Draymond Green has fired back at Paul Pierce?and others for their latest swipes against Kevin Durants decision to join the Golden State Warriors, saying after practice Thursday that its time for the critics to give it a break.
Aaron Holiday Jersey .In an extended session with reporters in Denver, the Warriors forward made it clear he believes everybody got something to say and want to take everything he says and twist it in coming to Durants defense.Green was reacting to Pierces criticism of Durants decision to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder for the team that eliminated them in the Western Conference finals last season. The Los Angeles Clippers forward said, among other things, When youre that close as a competitor, you dont go and join the team that pushed you out.This built on a groundswell of criticism from current and former players about stars leaving teams to chase a championship elsewhere. The Warriors already were a superteam before one of the leagues most unstoppable scorers decided to leave Oklahoma City for the Bay Area.Pierce appeared to tweak Durant on Wednesday by speaking out negatively about KD joining forces with players he had competed against.Im an old-school guy. Im a competitor. ... When you want to be the best, youve got to beat the best, Pierce, who is embarking on his 19th season, told SiriusXM NBA Radio. Thats always been something thats driven me. Todays day and age, a lot of these guys are friends. Thats like if [Larry] Bird decided to go play with Magic [Johnson] or something. These guys, I think the competition makes the game what it is.And Oklahoma, I felt like, was a contending team. They had Golden State on the ropes. I understand when you have great players on losing teams who are tired of losing, struggling in the playoffs every year. Youre the lone star. Ive been in that position. I could have left Boston years ago, but I stuck it out [and won a championship in 2008].Green, who has previously spoken out in reaction to criticism about creating superteams, continued in Durants defense by making a comparison between NBA athletes and Silicon Valley CEOs.Nobody complains when somebody leaves Apple and goes to Google, Green said, adding, Arent they in competition with each other?As a basketball player, you are the CEO of a business. You are a business, Green said, according to the San Jose Mercury News. Kevin Durant is a big business. He is the CEO of that business. So him going to play basketball for a different team, the CEO decided to leave where he was at and go somewhere else.Arent you competitive in your day job if you work for Apple? Dont you want to outdo Google? Whats the difference on the basketball court? Its your day job. You want to do whats better for you.
Victor Oladipo Jersey . -- In one brief spurt, Brazil turned a close game into a rout and proved again it will be a strong World Cup favourite.
Doug McDermott Pacers Jersey . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005.
http:///...ckson-pacers-jersey/ . -- Most satisfying to Russ Smith about No. Lewis Hamilton is setting his sights on a top ten finish at the Belgian Grand Prix in the belief that the podium will be out of reach in a normal race without any safety cars or stoppages.Hamilton is due to start from the back row of the grid at the Belgian Grand Prix after incurring a 55-place grid penalty over the course of the weekend for multiple engine changes. With title rival Nico Rosberg starting from pole position, Hamilton faces a battle through the field to try to minimise the damage to his 19-point championship lead on Sunday.Its going to be a very, very hard race and if I had a choice of tracks where you had to start dead last and overtake, this is definitely not in the top three for me as an overtaking circuit, he said. While you can have a good tow up Eau Rouge, with it being this hot its going to be hard to follow and being in the traffic its going to be very unlikely that I get to my [pit] stop target or go longer than the guys that are in front of me.So I envisage tomorrow is going to be hard to get into the top ten with the tyres the way they are, but I hope that I prove myself wrong and I am pleasantly surprised! I hope to be able to take the experiences that we have had over the years, and me as a racing driver, take those things into consideration and apply myself tomorrow and be better and stronger. I cant predict what is going to happen tomorrow, but I hope its going to be a clean race. Time will tell.Hamiltons concerns about tyre life are based on the levels of performance degradation all drivers have been experiencing in the hot conditions at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. The unusually high temperatures combined with Pirellis high tyre pressure prescriptions -- a precautionary measure following two blowouts at Spa last year -- have resulted in the tyres overheating and blistering, which in turn reduces their performance life considerably.The last time Hamilton started at the back of the grid -- in China -- hee fought back to seventh place, but he suspects Spa will present an even tougher challenge, especially with the added difficulty of managing tyre temperatures and pressures while racing in traffic.
Reggie Miller Jersey. .Its completely different to China. In China we didnt have failures the previous year and they [Pirelli] didnt put the pressures up to a ridiculous number. That is the case here, they had the failures last year and then there was the failures this year, so they put the pressures up to 23 or 24 PSI or whatever it is, which is so high.Ive never seen pressures like that in my whole racing career, so that doesnt help. Plus, its so hot that with those pressures we will get blisters and in China the tyres went a lot longer and it was cooler, so the tyres behaved more like normal tyres. But here there was not really much you could do to stop the tyres from blistering and overheating, so its definitely a much harder race than China ever was.Although Hamiltons strategy options are likely to depend on how well he is able to manage the tyres, he has the clear cut option of starting the race from the pit lane or the back row of the grid. Mercedes is set to analyse that decision ahead of Sundays race, but Hamilton is already firmly against the idea of not starting on the grid.I never like to start from the pit lane. It means you have to wait for them to come past the pit lane exit, and by the time I get round the corner they will be halfway down the hill and the last car will almost be going into Eau Rouge, and it means I then have to catch up.There is the possibility of me crashing in Turn 1 and you avoid that [with a pit lane start], but there is also the possibility that theres not and then I just give up eight or seven seconds or whatever it is. I cant afford to lose any time, so my plan is to start on the grid. ' ' '