Draymond Green has had enough of what he’s deemed biased treatment, painting the star in a negative light.
Following Thursday’s 117-93 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2 of their Western Conference semifinals series, the Golden State Warriors forward made his feelings known in a short post-game interview with reporters in the locker room.
“I’m not an angry Black man,” he said. “I’m a very successful, educated Black man with a very great family, and I’m great at basketball, I’m great at what I do. The agenda to try and keep making me look like an angry Black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous.”
Green has been given five technical fouls in nine post-season games so far during the Warriors’ run. He received his latest in Thursday’s loss after swinging his arm at defender Naz Reid’s neck while trying to draw a foul in the second quarter.
Green was frustrated with the ruling on the play and confronted referee Tyler Ford after the call.
If he receives two more technical fouls this post-season, he’ll automatically be suspended one game. He also has two flagrant fouls and if he receives two more flagrant-1 calls or one more flagrant-2, he’ll receive an automatic one-game suspension.
Asked about Green’s frustrations after the game, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said that it’s part of the Draymond Green experience, and that the team takes the good with the bad.
“It’s part of Draymond, you know?” Kerr said. “The same thing that makes him such a competitor and a winner puts him over the top sometimes. We know that. It’s our job to try to help him stay poised, stay composed. But the competition is so meaningful to him that occasionally he goes over the line.”
Perhaps adding fuel to the fire, however, may be that Green was subject to a racial slur from a fan during Game 2, according to Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. The fan was ejected following the incident.
This latest incident comes after Green took accountability for his actions and reactions in Game 6 of the Warriors’ first-round series against the Houston Rockets, in which he received a flagrant-1 foul only six minutes into the game for hitting Jalen Green. He later apologized to his team and said he was “embarrassed.”
Already without Stephen Curry — who is nursing a hamstring strain and will miss at least a week — the Warriors will hope to be careful with Green, as the 35-year-old two-way star has been a big contributor for them this post-season.
Heading into Thursday’s game, the 2017 defensive player of the year was averaging 9.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.3 blocks through eight playoff games. He finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the Warriors’ Game 1 win on Tuesday.
