Draymond Green thinks referees are right to be selective when they dole out technical fouls.
Other NBA players apparently don’t appreciate who the messenger is, however.
Green in Game 2 of the NBA Finals was slapped with a technical foul in the first quarter after getting into it with Boston Celtics big man Grant Williams. The next quarter he got tangled up with Jaylen Brown, and it looked like Green might get a second tech, which would result in an ejection.
But the referees decided against giving him the second tech, and ESPN/ABC NBA rules analyst Steve Javie admitted that referees sometimes will think a little longer about giving someone a second tech. That comment rankled some, but Green wasn’t among them, saying that people don’t pay to go to games to see players get tossed.
Another NBA player/podcaster, Danny Green, addressed those comments on his “Inside the Green Room” podcast, and he didn’t seem to agree with the entire notion.
“I’m not a fan of antics," Green said. "I don’t like to be run over or have somebody grabbing my arm or flailing and flopping, but he’s doing it with a purpose and doing it for a reason and he knows it gives him an advantage and it’s the game within the game that gets some of those (opposing) guys out of their game. Thus far it’s worked, we’ll see if he continues it, it might change differently, we’ll see how they referee it.
“I know he’s spoken on his podcast about how they referee him and how they should referee him or how he’s able to get away with more than other people can get away with. Which, I think is the biggest thing that most other NBA players dislike about the situation, is the fact that he’s refereed a lot differently than a good majority of us. We’ll be quick to get a technical foul, and his leeway for a technical foul is a lot more broad than the rest of us.
Draymond Green has a bevy of fines and punishments to his name, so it’s not like he’s completely absolved of any wrongdoing by the referees. But even with his style of play there are some things he will get away with because he plays on the edge. And if referees have a hair-trigger with other players that they don't have with him, then the other players would be right to be miffed.
At this point though, it’s only Warriors and Celtics players being impacted by the way Green is officiated. If the NBA thinks something needs to be changed, then it’s going to be an offseason matter.
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