Detroit Pistons guard Wayne Ellington addressed Saturday's incident during the Warriors' game against the Pistons, in which Draymond Green and Klay Thompson verbally eviscerated Rodney McGruder for confronting their teammate. Juan Toscano-Anderson, following the Warriors' 118-91 victory.
"To be honest, the guy over there, Juan, is the one who started the whole thing," Ellington said, per Rod Beard of The Detroit News. "Rod is a man of respect, like myself, and I felt like he took offense to whatever the guy was saying to me in the first half. I just kind of laughed it off and kept on going. Obviously, it stuck with Rod and as my brother, he took it upon himself to go and take the temperature on the situation -- and that's what men do. We talk to each other eye-to-eye and face-to-face."
It's still unclear what Toscano-Anderson said to Ellington, but everyone saw tensions building following the final buzzer as McGruder appeared to confront the Warriors bench. Luckily, Thompson was in the broadcast booth to provide some disrespectful commentary. "This dude might be out the league soon, he's probably mad at that who knows?" he said. "He's over here trying to start something like he's a good player."
When asked after the game about the confrontation, Green said he was in the locker room at the time, but took issue with what he saw as McGruder's "tough guy" act. "Apparently he was taking up for Wayne Ellington. When the f*ck did Rodney McGruder become the tough guy?," he said. "I don't know, man. Everybody in the league tough these days. It's crazy. I've seen a lot of tough guys this year. I don't understand it. And don't nobody do anything. Like, if you really wanted to do something, you could have done it. Walking over there talking shit like he a tough guy. Get the hell outta here."
Ellington spoke about Green's accusations of McGruder being the "tough guy" on the team. "There's never been any type of tough guy approach with Rod," he said. "For Draymond to sit up and talk all that kind of crazy stuff behind a microphone, I think that's the fake tough guy stuff, to be honest with you. I'm only going to talk about that situation once and then put it behind us. I think it's unfair for those guys to attack my man like that. I appreciate Rod and I love him like a brother for whatever he did do -- that I know wasn't tough guy stuff. He just probably walked over there and tried to clear the air with the guy."
Green acknowledged that Toscano-Anderson said something to Ellington in the first half, adding, "You got nothing better to do that you're still thinking of something from the first or second quarter when you weren't in the game." However, if things did actually pop off, Draymond would prefer to be in Toscano-Anderson's corner. "Also, I'm rocking with Juan T," he confessed. "Juan T was about to bring that Town Bidness shit out on him. Yeah, I'm rocking with Juan T on that one anyway."
