OPINION | This article contains the author's opinion.
Olympians and NBA players Kevin Durant and Draymond Green won gold medals in Tokyo.
Now they have a message for the American media: “You are an American, too. Act like it.”
Team defeated France 87-82 in the gold medal match. This is America’s fourth consecutive gold in basketball and 16th overall title in 19 appearances.
ESPN analyst and former NBA player Kendrick Perkins criticized the team prior to winning gold. Perkins said, “I’m not confident at all.”
“And it’s no disrespect but you look at the players they have (Durant), (Green), they play cute. In a good way, right,” Perkins continued. “They get buckets. They’re not guys that are going to go down there and mix it up in the trenches.”
Durant and Green responded after winning, “Everybody who said we were going to take the L… They had some power rankings out. They had us fourth behind Slovenia. Come on, man,” Durant said.
“Talking about they’re catching up to us, like, are you serious? This skill is unmatched, you dig?”
“Kendrick Perkins, you talk a lot of s—. A lot of s—,” Green chimed in. “Act like you’re American.”
Watch the clip:
“I had to talk to my sh*t real quick”
KD and Draymond letting the doubters have it! 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/htDBi1A2vt
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) August 7, 2021
From Fox News:
Green addressed the issue further during his post-game press conference, calling out the media in general.
“You turn on American sports talk TV, and you got guys like Kendrick Perkins, you know, doubting us. Somebody needs to teach these people some loyalty. How about you cheer for your country? But then when guys don’t play, ‘Oh, you need to go represent the country.’ And then you lose, hit a little bump in the road. And everybody’s, ‘Oh, everybody’s caught America.’ You are an American, too. Act like it.”
He continued: “Do your job. You know, I do some media stuff. I understand doing your job. But, when you talk about a special group, you better be sure you’re right. And a lot of people got it wrong. And trust me, I’ll be posting those guys. I’ll be posting everybody I found who said something. No one holds people accountable anymore, but I will.”
Perkins responded on Twitter congratulating Team USA but added: You’re right (Green)I’m going to keep talking my Sh$t and ain’t nobody go [sic] shut me up! Congrats on winning the Gold Medal tho Champ!!! Carry the hell on…”