MINNEAPOLIS — After a Game 2 loss in which he received his fifth technical foul of the playoffs, Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green expressed frustration over what he called an “agenda” to portray him as an “angry Black man.”
Green was fouled by Minnesota’s Naz Reid while holding the ball with 8:46 to go in the second quarter of the Timberwolves’ 99-80 win Wednesday night at Target Center. After being fouled, Green flailed his left arm at Reid’s head and Reid fell to the floor. Reid was called for the personal foul, but Green was assessed a dead-ball technical foul after review. He is two technicals short of receiving an automatic one-game suspension.
After the game, Green gave a quick statement to reporters, saying he believes there is an “agenda” against him. He did not elaborate.
“Looked like the angry Black man,” Green said to reporters in the visitors locker room. “I’m not an angry Black man. I am a very successful, educated Black man with a great family, and I am great at basketball and great at what I do.
“The agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry Black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous.”
In a night filled with tension, a Golden State team security official confirmed that a fan was ejected for directing a racial slur at Green, who was on a stationary bike in the tunnel near the Warriors bench in the fourth quarter. Authorities escorted the fan out of the arena.
Warriors forward Jimmy Butler said he agrees that Green’s reputation often leads to calls going against him but said he isn’t worried about Green drawing a suspension later in the postseason.
“No, I think he knows,” Butler said. “We all know. I thought he got fouled and was maybe trying to sell the call. Someone got hit, but it’s crazy. Every time he does something, it’s always a review and always ends up being something of that nature.”
With Stephen Curry out through at least Game 4 because of a strained left hamstring, Butler said the Warriors need Green to lead and stay poised.
“He knows how much we need him now more than ever,” Butler said. “So I don’t think he gets to seven [technical fouls].”
After Green was assessed his latest technical foul after review, Green got up from the bench and yelled at officials. Curry walked to half court to try to calm Green down.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr then opted to sub Butler in for Green, and Butler pulled Green away to keep him from continuing to argue with the referees.
“I could see he had gotten pretty upset,” Kerr said, “and I just didn’t want him to get another technical, so I took him out at that point and I know he’s going to have to be careful now that he’s two techs away.
“He’s going to have to stay composed. Obviously, we need him, and I’m confident that he will because he knows the circumstances.”
In Game 6 of the first round against the Houston Rockets, Green committed a flagrant foul 1 just over three minutes into a 115-107 loss. Green said he was “embarrassed” by his lack of composure in that loss, saying that he “pouted” and set a poor tone for his team that night at Chase Center.
Green said he recentered himself in the 48 hours between Games 6 and 7 by having heart-to-heart talks with loved ones such as his wife, Hazel Renee; his Michigan State coach, Tom Izzo; and friends such as former Spartans teammate Travis Walton.
Green also said he meditated and went to the spa, relying on methods he learned to calm himself after going through hours of therapy, counseling and check-in calls with NBA executives following his indefinite suspension for putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold and striking Jusuf Nurkic in the face a season ago.
At a team meeting that Green, Curry and Butler organized at the team’s suburban hotel in Houston the night before Game 7 on Saturday, Green vowed to his teammates that he would maintain his composure and poise and lead the right way in first-round finale.
Kerr also had a long talk with Green at the morning shootaround before Game 7.
Green set the tone for the Warriors in that 103-89 win with his defense and all-around play. He had 16 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks.
He also kept his composure when he got a technical foul late in the second quarter after Fred VanVleet fouled him, but Green flailed his arm out at the Houston point guard. Officials gave Green a tech after review and assistant coaches and teammates calmed Green down on the Warriors bench.
It was a play similar to the one with Reid on Thursday night against the Wolves.
“It’s just a habit he has when somebody fouls him and he’s smart,” Kerr said. “So I think it was Reid reached and on the reach, Draymond kind of swiped through and drew the foul. But he does have a habit of sort of flailing his arm to try to make sure the ref sees it, and he made contact, and that’s what led to the tech.”
When Green took to the court at halftime for warmups, he continued to talk to head official Tony Brothers. In the second half, Green was not called for a foul as Minnesota pulled away.
“It’s part of Draymond,” Kerr said. “It’s the same thing that makes him such a competitor and a winner, puts him over the top sometimes and we know that and 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.”
Before Game 2, Green played his best basketball of the season and kept his vow to lead with composure in the previous two Warriors’ wins, in Game 7 against Houston and Game 1 against Minnesota.
But now Green must stay out of trouble with referees for the rest of this series as he gets closer to an automatic one-game suspension if he hits the technical foul or flagrant foul points limit.
“He’s a grown man,” Butler said when asked if he needs to say anything to Green. “He knows how important he is to this squad, how important every game is and how important it is that he needs to be out there. Don’t need to tell him nothing. He is very capable and he is very observant. He knows.”
