Trash Talk Heats Up in Budding Rift as Warriors Top Grizzlies

With 3:43 to go in the fourth quarter, Klay Thompson rose above Dillon Brooks to knock down a 20-foot jump shot to put the Golden State Warriors up 16.

As reported by ESPN, Brooks stumbled backward, falling over in the process. As Thompson ran back on defense, he leaned over Brooks, side shuffling three times while sticking his tongue in Brooks’ face.

“Some good, old-fashioned trash talk,” Thompson said. “It’s always fun to talk trash. We’ve been doing that since we were in middle school. You usually play your best or you get frazzled. For me, it’s usually the former.”

Heading into the Warriors’ Christmas Day 123-109 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies, both sides were hesitant to call the relationship between them a rivalry.

Sure, they have a brief history: The Grizzlies eliminated the Warriors in the play-in tournament in 2021, and the Warriors ended Memphis’ season last year in the Western Conference semifinals. There’s been plenty of trash talk between the two teams over the past several months. But there isn’t enough for a full-blown rivalry, they said.

Yet, their first meeting of this season felt like the next chapter in what’s a very real (budding) rivalry.

“It’s definitely picking up steam,” Kerr said. “[But] to really develop a rivalry, there’s got to be multiple playoff series. Last year’s series was really contested and heated. We know how good they are, and we’re trying to keep it rolling. They’re trying to knock us off the mountain.”

Several days before Christmas, Memphis point guard Ja Morant, 23, told ESPN he didn’t view any team in the Western Conference as a threat. He named just the Boston Celtics as standing out as a threat to the Grizzlies’ title aspirations.

Thompson, who scored 24 points, said he didn’t see that interview or Morant’s comments. And unlike 10 years ago, when Thompson, 32, was early in his career, he said external trash talk doesn’t impact him.

Trash talk is nothing new between these two teams in particular.

Kerr said the Grizzlies broke the code when Brooks injured Gary Payton II in the Western Conference semifinals. Jaren Jackson Jr. made fun of the Warriors’ “Strength in Numbers” slogan, and Thompson subsequently called him a “freaking bum” and a “clown.” In June, Morant called for this Christmas Day matchup on Twitter.

During his postgame interview on ESPN on Sunday, Thompson said, “They were talking about dynasty and all of that stuff. You can’t talk dynasty when you haven’t won before. … I thought that was premature talk, to even mention that word. But they bring the best out of us, and I think we do the same.”