Warriors’ Draymond Green ejected due to reputation more than play

By Melissa RohlinFOX Sports NBA Writer

Draymond Green skipped around the court. He high-fived his teammates. He turned toward the Memphis Grizzlies’ crowd and waved for them to boo louder. 

You would’ve thought he had just made an incredible steal or mind-bending pass. 

But instead, Green had just been ejected late in the second quarter of the Golden State Warriors’ 117-116 win over the Grizzlies in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. 

The reason behind his over-the-top reaction was simple: He knew he didn’t deserve to be thrown out of an important playoff game.

The play in question happened with 1:18 left in the quarter, when Brandon Clarke elevated for a dunk. Green made contact with Clarke’s head and then gripped the collar of his jersey. Green continued to hold Clarke’s jersey as he fell to the ground to prevent his head from hitting the court. (He later insisted to Warriors coach Steve Kerr that his hand had gotten tangled in Clarke’s jersey.)

Regardless of whether that was true, this much is for sure: By definition, Green didn’t deserve a Flagrant 2. Was the contact unnecessary? Yes. Was it excessive? No. Did it warrant the team’s best defender getting tossed? Definitely not.  

This appeared to be a classic case of a player’s reputation influencing the referees more than the play itself. 

And everyone knew it. Stephen Curry stared at the referees with his mouth agape. Kerr attempted to argue with the referees before eventually laughing off his frustration. 

But the Grizzlies’ reaction was perhaps the most telling. 

Normally after a Flagrant 2 is assessed, the opposing team is heated. A dangerous play has just been committed against one of their guys. Often, there’s barking. Sometimes, there’s a melee. 

But this time, no one on the Grizzlies’ roster even appeared to be miffed. 

Green weighed in on his ejection by doing an “emergency pod” from his hotel room in Memphis shortly after the game. 

Wearing sunglasses and a T-shirt, he expressed his shock that he received a Flagrant 2 on the play. The explanation he received was that he threw Clarke down, but he pointed out that as Clarke fell to the ground, “I was still holding his jersey up.”

As the refs were reviewing the call, Green was certain things were going to go his way. In fact, he admitted he was about to start dancing to taunt Grizzlies fans who were chanting, “Throw him out!”

“I’m actually dumb enough to think that I wasn’t going to get a Flagrant 1,” Green said on his podcast. “Talk about an idiot. You want to call anyone an idiot, look no further than Draymond Green himself.”

Green then explained that he fought off his initial impulse to boogie because “a little birdie” on his shoulder reminded him of something he had momentarily forgotten: He’s Draymond Green. 

“Something said to me, ‘But it’s you involved in this play, Draymond,'” he said. “Because it’s you involved, you probably shouldn’t dance because you always should expect the unexpected.”

Green believes he was assessed a Flagrant 2 because of his reputation. And the truth is he’s right. 

There’s no denying that he’s an incredibly physical player who crosses the line sometimes. Dating to 2015, he has been one of the top six technical foul leaders in the league each season. Twice, he came in first for that distinguished honor.

When you think of Green, you think of an incredible defender, passer and screener. You think of someone selfless. You think of one of the key cogs of the Warriors dynasty, who helped lead the team to three championships and five straight NBA Finals. 

But you also think of some of his most infamous dirty plays.

None was more talked about — and more consequential — than when he hit LeBron James in the groin during Game 4 of the 2016 NBA Finals, which led to an automatic suspension for Game 5 because he had accrued too many Flagrant fouls. (The Cleveland Cavaliers, of course, came back from a 3-1 series deficit to win their first championship in franchise history, something Green later blamed on himself.)

Green brought up that suspension in his podcast Sunday, pointing out that even in big games during the playoffs, when physicality increases, his feet are often held to the fire.  

“I’ve been suspended from Game 5 of the NBA Finals,” he said. “Do you think for one second I don’t believe I’d get kicked out of Game 1 of the second round? Not surprising to me at all. Not one bit.”

Green’s ejection could’ve been disastrous for the Warriors, though they pulled off the win anyway. If the Warriors had lost that game, it would’ve been impossible not to wonder if they had been robbed by the officials.

Instead, Green’s ejection ended up being a turning point for Golden State. 

Without Green, the Warriors kept their composure. They showed their championship pedigree. They came together. It was a complete team effort. 

Jordan Poole had a team-high 31 points, and Curry added 24 points. Poole, Andrew Wiggins and Otto Porter Jr. each had eight rebounds. Klay Thompson made a clutch 3-pointer with 36 seconds left and the Warriors down 116-114.

“We were all kind of shocked by the decision,” Kerr said. “But we were confident, and we were determined.”

Added Thompson: “It’s unfortunate. We’re not the same team without him. But I’m incredibly proud of how we responded.”

After the game, no one felt more pride than Green himself. Wearing street clothes, he stood in the hallway and hugged each of his teammates as they walked toward the locker room. 

“Amazing win,” he said. “I think tonight our guys showed that we’re battle-tested. We’ve been through the ringer. We’ve been through the ups and downs. We know how it feels to win, and we know how it feels to lose. And guys stuck with it no matter how the night was going. Not much went our way, but guys stuck with it.”

Green said he hopes the NBA will rescind his Flagrant 2 foul or at least downgrade it to Flagrant 1, noting that his biggest worry is that those points will add up and lead to another suspension, a la 2016. 

(Each Flagrant 1 and 2 foul is assessed one or two penalty points, respectively. In the playoffs, suspensions are given for one or two games for every penalty point a player accrues beyond three points. That means Green is just another Flagrant 2 away from a suspension — and it’s only the second round.) 

It’s a dangerous line to walk, especially for him. Green believes he’s under a different microscope than other players. He accepts that. He claims he’s willing to operate within those rules. 

But he believes this call was unfair, even for Draymond Green. 

And quite frankly, this time, he’s right.

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.

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