OAKLAND -- Mess with one Warrior, you mess with the entire organization.
That's the message the Warriors sent out Friday in the wake of a Twitter beef between center JaVale McGee and TNT analyst Shaquille ONeal that began late Thursday night and carried into the wee hours Friday morning.
Coach Steve Kerr fired back at O'Neal, as did Warriors forward Kevin Durant. The Warriors, as a franchise, contacted O'Neal's bosses.
Kerr spent a portion of his post-practice news conference Friday afternoon defending McGee from O'Neal's relentless ridicule on the video segment "Shaqtin' A Fool." Durant said O'Neal's ongoing critiques are "childish," adding that O'Neal was a great player with his own imperfections.
Prior to the comments by Durant and Kerr, though, it was confirmed by CSNBayArea.com that the Warriors contacted Turner Sports in hopes of getting TNT's parent company to persuade O'Neal to curb the constant derision directed toward McGee because of its impact on his image and reputation.
The outreach was a direct response to a roughly two-minute segment Thursday night that was strictly limited to castigating McGee.
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Upon getting wind of Durant's comments, O'Neal turned to Twitter to tell Durant that McGee is a "bum" and to "mind yo business."
