JJ Redick Gets Emotional When Chris Russo Tells Draymond Green to ‘Shut Up and Play’

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Just when sports talk started to become fun again with Chris Russo and Stephen A. Smith duking it out on Wednesdays, JJ Redick had to ruin it.

Tuesday night, Warriors forward Draymond Green flipped off a group of Grizzlies fans who booed him after a player elbowed him in the eye.

“Boo somebody who gets elbowed in the eye and is bleeding, and you should get flipped off,” Green said during his postgame presser. Green added that he’d happily take a fine for his actions because he makes $25 million a year.

In what started out as a light-hearted back and forth, Russo laid into Green.

“He’s hard to root for,” Russo says. “Just shut up and play, will you please? America is tired of Draymond Green. I deal with him constantly.:

While Smith laughed at Russo’s patented fury, the comments turned Redick whiny and emotional.

“I want to take a little umbrage with this ‘shut up and play’ because that has the same sort of connotations that the ‘shut up and dribble’ crowd has towards athletes and I have a real problem with that. Specifically, with Draymond the idea that America is tired of him,” Redick said.

“I don’t appreciate the undertone,” Redick said while looking Russo in the eyes. 

Get over yourself, JJ.

Even Stephen A. Smith, no stranger to opportunistic outrage, called Redick out for trying to disparage Russo’s comments as dog-whistling.

“Let’s calm down because I’m glad you pointed out, JJ, that it’s not a race thing because with ‘Doggy’ it’s not,” Smith said.

“You know, you do have old school fans that lament the fact that you got a lot of folks out there that are just saying ‘enough already’ like he does. Now people like me and you, we think differently, but there’s a whole bunch, I encounter it all the time, there’s a whole bunch of ‘Mad Dog’ Russos running around, I’m here to tell you right now.”

And unfortunately, there’s a reward in that. Both Redick and Russo are now trending on Twitter, with blue-checks declaring Redick one of them, while calling Russo an angry old white man.

Russo didn’t offend Redick. Rather, Redick seized an opportunity to rise up the ranks at ESPN and throw cold water on Russo’s momentum, by turning the press against him.

This is why sports talk can’t be fun anymore. Whenever someone pokes fun at an athlete, there’s always some virtue signaling weasel like JJ Redick there to ruin it.

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Written by Bobby Burack

Bobby Burack is a writer for OutKick where he reports and analyzes the latest topics in media, culture, sports, and politics..

Burack has become a prominent voice in media and has been featured on several shows across OutKick and industry related podcasts and radio stations.

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    • I mean, JJ had a decent argument until the end where he had to throw in the “undertones” statement. Very white knight-ish. Draymond is a grown ass man with millions of dollars and fame. Criticism is fair game. He doesn’t need protection from JJ.

      • Just as i thought. Hoe ass punks like yourself and other AWM have been convinced that you can’t play or compete so we get comments like yours. Amazingly enough, women don’t have your mindset and just compete. Imagine that… Guys like you are the reason to play sports. “It’s the one place were we can get to you and you can’t run” …exposing you on a daily basis as weak AF

    • So we’re supposed to ignore Stephen A. shitting all over Reddick’s faux outrage? Sorry Stephen A. ‘Ball Don’t Lie” has deemed you to be an Uncle Tom, as is his calling in life to anyone who disparages LeBron or dares to espouse non-progressive ideas. LOL

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