The Boston Celtics’ second-round series with the Washington Wizards is the closest thing the NBA playoffs have to a street fight.
And according to Wizards center Marcin Gortat, an unlikely suspect tried to instigate an old-fashioned donnybrook in Game 4.
Gortat, a Poland native, recently did an interview in Polish with Eurosport and gave an eyebrow-raising answer when asked to respond to Isaiah Thomas’ claims that the two teams don’t like each other.
“Which is a popular story with the media,” Gortat said in the interview, which was translate to English by ESPN correspondent Bartosz Bielecki. “This hostility thing between these two teams looks a bit different, though. We play tougher, but we only care about our own team, while they want to provoke us.
“Avery Bradley approached me last game and said that if I set one more screen, he’s going to beat me up.”
Yep, that’s right. According to Gortat, the 180-pound Bradley threatened to beat up a 240-pound center. Here’s how Gortat responded:
“I laughed at him. I advised him to come back when he grows up and gains some weight. It really is the Celtics who get excited with this. In other words, they build their unity around their disliking of the Wizards players.”
For entertainment’s sake, here’s hoping Bradley suddenly gains 60 pounds and challenges Gortat to a heavyweight bout Wednesday night in Game 5 at TD Garden.
Joking aside, it’s possible Gortat’s words are a bit lost in translation, as Bradley doesn’t seem like someone who’d threaten to throw haymakers at an opponent. Then again, we’ve already seen these teams come to blows in this series, so maybe we shouldn’t rule out more fireworks.
H/t to CSN New England
Thumbnail photo via Brad Mills/USA TODAY Sports Images
