“Tonight Was Probably a Reputation Thing”: Draymond Green Hits out Following Ejection in Warriors Game 1 Win vs Grizzlies

Into the Conference Semifinals of the playoffs, fans just witnessed an action-packed game. The Golden State Warriors and the Memphis Grizzlies clashed in a high-intensity battle, which included both teams stepping it up a notch. However, it was the ejection of Draymond Green that made the most headlines.

Draymond Green got ejected in the second quarter for a flagrant 2 foul on Brandon Clarke. It seemed to look like Draymond Green was holding Clarke after Dray hit his face to soften the blow on Clarke when he hit the ground. However, the referees did not look at it that way. 

The referee called it a double foul. Dray got ejected for a ‘smack’ on Clarke’s face and then holding his jersey and bringing or ‘pulling’ him down. Draymond’s reaction to the decision was a dramatic one.

He ran around a little towards the exit and fired up the crowd, as he clearly did not agree with that decision. The whole Warriors bench and all players clearly disagreed with the decision, but not the Memphis crowd as their chants of “throw him out” took over the arena.

WATCH THIS STORY: Throwback to Dray’s logo shot

Draymond Green blames his ‘reputation’ more than anything else for the ejection

Dray Green spoke about the game in his podcast. To no surprise, he specifically spoke about the headline garnering incident.

“I think tonight was probably a reputation thing”

— Draymond Green in his ejection#NBAPlayoffs #NBATwitter pic.twitter.com/yQKMBqsMhj

— 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙞𝙣’ 𝙉𝘽𝘼 (@_Talkin_NBA) May 2, 2022

Dray said, “I think tonight was probably a reputation thing more so than a hard foul. My biggest worry moving forward is that it gives me two flagrant foul points. And as we know I’ve been ejected for accumulation for 4 flagrant foul points. So my hope is that the right thing will happen and that it will at least get rescinded to a flagrant 1.”

He further added, “Because a flagrant 2, I mean, unnecessary contact. I can’t quite say it was unnecessary because I was trying to stop him from making a bucket. 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 at one leg then maybe you say alright he was in an unsafe position. And you know he couldn’t protect himself – flagrant 2. A guy jumping off two feet straight up and down who then sells a foul and dive to the floor, can’t quite say he was in an unsafe position.”

Also read: Green’s previous absurd ejection

“I’m actually dumb enough to think that I wasn’t going to get a Flagrant 1. Talk about an idiot. You want to call anybody an idiot, look no further than Draymond Green himself”

— Draymond Green#NBAPlayoffs #NBATwitter https://t.co/pPE36CEp6F pic.twitter.com/K88mwnK98R

— 𝙏𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙞𝙣’ 𝙉𝘽𝘼 (@_Talkin_NBA) May 2, 2022

“When they reviewed the foul for as long as they did I said to myself, I wondered what could they possibly be deciding that’s possibly going to take this long. I’m actually dumb enough to think that I wasn’t going to get a Flagrant 1. Talk about an idiot. You want to call anybody an idiot, look no further than Draymond Green himself,” he said.

Draymond explained how he was actually trying to hold Clarke up. He got to know after the game that he was handed the ejection for throwing him down. Dray was shocked by that call because even when he hit the ground, Green was still holding his jersey. Draymond Green said he kind of expects these things now which just summed up his ‘disappointment’. 

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