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The Golden State Warriors are in Miami Wednesday for the fourth game of their post-All-Star break road trip, meaning it's time for another round of needling between Draymond Green and Hassan Whiteside.
There was a moment last August when Whiteside tweeted that small ball "only works on centers who can't score," which drew the ire of Green. The two went back and forth on Twitter, and while Green got the last word in then, Whiteside stoked the flames again in advance of Wednesday's matchup.
In an interview Tuesday, Whiteside said he hopes Andrew Bogut doesn't play much so he could "get after their smaller guys," per Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. Considering the undersized Green plays a lot of center for Golden State, that appears to be a challenge.
But when asked specifically about his Twitter war of words in August, Whiteside didn't have all that much to say, even claiming he wasn't going after the Warriors forward when it all started:
Whiteside on Draymond Green Twitter beef-"He basically just said he has more money than me & I played in the D-League. It'll be interesting"
— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) February 23, 2016
Hassan Whiteside said he never went after Draymond Green on Twitter & not sure why Green took it that way.
— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) February 23, 2016
Should we believe Whiteside here? Judge for yourself by revisiting what was said when this feud began:
Small ball only works on centers that can't score #factsonly I wish you would put Someone that 6'6 on me #careerhigh #highschooldays
Whiteside can plead innocence all he wants, but who else is a 6'6 center in the league? Green and the Warriors just made small ball all the rage by winning the title using so much of it. So Green, a newly-minted NBA champion, responded by calling bigs "dinosaurs" because they're becoming extinct.
Whiteside then came back with more:
2 dribbles in the post they going to cry for a double team FOH just watch go small ball #lightdoubledouble #getyourweightup #dontflop
Green delivered the final rebuttal by mentioning his new $82 million contract and taking a shot at Whiteside's small contract and time in the D-League, which is what the Heat big man referenced on Tuesday:
82 million reasons to flop and the d league ain't never been 1!!!! But keep wearing shirts chasing that 2k rating #thefinerthings
That final jab was in reference to Whiteside's well-documented obsession with improving his rating in NBA 2K that even spawned the creation of a T-shirt.
This is all silliness, but making this even funnier is the fact that the two men have never even spoken "actual words" to each other, at least according to Whiteside. (Green basically confirmed he didn't care about Whiteside when asked Wednesday).
The two did share the court last season when the Warriors smashed the Heat by 15 points in January, but Whiteside didn't play in the team's earlier meeting this year due to a knee injury. Assuming Green plays a good deal of center, he might be matched up with Whiteside. There might be fireworks when that happens.
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