I still have a 12-minute voice over ready to mix in some video and images, on Draymond Green’s ejection at the hands of NBA official Marat Kogut way back from the San Antonio Spurs loss, but that will have to wait.
In the meantime, please enjoy the entirety of Green’s postgame from the win at the Sacramento Kings below. There’s even an F-word slippage on local cable TV to cap things off, which was pretty f-ing generous of him, too, come to think of it, especially how he’s already vowed not to do that as much! 😂
But seriously, a referee gave Draymond a tech after telling him he spoke “generously” (see transcript below)? Do these NBA officials not go through any psychology training? There’s only a small select few — Tony Brothers comes to mind — who find value with harmless in-game banter. Can Brothers lead a seminar in the off-season with these guys? Where’s the fun?
If you’ve ever played in our Dream League recreational leagues in West Oakland, you know that as long as the banter with refs isn’t personal, it can actually be fun. It adds life to the game. Shout out Vinney Myers, one of our league’s top refs and loved by probably 99% of our participants. He’s a master at the nuances of the game, just like Brothers, just like Draymond.
Also, is there anyone out there who’s really worried Green will hit 16 technicals, which ends up as an automatic one-game (regular season) suspension? Chill. Dray knows how to tiptoe the line and from what I know, he uses the regular season to feel out certain refs. Plus he hasn’t had much of a regular season to feel some of them out. And don’t forget, the technicals reset to zero for the playoffs and the playoffs have more refs assigned who are more like Brothers than Kogut.
NOTE: If you’re keeping score, and especially if Draymond happens to be reading this, Pat Fraher, who slapped Dray with the tech in Sacramento, will probably be a 2022 NBA Playoffs official. By the same token, Kogut probably will not be. Whew! 😅
I just think a lot of people forget that the outward passion Draymond brings to the game is so rare to see. It takes a certain type of personality that usually doesn’t make it to the NBA — I’ll go into my theories on why in my forthcoming video.
I don’t like to make predictions (or comparisons) because I view those as entertainment, not information, and my engineering background has me bent way towards providing information through LetsGoWarriors’ platforms and less so entertainment, but let me predict this: You’re gonna miss Dray’s fire when he’s gone.
I’ve said this now many times on the game live chat commentary on our YouTube channel since Green came back. Every team needs an enforcer. He’s our only one and that’s part of the reason we got bullied so much by other teams this year in his absence.
So next time you see him almost get a flagrant for the entanglement with poor Justin Holiday, before you hit send on that complain-y outrage tweet whenever he raises his voice towards an official — I mean, I do worry about him getting a tech, but I’m never mad at Draymond — also please think about the unicorn you’re seeing bringing life to the game and the rare instance of Warrior physicality. He’s a dying breed. He’s Charles Oakley with Magic Johnson skills. But anyways, like I said, more on this soon and come join the folks who already breathe this gospel on our positivity game streams…
DRAYMOND
0:15 • Playing back to back: “I felt good after last nights game and I need reps…they gave me the option to play. I took the option.” 🚨
0:34 • What happened with the technical? “I said, ‘That was dead wrong.’ That’s what happened. The official then went on to tell me, ‘You spoke to me very generously. You were very generous speaking to me. I gave you a tech for talking to me.’ So, I don’t know. What am I, at 14 techs? My last three are kinda insane 🚨 but I guess I ain’t meet the quota yet so I’ll probably get to fifteen like I do every year. It is what it is.”
1:19 • What did this weekend (back to back wins) do for you guys? “…forget the seeding, it was a huge win for us last night and then you don’t wanna come in here and lay an egg…told the guys before the game, you gotta win the games that you’re supposed to win.. anytime in you’re in a slump you gotta work your easy out of it and I knew the Phoenix game, we were out of it. We didn’t shoot well, as turned the ball over a lot and we lost by two points or four points…you kinda felt that game that ad had worked our way out of it…coming out the following game and executing and building on that. First half we didn’t at all, but the second half we picked it up…we carried that momentum into tonight. So it was a huge weekend just us getting back to playing our brand of basketball.” 🚨
1:06 • Winning fifty games: “It’s always great to win fifty games. I try not to take those things for granted especially after getting our asses kicked the last two years. 🚨 …great feat for such a young team…a very inexperienced team. We have a few guys who have experience but beyond that there’s not much…for these young guys to feel that and now understand how hard it is…all the things that can go wrong, how you have to stay the course…is great to be back where we are, now we gotta continue to build and try to roll into these playoffs.”
0:39 • Hitting the first two threes: “…I had told myself coming into the game like I’ma come out firing today. 🚨 And then I hit those two and I stopped firing…I missed a couple bunnies that I’ll make…this is my time of year when I hit shots. I’m looking forward to those teams been playing me how they were playing me in Game 7 and I love that. It’s about the time of year where I start shooting 40 (%) from three.” 🚨
1:12 • Sacramento mass shooting: “No. 1, I send my love and prayers and respect to the families of the victims. It’s unfortunate. That’s something that you never wanna see. It seems to becoming more prevalent in our communities and our country…not much that you can say…affect everyone…alter the way daily life happens in your city…”
0:35 • Particular plays where you feel like you’re back? “I think so. There’s been a few plays defensively where I can kinda feel me getting my timing and rhythm back and covering up some things. Offensively I’m starting to find my rhythm…I foods find my touch again…can’t really pinpoint any specific plays…”
0:46 • Any concerns about your challenge rate? “Nah, not at all. The reason the guy told me it got called a foul and the challenge was unsuccessful were two totally different reasons…very similar to — what’s the word I’m looking for? — appealing a tech. You’re kind of appealing to the same people that called the foul, so you better be fucking spot clean if you’re getting that reversal…” 🚨
1:21 • Team’s progression over the last couple weeks: “It’s starting to pick back up. You’re starting to see the defense that had us the number one defense in the league for two and a half months…for whatever reason we’ve had our lapses and throughout the course of an 82-game season it happens at times but we’re getting it back at the right time…that’s what this team has to be built on going into the playoffs 🚨 …we need to cut back on the fouls. That’s something we can definitely control…24 free throws, that wasn’t a team that had superstars…that draw fouls…pretty pleased with the progression of our defense…”
0:55 • Are you concerned about seeding? “No. It’s not something that we’ve spoken about much. We’ve more so spoken about playing the game the right way…three seed, you still gotta win a road game because no one’s trying to go to Game 7. We know how those go, it’s a coin flip. 🚨 So you still gotta win a road game. If you’re the sixth seed, you still gotta win a road game. And if you’re any seed you gotta play the better teams to get to the Finals. So it is what it is.”
👍👍💛💙