone if directed at him.
Waiters' approach has been slightly different. First:
@Me_University lol now go to mines at Washington we can do this all day
— Dionwaiters3 (@dionwaiters3) September 30, 2014
And then one day later, when that user didn't respond the way he hoped, Waiters took matters into his own hands:
Men lie women lie BUCKETS DNT RT @H2da_IZZOO: @Me_University @dionwaiters3 http://t.co/HPmgsVcK15 #BUCKETS
— Dionwaiters3 (@dionwaiters3) October 1, 2014
Well, you see, actually buckets can lie. Sometimes, you can score a lot of points, but your teammates don't score enough to help and the other team scores more. (To be fair: that didn't happen in the video Waiters highlighted). Also, they make it sound like you can fill them all the way to the top with water, only to tip over when you try to lift them. (That's a pun. A bad one).
But because that's such an great quote, we had to do this.
Keep going in, Dion Waiters. Keep giving us that straight face when we joke that you could be an MVP candidate. It's not a joke to you, which makes it a joke to everyone else.