Draymond Green and Hassan Whiteside Trade Shots Over Twitter
Adding another chapter to the NBA's ongoing small-ball revolutionary war, Miami Heat center Hassan Whiteside and the Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green engaged in an unsubtle subtweet exchange over basketball ideology spanning Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
It all began with a tweet Whiteside shot off about small ball and how it only works effectively if the other team's post player can't put the biscuit in the basket.
"@dimambro26 1.48games 2. I'm not a scorer clown
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) August 26, 2015"
Green, a poster boy for the wave of fun-sized forwards taking over modern professional basketball, seems to have heard his name in this take.
He tweeted a mention-less response asking Whiteside if he can actually do this whole scoring thing.
Whiteside clapped back early Wednesday morning. He wishes someone would put a Draymond Green type on him in the paint.
"@dimambro26 1.48games 2. I'm not a scorer clown
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) August 26, 2015"
This sparks an interesting question: Can Whiteside get buckets?
As Twitter user Phins Up noted, Whiteside—a talented young rim defender with a penchant for completely losing it once every fortnight or so—isn't incapable of scoring.
In fact, he may have averaged more points than Green last season, albeit in a smaller sample size.
"Small ball only works on centers that can't score #factsonly I wish you would put Someone that 6'6 on me #careerhigh #highschooldays
— Hassan Whiteside (@youngwhiteside) August 26, 2015"
Green responded to this with some wisdom right out of the Alabama football fan playbook, noting that Whiteside ain't played nobody and Nick Saban's Green's game is all about defense and operating in space.
"Can you score doe? Bigs becoming dinosaurs
— Draymond Green (@Money23Green) August 26, 2015"
And that's how two young guys with vastly different body types but nearly identical shoulder chips went at each other obliquely on the Internet.
UPDATE:
Green has tweeted out another message, flashing his new $82 million contract and calling out Whiteside for wearing shirts under his jersey, playing in the D-League and worrying about his NBA 2K rating.
It's basically a Street Fighter combo of written words:
"2 dribbles in the post they going to cry for a double team FOH just watch go small ball #lightdoubledouble #getyourweightup #dontflop
— Hassan Whiteside (@youngwhiteside) August 26, 2015"
I hope this never ends.
---End of Update---
This is great stuff, really.
I'm all for rivalries between young, talented athletes, no matter how petty or nonsensical. And the Green-Whiteside exchange is neither of those. This is a disagreement over basketball principles between two men with colorful surnames.
The only bad part is we'll have to wait until the Warriors host Miami on January 11 to see it play out on the court. I'm setting 15 alarms for it.
Dan is on Twitter waiting for Whiteside to start the #NotAllCenters hashtag.
