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

[GreenlyGreeny]

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?

[Roy H.]

I don't believe it.  If the N-word is audible on the court to a player, that means it's being shouted very loudly.  Somebody else -- an usher, another fan, TV or radio broadcasts, etc. -- is going to hear it, and most likely have you thrown out of the game.

Green isn't shy about complaining about things.  If this had actually happened, he wouldn't have sat on it for seven months.

[Celtics2021]

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.

[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.

[Celtics2021]

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.

[PAOBoston]

I don’t know how he sat on that since June seeing as to how outspoken he (and his teammates) are. I remember Klay’s “Keep it classy Boston. Protect the kids” speech. Feels like that is something that both he and anyone else on that court would not have just shut up about and not sat on it for 6 months if this is honestly true. Seems like something Green would bring up on his podcast etc.

I don’t want to call this a psy ops move right before the game on Thursday because racism is a serious thing but those are pretty hefty allegations. Unfortunately, Boston has a dark history with this stuff so doesn’t help from an image standpoint.

[slamtheking]

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.

in the past 30 years, I've heard a lot of trash talk but never the N word.  Can't say I've heard homophobic stuff either.  have to admit, Boston fans can get pretty creative with what they call opposing players but I've never heard that type of stuff no matter where I've sat.  also, with how loud that crowd gets, I'd be amazed if any player heard anything like that shouted at them by a fan that could be any further away than courtside or behind the bench with the player right there

[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.

[Celtics2021]

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.

It was still jarring to hear it yelled, in rhythm, by a mob of sports fans in Boston in 2003 (at Jason Kidd after they’d grown tired of chanting “wife-beat-er, wife-beat-er.”)  Gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts within a year.  It was not something that was “acceptable”, even at that time.

Point being that crowds sometimes get out of control and do things they wouldn’t do as individuals, so I won’t say it would never/could never happen.  But I didn’t experience anything like that at Game 6.  There was one fan who started to cross the line in my section, and the rest of us shut him up (of course he was the only one to have brought a kid.). And if it had happened earlier in the Series, Draymond absolutely would have brought it up immediately.

[JSD]

Liar

[Kuberski33]

Similar BS to that guy on the Orioles who claimed it was hollered to him from the stands in Fenway. Corroborated by no one.

[GreenlyGreeny]

Supposedly there’s all this rabid racism at the Garden yet none of it ever shows up on viral videos on YouTube, or anywhere? Is it possible that Draymond and LeBron lie for whatever reason? There’s definitely an interest in some corners in seeing JB leave us hurting like Kyrie before him? How is lying about crap like this not a sort of tampering with upcoming free agents, frankly? Perhaps Golden State ought to be sanctioned for tampering with our players by permitting one of their players to make statements like this with zero evidence whatsoever to support the allegation?

[Moranis]

Seems like nonsense

[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.

[Roy H.]

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/