© Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
For as competitive as this year’s NBA Finals projects to be on the court, there was a massive amount of complimenting between Warriors and Toronto Raptors players on the NBA Finals Media Day on Wednesday.
Media day is always an entertaining mess, but the 2019 Media Day provided a host of friendly quotes. Draymond Green was complimentary of both Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry, Lowry was complimentary of Green and Stephen Curry, and Curry and Jeremy Lin even reminisced on their days practicing against each other (all below).
But what stood out came from Lowry came from ESPN’s Marc J. Spears on The Undefeated, in an interview he did with Lowry. In addition to revealing that he’s been in contact with DeMar DeRozan, Lowry’s closest basketball friend who was traded for Kawhi Leonard this summer, throughout the playoffs, Lowry was asked about the challenge of guarding Curry.
“Me and Steph are friends,” Lowry said. “I respect that man. He changed the game of basketball. We are up to the challenge. It ain’t going to be easy at all. But we have to play the game of basketball and do our jobs.”
Below is a brief thread of some of the most noteworthy off-court friendliness players from both sides displayed on Media Day (all YouTube clips start at the complimentary quote):
Jeremy Lin on Steph
Jeremy Lin recalls practicing with and against Stephen Curry as a member of the Warriors back in 2010-11. Like many others, he could conceive young Curry developing into a Top-5 NBA player. pic.twitter.com/KvC7bSvEDf
— Monte Poole (@MontePooleNBCS) May 29, 2019
Steph on Jeremy Lin
Kyle Lowry on Draymond
Kyle Lowry 'respects' the amount of work Draymond Green has put in to become a DPOY & Champion pic.twitter.com/YX59WDrhcO
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) May 29, 2019
Draymond on Kyle Lowry
Draymond on Kawhi Leonard
"Kawhi didn't come into this league as a scorer, yet he's one of the best scorers we have."
Kawhi vs. Draymond is gonna be fun. ? (via @nbatv) pic.twitter.com/jQzePFOwNC
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) May 29, 2019
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