NBA won’t reduce Warriors star Draymond Green’s Flagrant 2 foul
The NBA will not reduce or rescind the flagrant 2 foul assessed to Green
in Sunday's win which resulted in his ejection, league sources confirmed
Monday morning.
>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 1: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (23)
fouls Memphis Grizzlies’ Brandon Clarke (15) in the second quarter of
Game 1 of the team’s NBA basketball second-round playoff series at the
FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, May 1, 2022. Green was ejected
from the game after the foul. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 1: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (23)
fouls Memphis Grizzlies’ Brandon Clarke (15) in the second quarter of
Game 1 of the team’s NBA basketball second-round playoff series at the
FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn., on Sunday, May 1, 2022. Green was ejected
from the game after the foul. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: May 2, 2022 at 10:21 a.m. | UPDATED: May 2, 2022 at 4:15 p.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/05/02/nba-wont-reduce-warriors-star-draymond-greens-flagrant-2-foul/

MEMPHIS — Draymond Green didn’t believe he did anything wrong when his
hand got caught up in a Grizzlies player’s jersey during Sunday’s game
which resulted in him being ejected. But the league sided with the
referees anyway.

The NBA will not reduce or rescind the Flagrant 2 foul assessed to Green
in the first half of Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals, league
sources confirmed Monday morning.

Green was called for a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected late in the second
quarter after it appeared he pulled on the collar of Brandon Clarke as
he went for a basket, dragging the Grizzlies forward to the ground. In a
pool report after the game, crew chief Kane Fitzgerald told Damichael
Cole of The Commercial Appeal that the contact “was considered
unnecessary and excessive,” adding that Green made “significant contact”
to Clarke’s face.

Green pleaded to coach Steve Kerr and officials immediately after the
incident, saying his hand got caught in Clarke’s jersey.

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Green was sent to the locker room with 1:18 remaining in the first half,
but not before antagonizing the Memphis crowd, high-fiving several
teammates on the bench and calling for more chants and boos from the
Memphis crowd as he walked off the floor. He finished with six points,
four rebounds, three assists and three steals in 17 minutes.

After the Warriors’ nail-biting 117-116 victory over the Grizzlies to
take a 1-0 lead in the series, Green expressed optimism that his
Flagrant 2 foul would be rescinded entirely or downgraded to a Flagrant
1 by the NBA, and mentioned the point accumulation system for flagrant
fouls was the cause of his suspension from Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals.

But the NBA decided the referees made the right call.

“I have no reaction,” Kerr said in response to the league’s decision.
“We’re powerless in this stuff so whatever the league decides, whatever
the referees decide, that’s what stands and then we have to move on to
the next game.”

Green now has two flagrant foul points against him, making him halfway
to a possible automatic one-game suspension.

In the postseason, players receive two flagrant foul points for a
Flagrant 2 foul and one for a Flagrant 1. Players who garner four
flagrant foul points must serve an automatic one-game suspension.

Kerr was critical of the league’s flagrant foul point system in the
playoffs, saying it doesn’t make sense how a player with a first-round
exit is allotted the same amount of points as a player who makes it to
the NBA Finals.

“One guy plays 25 games, the other guy plays four, and it’s the exact
same rule,” Kerr said. “I’m not quite sure how or why that is the case.
Regardless, it is what it is.”

--
Madeline Kenney | Warriors reporter