Draymond Green is just as confused as the rest of us as to why he was ejected from Sunday’s Golden State Warriors game.
With 1:18 to play in the second quarter of the second-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Brandon Clarke went up for a dunk. It was highly contested, and as Clarke was landing, Green grabbed onto his jersey and tugged him down.
It most certainly was a foul, and it’s hard to dispute the validity of making it a flagrant one. But after a lengthy review, the refs slapped Green with a flagrant two, which was widely criticized.
Green, after getting ejected, took to his podcast to offer his side of things.
“I think tonight was probably a reputation thing more so than a hard foul," Green said. "Now, my biggest worry moving forward is that gives me two flagrant foul points, and as we know I’ve been ejected for accumulation of flagrant foul points. So my hope is the right thing will happen and it will at least get rescinded to a flagrant one. Because a flagrant two, unnecessary contact, I can’t quite say it was unnecessary because I was trying to stop him from making a bucket and getting an and-one. So I can’t quite say it was unnecessary.
“Excessive, I didn’t even really make contact with the guy’s body, so excessive would be a bit extreme. If a guy is flying off of one leg, then maybe you say alright, he was in an unsafe position and he couldn’t protect himself, flagrant two. A guy jumping off two feet straight up and down, who then sells a foul and dives to the floor, can’t quite say he was in an unsafe position. So I guess me trying to explain this flagrant foul to you, your guess is just as good as mine.”
The league has the power to knock the play down retroactively to a flagrant one, which wouldn’t fix anything from Game 1 – which the Warriors narrowly won 117-116 – but it would help keep his accumulation of flagrant foul points down.
Regardless of what the league decides to do, Green was convinced for much of the review that he was going to be let off with no more than a flagrant one.
“I said to myself, I wonder what could they be deciding that’s possibly going to take this long," Green said. "I’m actually dumb enough to think I wasn’t going to get a flagrant one, talk about an idiot. You want to call anybody an idiot, look no further than Draymond Green himself. You know what’s crazy? I was about to start dancing to the crowd saying ‘Kick him out, kick him out' to taunt them. Kick him out for that? I was about to start dancing. When I was literally starting to edge up off the scorers table, something said to me ‘but it’s you involved in this play, Draymond. So, because it’s you involved in this play, you probably shouldn't dance because you probably should always expect the unexpected.’
“So, the little birdie that sits on my shoulder nowadays told me ‘Hmm, just wait a second. Don’t get up and dance and make fun of them, because if you get up and dance and make fun of them, then sure enough if you’re not expecting the unexpected. And if you’re not expecting the unexpected, very soon they’ll probably be able to make fun of you.' So, I sat there, and the official turned. He had a hard time telling me – he said, it’s going to be a flagrant, then a long pause, two. He didn’t even want to say it was going to be a flagrant two, which is very interesting to me. Because, again, I am dumb enough to think it would not even be a flagrant one, that the playoffs are a little bit tougher and not as soft as the regular season.”
Apparently not.
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