Go Bloole!
After winning the championship, Poole and Draymond were good ol fashioned ribbing each other in the interviews!
Poole: "I don't even rock with Spartans...!"
Dray: "This guy just happen to be sitting between two of us!"
Love me some Poole, but not going to lie that draymond hasn’t been 100 times better this game than the rest of the playoffs. Damn.
No denying Draymond’s talent (when he cares enough to put forth effort), but still one of the biggest d-bags in the NBA. Also about the only guy that can yell in a refs face and have the ref laugh rather than T him up. Must be nice.
not to mention the constant cheap shots and groin kicks. google it. there are videos after videos of it. i hope someone shits in the msu box seat champagne and gives them all pink eye.
reminds me of the msu db's 10 years back... if you foul/grab/tug every time, the refs change the scale. they wont call it every time.
i was at game 3. when he fouled out, he screamed at the ref - in his face for no less than 10 minutes... no tech. nothing.
grumble grumble
I would love to have Draymond on my team. So damn unselfish and plays hard as hell. I would hate playing against him because he’s an obnoxious d bag
I don’t like Draymond because he’s a Spartan and he’s obnoxious…
but if he were on my team I’d be a huge fan. He’s a guy everybody hates except the team he’s on. Like Laimbeer, Chelios, et al. Harbaugh, too.* I like those guys on my team. A lot.
I don’t like him. I respect him.
*you know, when I’m not writing a thesis-length posts calling for him to be fired.
A couple times today I saw the way he was fighting for rebounds and thought, damn…you just don’t see that much in today’s NBA. The Celtics have a guy in Robert Williams who does that too. I would take him on the Pistons alongside Cade any day (over someone like Ayton).
Williams isn’t even at 100% right now. Huge body with tons of talent and fun to watch.
Draymond reminds me of a modern day Rodman. If he was on your team you loved him and if he wasn’t you hated him. I was a Bulls fan (ducks) and hated him with the Pistons but loved him with the Bulls later. Draymond runs his mouth and does shit to annoy other players and get in their heads and that’s exactly what Rodman did. Four titles later it’s hard to argue that he’s hindering the team. We can dislike him for being a former Sparty but he’s a talent
That man gave my son and me (and most all of us here) one of the best sports memories of our lives against Houston. Now he is giving millions of NBA fans memories on the regular. He is such a unique and talented individual.
Putting this here because it makes me happy.
I know this has been posted before but I feel the need to comment now. This is so awesome that he doesn't diss what got him there, like some (a bunch of) NFL guys that shout out their home city or high schools during player intros. Sorry man, your college team probably deserves the most credit and should be mentioned. If you're going to mention your high school, then add your college into your statement as well.
I don't view the calling out of the hometown or high school as a diss for most players. There are obviously some who left on bad terms or whatever, but most of those guys are just having fun with it.
That is pretty cool. Bet that part of wearing that jersey is his love of Michigan and part is trolling Dray.
I'm still in awe of how he has blown up. Happy for him.
And now, an NBA Championship. Warriors take it in six.
Congrats to NBA champion Jordan Poole (and condolences to Sauce Stauskas)
FWIW, Sauce had the ball in his hands as the final ticks elapsed in the NBA Finals. Despite his career up and downs, not everyone can say that... !
Whew.
Fuck the Celtics.
fucking banked 3s... so irritating. Hey tatum, show up next time or take a hike. Tatum for lilliard. lets go. do it. go get a f-ing bench too. 5 pts from your bench.
im just pissed. Celtics shit this series away with 4th quarter chokes and being mentally weak... the mental part supposedly their strength.
gonna be hard for them to get back - Milwaukee comes back full strength, other teams will be there.
As someone who was born and raised in Michigan rooting for the Pistons since the 80s, all I can say is…fuck the Boston Celtics.
I'm about to commit Mgotreason. As a child I read both of MJ's autobiographies and was a huge Bulls fan. Then when I played in school in the mid 2000s Kirk Hinrich played for the Bulls. I grew up in Flint and was often one of the only white dudes on the court, so I became an even bigger Bulls fan since I was also a defensive guard.
Basically I will always love the Bulls despite Detroit being my home team. I would enjoy a fuck the Bulls response now. Haha
Fuck the Bulls
Haha thank you, sir! I needed that.
Fuck your Bulls. I pee on your other 11 Matt's...
DA Bulls!
Wow, with fans like these, who wouldn't want to play in Boston?
Pretty sure the Celtics don't get past Milwaukee or Miami without Tatum.
Delighted for Poole. I wasn’t hating on him heavily like others when he went pro, but I can’t pretend I was totally enthused, either. He made an aggressive decision that was absolutely right, got a good situation, and worked hard to be what he could be. He earned this himself.
Agree, and I backed him too when he made his decision, though I was sad to see him leave.
He has certainly worked hard and earned this, that's undeniable. But not every hard-working young player gets a ring. I think landing on a dynasty team with Steph, Klay, and Dray has also helped :)
This season and playoff run basically locks a max contract for him after next season. What UM guys have got one since Webber?
Where is the “he left too early crowd?” Congrats Jordan! Go blue!
I will say, as a guy who doesn’t care a ton about the nba unless Detroit is relevant, the M fan in me wanted Boston. My reason was to get Nik a ring. He will be lucky to be in the league next year, but honestly, Poole could get 2 or 3 more if the warriors keep things on track. Also love this for Klay. And as a man who usually dislikes dynasties (outside of any that include a 1 Tom Brady) the Warriors are so much less hateable than others. Go Jordan, Go Blue!
"Where is the “he left too early crowd?”"
What a lame and stupid thing to say... We've all been here, and we all admit saying we thought he left too early. We all also readily admit that he made a bold decision and it paid off for him. So stop acting like you knew it all along - you didn't.
The Celtics starters had an 85-82 advantage over the Warriors starters. The difference was bench scoring—Celtics got 5 points. Poole had 15 all by himself.
Poole is basically a starter level player. On nearly 2/3s of NBA teams, he's probably a starter. On our team, he's a 6th man. Do people remember that Jordan Poole used to be called Vinnie "Microwave" Johnson 2.0? (Poole mentioned that once as a Wolverine.) Golden State has a lot of quality guards in the pipeline but it's not totally their time to shine.
A lot has been made about Golden State's Death Lineup and Super Death Lineup (with Durant). This season, we unlocked a new iteration: Steph, Klay, Poole, Andrew Wiggins, and Draymond Green. We started calling it Death Row.
But because of matchups, Poole didn't play as many minutes in the NBA Finals. IIRC, he averaged around 21 mpg and around 13 ppg. If you scale up his number to per 36 minutes or per 75 possessions, Poole would be a 20+ ppg scorer. (Same thing if you look at his regular season numbers.)
We started calling it Death Roe
Like poisonous fish eggs?
1. As a Warriors fan, I'm so excited and relieved.
In the preseason, I talked up this Golden State Warriors team as a legitimate NBA Championship contender. Of course, I didn't get taken seriously but I knew...
...I knew...from the ashes of past failures, we had formed a steely resolve.
2. MY BOY JORDAN POOLE IS A BALLER!
Throughout the playoffs, he balled out but also had a few bad games (which is expected for a young player in his first NBA Playoffs). It also took him a bit to get going in this Finals against Boston's #1 defense but he eventually found his footing.
I'm also happy for Poole because when I watched him play in HS I hoped that he would end up at Michigan and one day end up on the Warriors. For it ACTUALLY to come true? WILD!
Poole is only 22 and he can elevate his game to new tiers of ability. For a period of 6 weeks (from March to mid-April), Poole showed that he can be a #1 option in the future. He was putting up Steph Curry-esque numbers. Once he learns to control the flow of a game, he could/should develop into a perennial NBA All-Star. He's definitely in the right organization and surrounded by the right players.
Klay Thompson's prediction from 2019 came true...
Also, Poole's birthday is this Sunday (June 19th). What an early birthday present!
3. I hope this is the start of another run. Next year, people are going to learn about Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and (if he returns well from injury) James Wiseman. They played limited minutes throughout the season but Kuminga & Moody were much better than they should've been as rookies.
What many casual NBA fans don't realize is that Golden State Warriors opted to not trade away their young players. Instead, Joe Lacob and GM Bob Myers decided to build a second core with young players who may one day carry the Steph Curry + Klay Thompson + Dray Thompson dynastic core.
4. As a hardcore Michigan Basketball fan, I've grown to begrudgingly admire Draymond Green. Yeah, he can be a jerk/prick/asshole but every championship team needs a player like him. And before anyone gets all offended, I'm going to invoke Bill Laimbeer.
I lived in the Bay Area and became a Warriors fan because they were lovable losers with Biedrins, Richardson, Baron Davis, Adonal Foyle, etc. they have been my “other team” since then. Happy to see them win.
if they played the Pistons I’d wish for a slow death for the warriors tho.
Opposite for me.
Detroit Pistons are my 2nd team...
I do give Draymond credit for pushing the envelope so far in terms of aggressive/dirty play that as long as he is not punching opposing players in the balls, the refs let him do whatever he wants. Just about anybody else would have 2 technicals per half if they played that way. That is an accomplishment of sorts.
Kuminga is fine, and could turn into a nice wing. I'm not sold like others.
But the thing I do think about is what if... what if Myers had drafted Franz to this team! 6'11 stretch big who can defend the rim, slash and shoot. But most importantly, someone who can defend, and defend big. All the tools aren't fully loaded yet, but even in his rookie season there's no way he's not taking most all of Otto Porter's minutes. And probably some of Looney's too.
At the end of the day, you love to see a team in blue and yellow with arrogant fans skunking a team in green and white with boorishly loutish fans
I've really came to respect Draymond.
Curry is the engine that drives this team. It's a making how one guy creates a whole offense with him just being on the court. Draymond is the heart of the team though. I'd argue that if you replaced them with a player more talented player than Draymond, they wouldn't have any championships.
Almost every great team has that enforcer guy. I would consider everyone else on gsw to be pretty soft and quiet. If they were to all get in a fight, you'd have steph being this little kid who could do all these high flying spinning kicks that look cool but someone would just come up to him, punch him, and knock him out. Draymond is the guy who has to take on all the big fights so that Steph can come out nowhere, do his super cool high flying kick and knock them out.
Draymond knows his role and he plays it as good as anyone in the NBA ever has.
There was a video of Poole during warmups of game 5 or 6 where he hit 17 straight 3's. 17.
I bet most guys in the league can't hit 17 straight free-throws.
He has really, really worked on his game and earned his success. That is elite shooting.
So wait... with NIL, does he still have any college eligibility? We need a guard for this coming season...
Good rule of thumb is that NBA players in warm-ups and practice hit about 2x the FG% they do in games. They're impossibly good.
I think I recall questioning his decision to leave when he did. He sure shut me up.
Been in the league only a few years and he's the first guy off the bench with a bona fide dynasty team. He's already got himself a ring, something that plenty of great players who have been in the league longer than him are still yet to get for themselves.
Found himself in a great situation and he made the most of it. He's earned his success, and he is going to get PAID this offseason.
I was traveling so I didn’t see the game until this morning. It was so great to see him celebrate at the end of the game. Not an easy task coming off the bench to sub for a legend and Jordan played great. Super happy for him and his family.