Why Draymond, Steph enjoyed Grizz fans’ ‘Whoop That Trick’ chant originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Draymond Green and Steph Curry didn’t have much to dance about during their ugly Game 5 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night at FedExForum, but they still found a moment during the contest to move and shake a little bit.
As the Warriors were getting run out of the building by the Grizzlies to the tune at a 134-95 beatdown, fans in the arena started chanting “Whoop The Trick,” a popular song that has become the rallying cry of the team.
At one point, Green and Curry were standing in front of the Warriors’ bench as the fans were chanting and they were dancing to the beat of the song. Green even waved a towel over his head. The Grizzlies’ in-arena host got fairly close to Curry as he screamed into the mic.
Why were Grizzlies fans chanting the song with so much enthusiasm? Because Curry had uttered those words earlier in the day when telling ESPN’s Kendra Andrews what the Warriors’ plan was for the closeout game.
After the loss Wednesday night that sends the Western Conference semifinals back to San Francisco for Game 6 on Friday, both All-Stars were asked about what motivated them to embrace the fans and the chant.
“They’re not going to whoop that trick alone,” Green told reporters. “We going to whoop that trick together if we going to whoop that trick. One thing I don’t respect is people who only bring it when they’re winning, embrace crowds when you’re winning. We call those frontrunners. We’ re not frontrunners. We got our ass kicked and that’s all right. It happens, but you don’t be frontrunners. When you spew it out, you got to be willing to take it, not hide from it, not duck it, not run from it, embrace it. So I appreciated the crowd tonight and the energy they brought to the game. If they want to whoop that trick, we’re going to whoop it together.”
Curry, the one who sparked the raucous crowd with his pregame comment, enjoyed the moment despite what the scoreboard said.
“It’s the best,” Curry told reporters. “That’s what this whole back and forth is about in terms of home-court advantage and hostile crowd and you embrace all of that. It’s fun. Even when you’re getting smacked, you’ve got to find some fun in it. Obviously , didn’t pan out the way we wanted it to.Still in control of the series but got to understand it’s going to be really hard to close out this team because they’re a really good team.If we need any more reminders of that, we got it today.”
The good news for Curry, Green and the Warriors is that they still have a chance to close the series out Friday night at Chase Center.
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If they are unable to do so, they know Grizzlies fans will be waiting for them with more “Whoop That Trick” chants during a potential Game 7 on Monday night.