The Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies have a lot of pent-up aggression toward each other, and it only heightened pre, during and post Thursday’s matchup at FedExForum.
The Grizzlies are the new school, and the Warriors, in a way, are the old school. There is the wrinkle of the Western Conference Finals last season, when the Warriors won in a fiery six-game series before going on to win the NBA Finals.
The Memphis Grizzlies think they are at the start of a dynasty, but the Golden State Warriors remain the dynasty with four championships in eight seasons.
But while the NBA, media and fans get swept up in calling this a modern-day rivalry, not everyone is convinced. After all the trash talk between the two teams, after all of the on-the-court scuffles, this still isn’t a rivalry according to Draymond Green. He let everyone know why even after the Grizzlies soundly beat the Warriors 131-110 on Thursday.
"“One team has to win, and then another team has to win. That’s what creates a rivalry. Not because one team gets up for you and talks like they can beat you and then not. That doesn’t create a rivalry. Rivalries are created by you win, I win. Clearly, we’ve won four times, and I think their organization has zero championships, so l can’t consider that a rivalry.”"
Green went onto dismiss the impact of a result in March, which is fair given all postseason success. I have to agree with what Green says — this isn’t a real rivalry, but there’s definitely elements showing it’s on it’s way to being one. As long as the Warriors continue to feed into the negativity of the Grizzlies, it’s going to look like a rivalry to the media and fans.
Simply ignoring them would make Memphis look stupid, though Dillon Brooks is doing a good job of that himself right now. Golden State already beat them in the playoffs last year, and still hold the season series so far in 2022-23. What else is there to prove?
The Warriors are the dynasty, and there isn’t a team in the league they’ve had a genuine rivalry with since LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers. At least not by Green’s standards which is predicated on playoff success.