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Draymond disagrees with LeBron, says Warriors-Cavs is a rivalry, because of course it is

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer
LeBron James attacks. Draymond Green defends. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images)
LeBron James attacks. Draymond Green defends. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images)

LeBron James said Sunday that he doesn’t feel like his Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors are really “rivals.” Sure, the two teams have squared off in the last two NBA Finals, with each team winning once. And they both clearly represent the classes of their respective conference, and are heavily favored to once again reach the championship round for a rubber match. And their two matchups this season anchored the two biggest dates of the NBA’s regular season calendar, Christmas and Martin Luther King Jr. Day, because there’s not a single thing the NBA can offer right now than a prime-time matchup between two elite, All-Star-laden teams chock full of compelling personalities and backstories.

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Still, though, LeBron said nah. And in news that will surprise precisely no one, Draymond Green offered an equal and opposite response.

“I don’t have much love for the Cleveland Cavaliers at all, nor do I think they have much love for us,” Green said during a pre-taped interview that aired during the second quarter of Monday’s matchup. “And that’s what makes it fun to play against each other. That’s what — you know, that’s the true meaning of building a rivalry. Which, I think this has become a rivalry. And I think they’ll say the same thing, and if they don’t, they’re blowing smoke and they’re lying.”

After his Warriors decimated James’ Cavaliers by 35 points on Monday night — thanks in large part to a stellar two-way performance that saw him notch his third triple-double of the season while also blocking five shots without a turnover, and authoring a buzzworthy moment with a second-quarter flagrant foul on James that he punctuated with a flail to mock what he perceived as a royal flop by the King — Green reiterated his belief that Golden State vs. Cleveland is a rivalry. And a pretty damn compelling one, at that.

From Chris Haynes of ESPN.com:

“Yeah, I think this is a rivalry,” Green said quickly, not allowing a reporter to finish his question. “It’s definitely fun. A team that you beat, beat you, it’s definitely fun. If you look at the last two years and this year, we’ve been the top two teams in the league each year, and so I look at it as a rivalry, and it’s definitely a fun game to play in.

“But I don’t really care if anyone else sees the game the way I see it. I see how I see it, and they can see it how they see it.” […]

“I don’t really think it’s about losing the last four that you want to win this game,” Green said. “Regardless of if LeBron thinks this is a rivalry or not, I know he wants to beat us and we want to beat them. And that’s enough in itself. You see each other two times a year; you want to beat each other. And then obviously if you’re fortunate enough to make it to the NBA Finals like the past few years, you see each other again.”

Coming off a struggle-filled game in which he needed 18 shots to score 20 points and committed six turnovers against just two assists, James held firm to his stance, according to Carl Steward of the Bay Area News Group:

“I don’t think it’s a rivalry,” said James. “I think it’s two great teams that have aspirations. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a rivalry in the NBA. Too many guys move, it’s totally different from the ‘80s, when obviously we saw the [Boston] Celtics and [Los Angeles] Lakers go at it so much. I don’t look at it as a rivalry.”

Added [Cleveland point guard] Irving, “I think you have to give it a few more years to call it a rivalry. Hopefully our two teams can stick together and we can call it a rivalry over the course of a few years but both teams have changed so much in the three-year span we’ve been playing each other. If we meet in [the] Finals again, great. We’ll leave it out on the floor and move on.”

For what it’s worth, as our Ben Rohrbach wrote Monday, LeBron has previously identified his early-years Cavs’ annual postseason dates with Gilbert Arenas’ Washington Wizards as a rivalry. Ditto for the postseason meetings between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, who squared off in the playoffs eight times over a 10-year span, and Larry Bird and Magic Johnson … although while Bird’s Celtics and Johnson’s Lakers dominated the 1980s, they only played against one another in the Finals three times. Maybe a third installment of Cavs-Dubs come June would change LeBron’s mind … but, given his seeming disinterest in giving Golden State the satisfaction of putting them on his level, maybe we shouldn’t hold our breath.

James seems to be among a very small group of people who don’t view Warriors-Cavs as, in the words of SB Nation’s Paul Flannery, “the only rivalry that matters” in today’s NBA. Many more seem to agree with the perspective offered by Green and by Bay Area columnist Tim Kawakami:

This is not just a rivalry—two teams that have played each other in the NBA Finals the last two summers, have split the championships 1-1, have two (and now three) of the greatest players of all-time in their primes, and have exchanged hammer blows, accusations and grand moments of ridicule.

This is, flat out, currently the best rivalry in sports, probably already one of the best ever, and the Warriors were intent on balancing the scales once again after losing the last three games of last June’s finals and then throwing away a big lead on Christmas Day at Cleveland earlier this season.

This is the most emotional rivalry in sports, this is the highest-level rivalry, this is the most interesting rivalry, and it is the one that could go on for several more frenzied years.

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If it does, here’s hoping we continue to see James and Green play this out for the duration. LeBron downplays the relationship between the two teams; Draymond openly admits he wants to completely destroy the Cavs. LeBron offers what appears to be an exaggerated response to his contact with Draymond; Draymond makes fun of him …

… and LeBron jokes back:

Prayers up for @kingjames, another member of the @money23green flagrant foul survivor support group.

A photo posted by Ball Don't Lie (@yahooballdontlie) on Jan 17, 2017 at 7:32am PST

It is one of the truest signs that the basketball gods are good, and find our adherence to their precepts acceptable, that they have in recent years given us not only LeBron James as a hoop Superman, but Draymond Green as his cracked-mirror-image Bizarro. He, too, reads and processes the game at an advanced level. He, too, changes games defensively no matter the assignment you hand him. He, too, sets the table like a super-sized point guard. Only he doesn’t shine, sparkle or soar quite the same … and while LeBron elects to act as if he’s above the fray, Draymond’s willing to get (super) villainous.

This is fun; this is entertaining; this is, indeed, a rivalry. And thank goodness for that.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!