Golden State Warriors win prompts wild response from Kings reporter

Klay Thompson’s game-winner in the Golden State Warriors’ triumph over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday apparently snapped the last strings tethering Kings reporter Matt George to sanity. 

George opened his postgame podcast Wednesday night, after the Dubs bested their Northern California rivals 102-101, with a colorful rant in which he suggested everything from banning the Warriors and Kings from playing again to blowing up the Golden Gate Bridge so San Francisco itself would float into the ocean.

The analyst began his plea while sitting very close to the camera and speaking straight into the lens with an intensity appropriate of a hostage negotiation.

“I am sick and tired of the Golden State Warriors. There are 28 other teams in the NBA. Let the Sacramento Kings play those teams. In fact, let the Kings play each one of those 28 teams 15 straight times before they have to play the Golden State Warriors again,” said George. 

After demanding the NBA cancel the teams’ scheduled meeting later this month, George’s speech got markedly darker in tone, with the reporter voicing his wish to move the city of San Francisco as a whole because “I can’t even handle those teams being geographically close together anymore.”

“Have San Francisco blow up the Golden Gate Bridge, blow up the Bay Bridge, get a big gust of wind or a few tugboats to drag them out deeper into the Pacific Ocean, and let them be the independent Island Kingdom of San Francisco ruled by Steph Curry and Klay Thompson,” George said. “I don’t care anymore. Get them away, as far away as possible, from the Sacramento Kings.”

While his desire for a San Francisco secession might be a tad extreme, and he also seems unaware that San Francisco is not in fact an island but the tip of a peninsula, George can be forgiven for his frustration on behalf of the Kings. Their loss Wednesday was their second to the Warriors in less than a week. The two losses are Sacramento’s only defeats of the young season. The Kings also dropped a pair of preseason games to the Dubs in mid-October. 

All that comes after the two teams met in the playoffs last season. The Warriors beat the Kings in seven games in one of the most dramatic first-round matchups in recent memory. 

George took his the-Warriors-and-Kings-should-never-play-again take for a test drive after Golden State’s win on Oct. 27, saying, “I’m tired of watching Steph Curry, I’m tired of watching the Golden State Warriors. The Kings have played them 135 times in the last few months, and I’m sick of it.”

Evidently, it took Thompson’s heroics Wednesday to push George over the edge. He did admit that Thompson is likely a future Hall of Famer who has made a career out of coming through in the clutch.

“He’s had a lot of major shots over his career, a lot of big moments in his career, of course many of them against the Sacramento Kings. Well, add this one to the list,” said a resigned George.

Golden State and Sacramento are scheduled to meet again on Nov. 28 and on Jan. 25, 2024. But at least for the short term, George will get his wish: The Dubs play Friday night, but against the Thunder, not the Kings.