1. Last week, I took issue with Draymond Green questioning Bill Simmons’s qualifications when it comes to voting on NBA awards.
Today, I come in full praise of Green. As I said last week, the Warriors star is a breath of fresh air among today’s athletes because of his brutal honesty. Last night, he put that quality on display.
After getting bloodied by an elbow to the face from Memphis’s Xavier Tillman, the Grizzlies fans hurled boos at Green. He responded by giving the home crowd a double bird.
For some weird reason, people still, in 2022, act like giving someone the finger is a felony, so naturally, Green was asked about his double bird in his postgame press conference.
Instead of doing the fake apology thing, Green doubled down. And he did so beautifully.
“If you’re gonna boo somebody who got elbowed in the eye and face running down blood, you should get flipped off. So I’ll take the fine. I’ll do an appearance and make up the money. But it felt really good to flip them off. You’re gonna boo someone that gets elbowed in the eye and blood running down their face? I could’ve had a concussion or anything. If they’re gonna be that nasty, I can be nasty, too. I’m assuming the cheers were because they know I’ll get fined.
Great. I make $25 million a year. I’ll be just fine.”
YES! YES! YES!
It was so refreshing to finally hear an athlete say the quiet part out loud. The majority of time, sports fines are a complete joke because athletes are making tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. But nobody wants to brag about their salaries and admit the fines are a joke.
The entire practice is comical when you think about it. Draymond Green, a 32-year-old, is going to get punished because he gave the middle finger. And everybody just goes along with it like it’s a normal thing.
Luckily, Draymond Green is not everybody.
2. Props to TNT (and thank you for reading Traina Thoughts) for making the right decision and giving the Western Conference play-by-play assignment to the very deserving Kevin Harlan, who will be joined by Reggie Miller and Stan Van Gundy.
3. The NFL announced today the international games that will be played in the 2022 season because the NFL knows how to sell things that aren't a big deal better than anyone.
Anyway, I mention this because the Broncos at Jaguars game in Week 8 will air exclusively on ESPN+. Not ESPN, not ESPN2. Just the ESPN+ streaming service, so just make sure if you're a sports fan that you subscribe and pay for every single streaming service available.
4. Underrated and versatile play-by-play broadcaster Dave Pasch has signed a new contract with ESPN, and the network used his college basketball partner Bill Walton to help make the announcement.
5. Tom Brady. Guns. That's all.
6. A brand-new SI Media Podcast dropped this morning, and it features a conversation with Ryen Russillo of The Ringer.
The host of the very popular Ryen Russillo Podcast shared his thoughts on everything from the NBA playoffs to Kevin Durant vs. TNT to the power of Inside the NBA to which sports have the worst officials to his favorite NBA announcers to how much trouble Major League Baseball is in, to the state of podcasting to Elon Musk’s buying Twitter.
The podcast closes with our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment featuring Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York. This week, Jimmy and Sal discuss the NFL’s reportedly scheduling three games Christmas Day this season and a game Black Friday beginning in 2023, as well as HBO’s Winning Time series and more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
