The NBA is standing firm on Draymond Green’s controversial Flagrant 2 foul from Sunday’s playoff game against the Memphis Grizzlies.
The league decided on Monday that it will not downgrade the call to a Flagrant 1 — a decision that Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr says the team is just going to have to live with.
“We’re powerless in this stuff,” Kerr said Monday while meeting with reporters. “So whatever the league decides and whatever the refs decide, that’s what stands. We just have to move on to the next game.”
The decision to not downgrade the Flagrant 2 could have further consequences, especially if the Warriors make a run to the NBA Finals.
Green is assessed two points for committing a Flagrant 2 foul. If he acquires two more points (either another Flagrant 2 or two Flagrant 1s) he would be suspended for a game, a scenario that happened to Green and the Warriors during the 2016 NBA Finals.
Steph Curry also reacted to the decision on Monday.
Green was ejected at the end of the second quarter in Sunday’s Game 1 Western Conference semifinal matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies, which Golden State hung on for a 117-116 victory, when he pulled Brandon Clarke by his jersey number under the rim as Clarke went up for a layup.
The call left the Warriors stunned, as well as fans watching the game. Green reacted by high-fiving his teammates and egging on the Memphis crowd before heading into the tunnel.
Green said after the game on his podcast that it did not even occur to him that the refs were going to give him a flagrant foul at all and believes it was called based on his reputation.
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“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 So my hope is the right thing will happen and it will at least get rescinded to a flagrant one.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.”
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