Draymond Green responds to booing fans after injury: ‘It felt really
good to flip them off’
Golden State Warriors' Draymond Green had to get stitches in his eye and
gestured to booing fans
>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 3: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (23)
reacts after being hit in the head during their game against the Memphis
Grizzlies in the first quarter of Game 2 of an NBA basketball
second-round Western Conference playoff series at the FedEx Forum in
Memphis, Tenn., on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
>MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE – MAY 3: Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (23)
reacts after being hit in the head during their game against the Memphis
Grizzlies in the first quarter of Game 2 of an NBA basketball
second-round Western Conference playoff series at the FedEx Forum in
Memphis, Tenn., on Tuesday, May 3, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
By SHAYNA RUBIN | srubin@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: May 3, 2022 at 11:05 p.m. | UPDATED: May 4, 2022 at 8:56 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/05/03/draymond-green-responds-to-booing-fans-after-injury-it-felt-really-good-to-flip-them-off/

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The typically talkative Draymond Green didn’t have a
lot to say after the Warriors’ Game 2 loss. The bloody shiner under his
eye did all the talking.

And so did the two middle fingers he flipped to Grizzlies fans at FedEx
Forum who boo’d him as he walked to the locker room early in the first
quarter nursing a cut on his right eye that later required stitches
mid-game. Well, he had a lot to say about that:

“You want to boo somebody who got elbowed in the face, blood running
down their face, you should be flipped off. I’ll take the fine, I’ll do
an appearance and make up the money. But it felt really good to flip
them off. You want to boo someone that got elbowed in the eye and blood
running down my face? I could have had a concussion. If they’re going to
be nasty, I’m going to be nasty too. Im assuming the cheers was because
they knew I’d be fined. Great. I make $25 million a year. I should be
just fine.”

Green had a target on his back already after speaking out publicly and
frequently against the league’s decision not to overturn his flagrant
two foul against Brandon Clarke in Game 1. The Memphis fans poured the
boos on heavy from the time Green was introduced to the time he first
touched the ball on an offensive possession to the time, just three
minutes into the game, that Green walked off the court injured.

Those boos seemed to subside a bit when Green returned for the start of
the second quarter with a few stitches in his eye.

But the sting of Xavier Tillman’s elbow thrashing his eye socket only
added to the sting of losing a winnable game in Memphis on Wednesday
night. They lost Game 2 106-101, where poor shot selection late sank all
the poise they could muster to make Ja Morant’s spectacular 47-point
game a thriller.

Green wasn’t his best, albeit operating with one functioning eye. But
his return helped spark a Warriors’ claw-back that needed that kind of
heart.

The Warriors predicted Game 2 would be the most physical game they’d
play this year, but Memphis managed to cross the line. With their
college coach Tom Izzo in the building, fellow Michigan State alum
Tillman threw an elbow at Green that had him writhing in pain on the
baseline for a good 30 seconds before he had to return to the locker
room with blood dripping down his face. Green didn’t think Tillman’s
elbow was intentional.

“I don’t know if it was inadvertent and I don’t really care,” Green said.

But Memphis crossed the line earlier, Dillon Brooks threw an arm across
a defenseless Gary Payton II on a layup attempt that forced him to the
ground hard. Payton, one of the few Warriors that can stifle Morant,
fractured his left elbow with an MRI to come.

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Coach Steve Kerr said Brooks’ foul broke a player code not to put a
player’s season in jeopardy. Green called Brooks’ foul “bulls—.” Brooks
earned a flagrant two foul and was ejected with possible further
punishment, according to reports.

A physical game turned into a costly one. But Green put the next steps
forward pretty bluntly.

“Same mood after any loss, you know what I’m saying?” he said. “It is
what it is.”

--
Shayna Rubin | Oakland Athletics reporter