Draymond Green picked up his fifth technical foul of the playoffs during the Golden State Warriors’ 117-93 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night in Game 2 of their NBA playoffs second-round series.
Green’s latest technical came via a review, after he caught Minnesota big man Naz Reid in the head with his elbow during the second quarter. The call left him incensed and he let the refs know about it, with teammates, including Stephen Curry, trying to calm Green down. Coach Steve Kerr removed Green from the game and he did not return for 6 minutes of game time.
Afterwards, Green was incensed about the perception people have of him, saying he was sick of the ‘agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry Black man.’
‘… I’m not an angry Black man,’ Green said in the locker room, via a video shared by The Athletic. ‘I’m a very successful, educated Black man with a great family. And I’m great at basketball, I’m great at what I do.
‘The agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry Black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous.’
Nine games into the playoffs, Green is now two technical fouls from earning an automatic suspension. He has been suspended six times, most recently ‘for striking (then) Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in the face,’ in 2023.
Kerr spoke about Green’s Thursday night outburst and the fine line Green walks.
“It’s part of Draymond,” Kerr said. “The same thing that makes him such a competitor and a winner puts him over the top sometimes. We know that, and it’s our job to try and help him stay poised, stay composed. But the competition is so meaningful to him occasionally he goes over the line.”
This story has been updated with new information.
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