He just french tbh

Talking trash is just part of the game.

The same people hate on Wemby/modern players for being cocky but glaze Kobe and Jordan for being utterly insufferably competitive. Greatness requires you to be a bit of a dick.

Draymond gets Wemby

The language thing is real

Once you’ve put together some grammar and a decent amount of vocabulary, it still takes a long time to learn tone and nuance and cultural context. I remember once early in learning English, I was trading friendly jabs with someone and I said “I hope you burn in hell” and they were like WTF? I was just repeating something I’d heard said in a movie in a not too serious tone

The “ethical basketball” quote has been improperly applied this entire time by media. Wemby speaks English very well. Not perfect. Why people don’t understand how 2nd languages work is irritating. It’s doesn’t mean 100% native level or nothing.

Wemby’s native French answer regarding ethical basketball has nothing to do with being morally upstanding as an opponent. It’s about team spirit, attitude. See below:

Q: Hello Victor, you spoke recently about ‘ethical basketball’, can you develop your thoughts on this ?

A: Yes, of course. It’s a bit abstract, but we see in modern basketball a lot of basketball plays where if there isn’t 5 players invested in the system, the danger doesn’t come from everywhere. And that’s not our case. For example, we don’t play a lot of iso, our 5 players on the court are a constant threat. I think we can describe this basketball as ‘oldschool’. I know it’s abstract, but that’s my opinion.

Are we already at the point where the formerly beloved rising star who then became a villain is now back to being respected?

Aka the arc of every MVP caliber player of the last 15 years?

So much more entertaining with him in the league. We need rivalries, genuine dislike for the other team. It’s what keeps people watching

Draymond the linguist/psychologist.

He doesn’t seem cocky to me, he’s seems like he’s trying to project confidence. I see somebody who’s trying to be multiple different hero’s of his at once, not himself.

I hate whenever I’m agreeing with Green.

Like the Green Goblin speaking to Spiderman, “You and I are not so different.”

People need to make up their fucking mind. They hate that players are too politically correct and there’s are no real rivalries anymore but when Tray Young and now Wemby say what they feel, all of a sudden they get piled on. Mind you, these are the same muppets who glorify Michael Jordan and Kobe for their competitiveness and their “killer instinct” when at heart they too were just egotistical assholes. People out here trying to bleach the game clean when fans love to win and they love to hate so let it happen

“Pure, ethical, homegrown basketball” seems like a pretty good understanding of the English language.

It’s not his words that are cocky, it’s folding a player half his height with a neck shove then laughing in his face because he can’t do anything to retaliate that makes him an asshole

I can’t believe I’m actually here thinking hitler made a good point

Sensible take from draymond

No matter what you’ll get hate on your personality just because of the game you play and how great you are 🤣. Same people making fun of Shai for being too nonchalant

I love cockiness in athletes. Ant is one of my favorite players. I think it’s incredibly fun and I like to watch how it drives them.

The difference between how I react to Ant and how I react to Wemby is that Wemby has developed a reputation for himself as mature far beyond his years, calm, thoughtful, able to see the bigger picture, Zen. (And I really loved that, too—I’ve been a big fan of Wemby’s!) If you write yourself into the narrative as a Han Solo personality, people will react to cocky quotes with more appreciation. If you write yourself into the narrative as a Yoda personality, people will react to cocky quotes with more surprise and dislike, because the dialogue you’re writing doesn’t match the character you’ve told people you are. They expect you to BE cocky, but they don’t expect you to talk shit in the same way. They’ll see you differently afterward. And they’ll be right to, because you need to find a public character that’s easier for you to play.

The mature guy who sets aesthetic standards for basketball isn’t who Wemby is right now. He might be when he’s 30! But right now he’s 22 and he’s talking like a 22 year old, and that’s fine. It just means he doesn’t get to be the wise monk type in the same way.

(Edit: I’m not saying this to call Wemby inauthentic or a poser or anything, I think everyone who’s a public figure needs to play a kind of character to the public, because it’s impossible to share with the public the entire complexity of who you are—and sports media has to tell a story anyway, so part of your job is figuring out how to tell your part of the story in a way that works for you and feels honest to who you are, and that involves playing a character a little bit.)

I think he’s cocky. But even more so, I think the whole team was obnoxious once they got up that much, and them being that way is precisely why they lost. They just kept shooting threes like it was shooting practice.

Two weeks ago we were saying “years from now people are gonna start hating on Wemby”

I give my thoughts about Draymond’s opinions:

:: makes fart noise with mouth ::

Alright Draymond I like you again 

No one gives a shit what you think Draymond.

Kobe, KG, MJ, hell people were praising Jordan Poole because he talked trash when he was the literal worst player in the league after he was pulled out of the game being down like 30 and two years later he was a champion with an important role while still talking trash

and somehow they are bothered by a top 3 player today being cocky while cooking his defender in the finals, have you seen the man play? I’d be fucking cocky too (and I put top 3 to avoid discussions about that, even if you think he’s top 10 or 20 it doesn’t matter)

obviously the team choked and all that, but it’s part of the game, Brunson was cocky too mounting the comeback, what if they don’t pull it off like in game 3?

you can’t be the best player if you don’t believe it, and Wemby KNOWS he’s amazing and that he still has way to go

I’ll repeat something Boogie said in his show the other day. We cant be calling this generation getting soft, or boring, then when we get the physicality now and cockiness from the stars being competitive, we cry its too much. This comes with the territory, we have to be more appreciative of it.

I hate Wemby (in a basketball sense) but I do think that damn near ALL high level athletes in general are assholes 😂.

what would he second language be if not english?

That boy just French

He should start giving generic college football coach speak answers instead. Like what would people want instead? Lmao

It’s not the language, it’s his hands.

its true

Cocky is good

I totally agree

r/nba #1 villain Draymond Green making more sense than most of r/nba. I know this sub hates to see it 😭

Curry when he’s cocky : flirting Wemby when he’s cocky : harassment

Also most of the times he’s not even cocky, us French just tell things bluntly because we don’t need to sugarcoat things

He’s pretty cocky, I’ve always said that about him. He’s super into his individual awards - I’m sure he’s a little humbled by his performance

What timeline is this? Dray being magnanimous and the Knicks in the finals?

Draymond is so basic lol

I think a lot of that is pretty fair, even as someone that doesn’t really care for Victor.

Trash talk is way different than arrogant. The kid has won nothing and just spouts off BUT it seems the entire team does that. I’m no fan of it.

Draymond said that ?

I agree to an extent - but Wemby is quite fluent in English lol maybe Draymonds right but I doubt Wemby changes how he speaks in 5-10 years. This is just who he is and its not a bad thing lol let the guy be cocky/aggressive

He’s french and french people are assholes.

Natural cocky motion.

He’s French, it’s in his DNA to be a cocky asshole who thinks he’s better than Americans. He can’t help it

Us Spurs fans were so used to the humbleness of Tim Duncan. I don’t recall him ever talking in an arrogant manner because he usually just lets his game do the talking. A part of that probably has to do with him majoring in psychology at Wake Forest. He’s obviously a master of it. Just ask KG.

Sometimes I also get annoyed that Wemby comes off as dismissive of the Knicks at times. Then again, Draymond brings up a great point. He’s a young man who speaks English as a second language. In fact, those times he spoke French always brought out much more mature answers from him.

Irony that the French have a reputation of judging foreigners harshly on their inability to speak their French perfectly is being defended by Draymond Green for a Frenchman not speaking English perfectly.

No he’s cocky. LeBron wasn’t this cocky. Kobe MJ they were cocky but they were bball gods already. Wemby is not. He has to earn his arrogance 

no way a Frenchman is arrogant??? Who could have predicted this?

Do people call Rudy Gobert cocky? Same situation as he is French…he was stupid for the covid stuff which is different.

Can we stop posting every single word out this moron’s mouth?

I wish I never again hear a thought from draymond

I don’t see how you could spin “I’m in your head” in any way other than being cocky.

Bullshit excuse. It’s not a language barrier. Wemby is smart and probably reads more english literature in a month than draymond has read in his life. Wemby knows what he is saying. If anything, it’s a cultural tendency.

I think one thing I’d like to see not just from Wemby but from the young dudes is to stop the antics. Like every dunk on someone or not, or And-1, just stop celebrating… don’t need to flex or whatever.

I get it. I know it’s momentum and energy, but stick to just playing. If you wanna get your mind right, finish the game strong and celebrate later. You’re down 3-1 now…

Last games Wemby “mind games” is now just a blow over and he couldn’t back it up. I know he shows a lot of emotion which is fine, but the other stuff doesn’t need to happen cause he can prove himself and others by just winning. Look like a killer, not a show.

I have no problem with talking trash. I have a problem with him grabbing players by the neck and throwing them with no consequences. Dudes a dirty player, and I can’t wait to continue to root against him. If the NBA actually enforced its own rules, it might make him rethink his future choices. Now he’ll just be more emboldened because he knows there’s no consequences.