NBC on Yahoo SportsCurry: Warriors planned dramatic Game 5 walkout
The decision handed down from Adam Silver in regards to the comments made by Clippers owner Donald Sterling was perfect in terms of both its swiftness and its severity. But in case the league had taken a lighter, more cautious approach, the Golden State Warriors were reportedly ready to act — boldly, and decisively.
From Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group:
The Warriors were going to go through pre-game warm-ups and take part in the national anthem and starting line-up introductions. They were going to take the floor for the jump ball, dapping up the Clippers players as is customary before games.
Then once the ball was in the air, they were just going to walk off. All 15 of them.
“It would have been our only chance to make a statement in front of the biggest audience that we weren’t going to accept anything but the maximum punishment,” Curry said. “We would deal with the consequences later but we were not going to play.”
To put it simply, this would have been crazy.
Yes, it would have been an extremely powerful statement. But it would ultimately be one that only hurt the players themselves.
Legacies are made in the postseason, and nothing is guaranteed in terms of players’ chances to return to the playoffs in the future. Throwing one of those chances away to protest an owner’s insensitive remarks is short-sighted, and while today it may have made an impact, guys like Stephen Curry, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin may have looked back on this decision several years from now, and realized the opportunity that was missed.
- Brett Pollakoff, NBC Sports
