Stephen A. has NO PROBLEM with Dillon Brooks swiping at Steph Curry’s injured thumb 👀

Stephen A. has NO PROBLEM with Dillon Brooks swiping at Steph Curry’s injured thumb 👀

Something that caught the eye of the NBA world. It wasn’t just his abdominal statline. It’s that that thumb doesn’t look normal on his shooting hand. This is a social media post by the Warriors from before the game. Steph, he was asked about that image after the Dubs game five loss. Day to your thumb right now. Cold. Uh there was a picture, I don’t know if you’ve seen it online, where it looks pretty swollen. I think it was with you walking to the plane. Uh I got the feds on me. What are you talking about? I don’t even know how to answer it. Just something you’re dealing with and you keep it moving. Um, as long as I can play. You got to rap for a reason, but that’s it. Do you feel it’s impacting your game at all? No. No, not at all. Sean, how is Steph Curry fighting through this? What is his status for this game? Malikica, right now Stephen Curry will play, but what he deals with is irritation at times and it’s really whenever that thumb gets hit, but this is a contact sport. That’s a part of it. He knows that. And I spoke to some Warriors sources today and they told me that Stephen Curry is fine. He’s fine enough to play. He’s not even on our injury report. And for his part, I’m told Stephen Curry has told people around the Warriors and people around him even this week that yeah, it hurts, but I’m not talking about this. I’m not here to discuss this. I’m here to just play. I’m just playing on this. I’m just playing through it. And that’s his mentality. He’s just going to continue to play on. I do expect him to get that re-examined after the season. But right now, Stephen Curry, he’s not using that as an excuse. He doesn’t even want to talk about it. Right. You can kind of hear him saying that. You know what? No, it’s not bothering me at all. And we know that in these moments, Steph Curry, he’s going to lock in no matter what bumps and bruises he’s dealing with. Shams, thank you so very much. We’re going to see you a little bit later in the show. But one person who’s well aware of what Steph is working through is Dylan Brooks. The Warriors home broadcast pointed out this sequence from game three where Brooks he took multiple swipes at Curry’s shooting hand. You can see it right here. And Steve Cerran Brooks, they both weighed in on whether or not that’s fair game. Players all over the league um are just taking shots at guys uh shooting hands um after release because they know it’s not going to be a foul. And I’m very confident that next year the league will fix it because it’s only a matter of time before somebody, you know, breaks a thumb or breaks a hand or whatever. Um, but this these these are the rules. If you’re going to come play the game injured or whenever you guys are all about all about the game, you know, if I had an injured ankle, I I would attack that ankle every single time. So, whatever they’re saying on the broadcast, they can keep saying it. I mean, should we just call this a good oldfashioned thumb war here perk? Yeah. And and guess what? Dylan Brooks is right. I mean, look, everything is in play when you’re in the postseason. When you’re trying to win, you’re trying to advance. Damn right. He should be swiping at that uh thumb of Steph Curry. I would I would like Yeah. And just to play mind games, even if you don’t hit it, you still got to be swiping at it. And then again, look, I don’t want to hear that from Steve Cerr. Now all of a sudden the league need to investigate and look into it. You have a player Draymond Green that didn’t choke people out and did way worse things. Like get out of here with all that nonsense. I’m with Dylan Brooks on this. Damn it. If you out there and you’re wounded, I’m if I’m a defender, I’m going to attack those wounds. I’m going to do everything in the world to walk out of there with a win. Well, Seth says he’s fine. And I thought Danny Green on NBA Today the other day, Stephen A, kind of pointed out that when you’re shooting, it’s more your index and middle finger that is going to make contact with the ball. But when you’re dribbling, when defenders are swiping at you, and you see the proofs in the pudding, just 15 points in his last two games, less than 30% shooting from deep, 29% from three-point range. But here’s the deal. When that’s competition, Dylan Brooks is absolutely right. I’m competing. I’m trying to beat you. It’s almost like somebody’s sick and you’re sick, you got the flu, and you can’t run. What are you going to do? You going to try to make them run? You want them to throw up. You want them to get sick. You want them to have to leave the game. You want to exploit and take advantage of any kind of weakness they present to you. If somebody shows up on a basketball court, I’ve seen shooters showing up on a basketball court with a knee problem. And somebody instead of jumping up to try to block their shot, they act like they’re diving at their knee. They don’t do it, but they act that way because they want you to flinch. They want you to be they because they know that you’re sensitive. You have a deficiency that they want to exploit. It’s about finding your weakness and then squeezing. That’s how you win a lot of times. And anytime you’re competing against somebody, that’s what they’re going to do to you. So for this to be a subject matter is utterly ridiculous. I mean, how do you think Steph’s going to adjust? Because ultimately, right, that’s what comes out. Steph will adjust. Steph was listen, Steph is Steph. He is the greatest shooter God has ever created and he’s ultra talented. He’ll figure out a way to do it. But even if he doesn’t, tough. That’s how it goes. It’s competition. One of the reasons I love Steph is he’s not making excuse for it. You know how many NBA players would be up there without ice putting their thumb for everybody to see? Yeah. He’s not making any talk about one of the greatest players ever lived that would definitely go ahead. He he Curry I loved his response. He said it’s not bothering me as far as what Brooks is doing. That’s gamesmanship. Whatever. I I if somebody says any player that you’re trying to hurt somebody that’s where I draw and I don’t think he’s saying that. I don’t think he’s saying that. But if it crosses the line of I’m trying to hurt someone, I have a problem with that. Now, I’m not saying Brooks is saying that though. Well, Bob, I’ve been saying this all week long, right? We know that Steph is injured, has a swollen thumb, right? If you’re Steve Kerr and Dan, like you said, Malikica, Danny said it can affect your dribbling. You’re being guarded by Thompson, right? Who’s picking you up 94 ft. Had a heck of a game five. How about taking stuff off the basketball? Because trying to run high pick and rolls, it don’t work against Shangon and Steven Adams cuz both of those guys are really, really good at trapping and pick and roll. So get Steph easier looks more catch and shoot and less off the dribble shooting in my opinion. And that’s how you kind of, you know, Yeah. Look, look at those stats on the screen, right? First three games, 45% from three, 29% in the last two. Did something happen after game three? I don’t think so. Maybe he just had a couple off nights. I don’t know if that was his thumb or not. So to me, Curry is, you know what, here’s the thing. No one cares, right? We got to talk about it. I get it. But if the Warriors don’t win or Steph plays great or bad or if you win or lose and you say, “Well, my thumb,” no one cares. All they’re going to care about is who won the series and who wins this game tonight. And then you got to think about this, right? Going back to Dylan Brooks point uh point, what did we see in the Lakers game when Luca went out with his back injury? When he returned, they were already searching him out, but he went to another level. Like, no one cares. No one cares. They’re going to find you, but this is a moment for Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler the one forced his well forced his way out of Miami. Pat Riley has some help in it, but he wanted to go to a championship team and compete. He’s the one that has uplifted this squad as a bonafide second option. I don’t think there’s any reason I don’t think there’s any reason to question Jimmy Butler though. He got hurt, came back, had 274 in the fourth quarter, and then they just lost his game five. They just didn’t show up to play collectively and they threw in the tower. They They was ready to close us out in game six. That’s how they played in game five. Listen listen to me, bro. I’m not blame. I’m not saying I’m What I’m saying is if Steph is dealing with this thumb injury and Bob just pointed out his shooting percentages, this is the moment that Jimmy Butler needs to You know what I love about this game? We’re going to find out.

Stephen A. Smith, Bob Myers and Kendrick Perkins join NBA Countdown to discuss Houston Rockets forward Dillon Brooks admitting to purposely swiping at Stephen Curry’s injured thumb.

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#ESPN