Draymond Says He Was Repeatedly Called N-Word During NBA Finals

[Yuckabuck33]

I'm sure that ESPN is pushing for clicks, but Draymond has been pretty obvious with what he wants. He has said that he knows the writing is on the wall with the Warriors. He has continually sucked up to Lebron when he didn't use to. Everyone knows he wants the Lakers to pick him up. And who was Lebron wanting in exchange for Westbrick? Kyrie,  who also made the same accusations without much proof. The timing might have to do with Thursday's game, but I think Draymond is playing the long game here.

[Kernewek]

Does anyone have a transcript of the podcast?

The ESPN article is very choosy when it comes to the direct quotations and the most inflammatory bits (the N word rained down) are from the reporter, not the podcast.

From the Complex podcast:

“I was rattled,” Green told Complex Sports. “You hear boos, and I mean I’ve heard people screaming and yelling at me everywhere that I go,” Green told Pierce Simpson in the interview. “But I’ve never heard an entire gym, every time I touched the ball or I don’t have the ball, an entire gym [screaming] ‘F–k you Draymond.’ I thought that was cool, actually. That didn’t rattle me.”

“But when I’m running down the court and it’s ‘b—h,’ it’s the n-word, those are insults at my character. Those are insults to me as a man. So you’re in this place where it’s like, ‘I really want to grab one of these people and wring their neck,’ but I’m going to lose that battle.”

https://www.knbr.com/2022/11/11/draymond-green-reveals-celtics-fans-directed-racial-epithet-at-him-during-finals/

Link's GDPR'd for me but I'm going to say I think this is possibly true but just as likely to be storytelling & embellishments.

People are awful, sports fans are awful, Boston fans aren't exempt from that - but as I can't afford to be courtside during the NBA Finals, I can't say for sure.

(Draymond, if you're reading this, happy to have you fly me over to Boston for the next playoff run to corroborate)

[tazzmaniac]

I’ve been to playoff games at the Garden where I’ve heard epithets chanted (not simply hurled by a single fan), so I can’t say it’s impossible.  But I can say I was at Game 6 and heard nothing of the sort.

Racist epithets?  Is this in the past 25 years?  I'm shocked that fans would get away with a chant like that.

Homophobic epithets, and yes, in the last 25 years.

Homophobic doesn't surprise me if we're going back that far.  Gay marriage only became constitutionally protected 7 years ago.  DOMA passed Congress 25 years ago.  Kobe used an anti-gay slur 11 years ago. 

I think the N-word has been much less tolerated for a longer period of time.

Except in black culture where it's use it prevalent. 

[Roy H.]

I’ve been to playoff games at the Garden where I’ve heard epithets chanted (not simply hurled by a single fan), so I can’t say it’s impossible.  But I can say I was at Game 6 and heard nothing of the sort.

Racist epithets?  Is this in the past 25 years?  I'm shocked that fans would get away with a chant like that.

Homophobic epithets, and yes, in the last 25 years.

Homophobic doesn't surprise me if we're going back that far.  Gay marriage only became constitutionally protected 7 years ago.  DOMA passed Congress 25 years ago.  Kobe used an anti-gay slur 11 years ago. 

I think the N-word has been much less tolerated for a longer period of time.

Except in black culture where it's use it prevalent.

I suppose that's true.  If a black fan shouts the N-word at Draymond, is it still considered a slur and an attack against Dray's character?  Hopefully we never have to deal with that rabbit hole. 

[Vermont Green]

It is a shame when these things come out in this way.  I find it hard to believe that athletes would make this up.  I remember the Adam Jones thing at Fenway where many thought he made it up.  I am also surprised that fans and security would tolerate it, that the fans could get away with it.  I am not surprised if an occasional fan crosses the line but I am surprised that they seem to be getting away with it so often, if what Green is describing is true.

[mef730]

Was at Game 4 and while I did hear a fair amount of "F- you Draymond," I didn't hear anyone using the N-word. I did, however, hear plenty of people apologizing to Golden State fans sitting near them for the obnoxious chants.

Can't say it didn't happen, but it seems awfully unlikely that any use of the N-word wouldn't have resulted in an immediate dismissal and likely shoutdown by all fans in the area, regardless of team affiliation.

Mike

[Kernewek]

I’ve been to playoff games at the Garden where I’ve heard epithets chanted (not simply hurled by a single fan), so I can’t say it’s impossible.  But I can say I was at Game 6 and heard nothing of the sort.

Racist epithets?  Is this in the past 25 years?  I'm shocked that fans would get away with a chant like that.

Homophobic epithets, and yes, in the last 25 years.

Homophobic doesn't surprise me if we're going back that far.  Gay marriage only became constitutionally protected 7 years ago.  DOMA passed Congress 25 years ago.  Kobe used an anti-gay slur 11 years ago. 

I think the N-word has been much less tolerated for a longer period of time.

Except in black culture where it's use it prevalent.

I suppose that's true.  If a black fan shouts the N-word at Draymond, is it still considered a slur and an attack against Dray's character?  Hopefully we never have to deal with that rabbit hole.

By this metric Boston locals are the least racist fanbase in the league because they're physically incapable of saying the word with a hard R.

[Roy H.]

Tangential, but funny.

It looked like Draymond Green might have met his match in two fans sitting courtside during the Warriors' 127-118 win over the Washington Wizards on Monday.

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But the Golden State veteran effectively silenced the heckling pair -- and the rest of the Capitol One Arena crowd -- with a memorable fourth-quarter performance that helped fuel his team's victory.

And that's something Warriors owner Joe Lacob certainly appreciated.

After the two trash-talking fans seemingly lit a fire under Green, Lacob offered them a pair of seats "near the court" for Thursday's game against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden to keep it up, per The Athletic's Anthony Slater. Lacob's generous proposal came just seconds after Warriors general manager Bob Myers was seen laughing and thanking the pair.

Green was a minus-10 in plus/minus through the first three quarters of Monday's game before turning it on in the fourth. In the final 12 minutes, he was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field with two key 3-pointers, to go along with four assists, two rebounds and one steal.

"I appreciate it, because I had nothing," Green said postgame of the fans' trash talk. "I had nothing going, I couldn't find it, wasn't about to find it and then shout out to them -- there were two of them. He got me going, so I appreciate those guys.

[timpiker]

Is there any audio evidence online proving this is true:

"It was such a beautiful thing," Draymond Green told ESPN. "It's not something they hadn't experienced before. So I think it's great that they experienced it from us. With Steph Curry doing what Steph Curry does and the guy they chose to call the N-word. It was beautiful."

On a podcast in November, Green said he was repeatedly called racist names throughout the three games that were played in Boston during that series against the Celtics. And for the first time in his career, despite usually thriving off trash-talk, Green admitted the environment in TD Garden was difficult to block out.

"You usually have situations where people talk crazy, but not the entire arena," Green told ESPN. "You'll have a situation where an entire arena will boo you, but not what the Boston fans were doing. So, it was just a different situation than I had ever seen. It took a while to adjust to it ... it was just so unexpected. It caught me off guard."

Green said for the entire 48 minutes of the game -- which truly lasts for about three hours -- "f--k Draymond" chants, and names like "b---h" and the N-word rained down on him.

It took a few days for Green to wrap his head around what kind of environment he'd have to sit in to finish out the series and do it well.

"Whenever you know what to expect, you can plan for it. I've been around for 11 years so I thought I had seen it all. But that, I had never seen before," Green told ESPN. "I guess with this, there was no real way to prepare for it. Except mentally know what you're walking into. When that happens I can tune it out. But that first time I couldn't tune it out."

Source: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35468249/warriors-green-set-greet-hostile-boston-crowd-champ

If this is not true, what are the potential consequences for Draymond? This certainly sounds made-up—find it hard to believe our players would just standby and let people scream racist obscenities. Find it hard to believe our fans could be so stupid and ignorant in 2022, too, especially that close to the court during the most expensive games of the year. What seems far more likely is people were trash-talking Dray for being a dirty player and now he’s proving exactly how dirty—and how low—he is willing to go?

I think he's a lying sack of X3$*. 

[Donoghus]

I was at all three home games.  The crowd was pretty brutal towards Green so nothing would surprise me.  I don't recall any racist words being tossed his way but heard a lot of other derogatory things being screamed.  Homophobic stuff, for sure.   The Game 4 crowd, in particular, was really sauced up.  Wouldn't shock me at all if a racist slur was uttered by some buffoon.

[dannyboy35]

  I don’t believe it for a second. Fans themselves would do the right thing snd would have a loser yelling the N word ousted sooo fast.

[Roy H.]

I was at all three home games.  The crowd was pretty brutal towards Green so nothing would surprise me.  I don't recall any racist words being tossed his way but heard a lot of other derogatory things being screamed.  Homophobic stuff, for sure.   The Game 4 crowd, in particular, was really sauced up.  Wouldn't shock me at all if a racist slur was uttered by some buffoon.

Discouraging that we've still got meatheads resorting to the homophobic stuff.  You would think that Finals tickets would at least price some of those idiots out.

[Donoghus]

I was at all three home games.  The crowd was pretty brutal towards Green so nothing would surprise me.  I don't recall any racist words being tossed his way but heard a lot of other derogatory things being screamed.  Homophobic stuff, for sure.   The Game 4 crowd, in particular, was really sauced up.  Wouldn't shock me at all if a racist slur was uttered by some buffoon.

Discouraging that we've still got meatheads resorting to the homophobic stuff.  You would think that Finals tickets would at least price some of those idiots out.

It's certainly not as prevalent as it was 20-30 years ago but you definitely still hear the slurs at times.

Balcony always has some complete tools. 

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

I was at all three home games.  The crowd was pretty brutal towards Green so nothing would surprise me.  I don't recall any racist words being tossed his way but heard a lot of other derogatory things being screamed.  Homophobic stuff, for sure.   The Game 4 crowd, in particular, was really sauced up.  Wouldn't shock me at all if a racist slur was uttered by some buffoon.

Discouraging that we've still got meatheads resorting to the homophobic stuff.  You would think that Finals tickets would at least price some of those idiots out.

In my experience, I’ve seen rich people think they can get away with whatever because they think they are inherently important.

Like in most cases, I’ll believe the black guy that said he was called a racial slur. I’m from this area and have witnessed similar behaviors, esp. when alcohol is concerned.

Are people going to say that they know for a fact that DRaymond wasn’t called the N word?

[Roy H.]

I was at all three home games.  The crowd was pretty brutal towards Green so nothing would surprise me.  I don't recall any racist words being tossed his way but heard a lot of other derogatory things being screamed.  Homophobic stuff, for sure.   The Game 4 crowd, in particular, was really sauced up.  Wouldn't shock me at all if a racist slur was uttered by some buffoon.

Discouraging that we've still got meatheads resorting to the homophobic stuff.  You would think that Finals tickets would at least price some of those idiots out.

In my experience, I’ve seen rich people think they can get away with whatever because they think they are inherently important.

Like in most cases, I’ll believe the black guy that said he was called a racial slur. I’m from this area and have witnessed similar behaviors, esp. when alcohol is concerned.

Are people going to say that they know for a fact that DRaymond wasn’t called the N word?

Nobody can say anything for a fact unless they were there or if they've heard audio.

But, in my opinion Green is one of the most unreliable narrators in the entire NBA.  His job is to instigate.