Klay Thompson didn’t forget.
March 28 in Memphis turned out to be an ugly night for the Warriors. Steve Kerr got ejected at halftime of a 123-95 blowout and Golden State dropped its sixth contest in seven games since Steph Curry had sprained his left foot. The playoffs couldn’t come soon enough.
After the game, Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. sent out a tweet saying, “Strength in numbers” mocking the Warriors’ marketing campaign. Almost three months later, fresh off winning his fourth title on Thursday night following the 103-90 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Jackson’s tweet was fresh in Thompson’s mind.
"There was this one player on the Grizzlies who tweeted ‘Strength in Numbers’ after they beat us after the regular season and it pissed me off so much,” Thompson said, visibly heated. “I can't wait to retweet that thing. Freakin' bum. … Sorry. Bad memory just popped up. Going to mock us? Like, you ain't ever been there before, Bro. We been there. We know what it takes. Hold that. Twitter fingers, can you believe it?”
It’s worth noting that Klay couldn’t even play that night, as he was held out on the second-leg of a back-to-back. In fact, Klay, Steph Curry and Draymond Green were all out due to rest or injury. Good night for Jackson to be a tough guy.
The Grizzlies tried to stir the pot this season, but now they look like lil bro after the Warriors won their fourth title in eight years. Dillon Brooks also raised some eyebrows when he said Memphis was “building this dynasty” earlier this year while throwing shade at Andre Iguodala.
As Klay noted, the Grizzlies haven’t done much of anything yet. They’ve got a young and talented core, but haven’t even made it to the Western Conference Finals since 2013. That’s because Klay helped end their 2022 season by hitting eight 3-pointers in a 30-point explosion in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals.
Klay is usually chill, but you could see that this tweet really got under his skin.
“I've got a memory like an elephant,” Thompson said. “I don't forget. There were a lot of people kicking us down.”
The Warriors-Grizzlies series was probably the most intense emotionally that Golden State played throughout its 2022 title run. It’s probably premature to call it a rivalry, but there will definitely be some extra juice when these two teams play each other next season.
