Warriors’ Draymond Green trash-talked his way to viral Schroder smile moment
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The Warriors’ Draymond Green reacts after getting his fourth foul against the Lakers in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinal at Crypto.com arena Saturday.
Warriors forward Draymond Green has trash-talked his way both into rivalries with opponents and out of games entirely. In the Warriors’ 104-101 Game 4 loss to the Lakers on Monday, which put Golden State into a 3-1 series hole, he trash-talked his way into the wrong end of a viral moment.
In the Dubs’ final full possession in Monday’s loss, Green turned the ball over when his jump pass went into the waiting arms of Lakers big man Anthony Davis after he and LeBron James sniffed out the play. The errant pass led to a jump ball between Anthony Davis and Andrew Wiggins.
While the mistake itself was glaring, eagle-eyed watchers saw the reaction of Lakers guard Dennis Schroder, who immediately turned to Green with a huge grin on his face. Once the smile was pointed out, it blew up all across the internet.
But Schroder wasn’t just trolling for the sake of trolling. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin explained on the “Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective” podcast that Schroder’s reaction stemmed from a couple of plays earlier, when the Lakers guard made a bad pass of his own to Anthony Davis.
“Schroder is trying to run a pick-and-roll with AD, has a weird angle, tries to throw it behind the back to AD, and it goes out of bounds,” McMenamin said. “Right where it went out of bounds is where Rich Paul sits on the baseline, and Draymond Green was defending the action. And Draymond Green screams demonstratively to Rich Paul, ‘Get this fool off the court,’ talking about Dennis Schroder for making that play.”
“Revenge was swift, and he got him with that cunning look,” he continued. ‘“You wanna call me a fool, well who just turned it over in the biggest moment of the game?’”
Rich Paul is LeBron James’ agent and the founder of the Klutch Sports agency. Green signed with Klutch in 2019.
Schroder might have gotten the last laugh this time around, but knowing Green’s reputation for this stuff, it absolutely won’t stop him from trying to talk smack at Schroder again this series. His next (and maybe last) opportunity will be Wednesday during Game 5 in San Francisco. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.