Warriors take Rockets' Tari Eason to task for wearing taunting T-shirt on bench

Let's say you're Tari Eason. Let's say you're on the Houston Rockets in a critical game against the Golden State Warriors and have no chance of playing after undergoing season-ending leg surgery. Let's say your only job is to encourage teammates while not making their job harder.

Sounds easy, right?

Apparently, you would be surprised.

Eason became a topic of conversation from the bench Thursday after reporting for duty with a "Warriors, come out to play" T-shirt, a dig at the rallying cry the Warriors have appropriated from a certain 1979 movie. The Warriors did not seem fazed as they proceeded to blow out the Rockets 133-110, but they certainly noticed.

Oh, how they noticed.

Stephen Curry made his own dig at the message from the bench, playing with some bottles in an echo of the scene.

Warriors veteran Klay Thompson, no stranger to going to town on opponents for a faux paus, had some strong words after the game, saying Eason shouldn't have worn the shirt if he wasn't going to play and back up the trolling:

This all came after Eason posted a similar taunt on his social media last week. Draymond Green responded by noting Eason was poking them ahead of a game that could effectively end the Rockets' season, which is what ended up happening Thursday.

The Warriors currently hold the final play-in spot in the Western Conference with a record of 42-34, with the Rockets behind them at 38-38. With only six games remaining in the season, Thursday's result means the Rockets wouldn't even make the play-in if they went 5-1 and the Warriors went 1-5, as Golden State holds the tiebreaker.

The situation wasn't too contentious, though, as Eason seemed to share some friendly enough words with Green after the game.

Call it a lesson learned for the 22-year-old Eason.