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

[Roy H.]

It is unlikely that any rational individual would accept the notion that Boston fans used racial slurs during the NBA finals without any repercussions. If someone holds this belief despite a lack of evidence, it may indicate a desire for it to be true rather than a logical conclusion.

Think it’s a slightly different situation to be honest - obviously we are all aware that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and we can keep that in mind while going to Hitchens’s Razor: that things asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

In other words, Green is making the claim, so the burden is on him to ‘prove it’, but the idea that it didn’t happen because no one was punished for it or because it hasn’t appeared on a TikTok clip or whatever has some holes in it.

It’s probably the legal brain here, but I’ve never liked “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.  It absolutely is evidence of absence.  It’s not *proof*, but it is evidence to be considered.

[JSD]

It is unlikely that any rational individual would accept the notion that Boston fans used racial slurs during the NBA finals without any repercussions. If someone holds this belief despite a lack of evidence, it may indicate a desire for it to be true rather than a logical conclusion.

Think it’s a slightly different situation to be honest - obviously we are all aware that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and we can keep that in mind while going to Hitchens’s Razor: that things asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

In other words, Green is making the claim, so the burden is on him to ‘prove it’, but the idea that it didn’t happen because no one was punished for it or because it hasn’t appeared on a TikTok clip or whatever has some holes in it.

It’s probably the legal brain here, but I’ve never liked “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.  It absolutely is evidence of absence.  It’s not *proof*, but it is evidence to be considered.

Yup. The fact that there is no recorded evidence of racial slurs being directed towards members of the Golden State Warriors during their visit to Boston, despite the abundance of camera phones and audio recorders among the 17,000 attendees and various media outlets present, serves as strong proof of the absence of such behavior.

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

Nope- it doesn’t serve as strong proof. That’s ok. Those on the right will deny that any wrong is done, and those on the left will exaggerate the abuses committed.

[MarcusSmartFanClub]

On a related note, I was embarrassed by the behavior of many Celtics fans vs. the Nets and Warriors (Kyrie and Draymond). It’s a tough rationalization to think you can abuse people because you paid for a ticket.

[GreenlyGreeny]

Like to think that if someone hears a fan (or worse, many fans) yelling the N-word, at the very least someone will discreetly record it on their phone, show it to security, and security will discreetly remove the ****(s) from the building for life?

Thinking about this, there’s just no way this happened in the Garden in June 2022 without any recorded evidence of it whatsoever surfacing. Most everyone in the Garden at the NBA Finals has a smartphone and is using it throughout the Finals to document their $$$ experience. No way someone yelling the N-word so loudly that Dray hears it escapes being caught and uploaded on at least one of those 10,000+ smart phones, right? What are the odds of Dray telling the truth and there is not a single recording of it among 10,000+ smart phones in the Garden? Why is ESPN publishing this story without asking that question during editing?

Some may say there should be consequences for making such serious accusations without any evidence to back up the accusation? If it happened, why is there no evidence it happened? Why would people believe allegations without evidence? This isn’t the 20th century. Most everyone in the Garden had a smart phone that night. The players even have access to smart phones they can very quickly turn on someone yelling horrid epithets. Come on, man…

[JSD]

It is a form of racism to accept accusations solely based on the race of the person making them. Such a belief, unfortunately prevalent in and around Boston, perpetuates harmful stereotypes and undermines the principle of fair and just evaluation of evidence.

Despite my initial resistance, I have come to realize that many individuals in our city share these dumb ideas. Perhaps we truly are the epitome of racism within the nation.

[JSD]

Like to think that if someone hears a fan (or worse, many fans) yelling the N-word, at the very least someone will discreetly record it on their phone, show it to security, and security will discreetly remove the ****(s) from the building for life?

Thinking about this, there’s just no way this happened in the Garden in June 2022 without any recorded evidence of it whatsoever surfacing. Most everyone in the Garden at the NBA Finals has a smartphone and is using it throughout the Finals to document their $$$ experience. No way someone yelling the N-word so loudly that Dray hears it escapes being caught and uploaded on at least one of those 10,000+ smart phones, right? What are the odds of Dray telling the truth and there is not a single recording of it among 10,000+ smart phones in the Garden? Why is ESPN publishing this story without asking that question during editing? Some may say that something that approaches the disgusting behavior of yelling the N-word is someone claiming they were called the N-word when they were not? Some may say there should be consequences for making such serious accusations without any evidence to back up the accusation? If it happened, why is there no evidence it happened? Why would people believe allegations without evidence? This isn’t the 20th century. Most everyone in the Garden had a smart phone that night. The players even have access to smart phones. Come on, man…

It is accurate to say that there is zero probability. Draymond Green has been known to fabricate information.

[GreenlyGreeny]

Like to think that if someone hears a fan (or worse, many fans) yelling the N-word, at the very least someone will discreetly record it on their phone, show it to security, and security will discreetly remove the ****(s) from the building for life?

Thinking about this, there’s just no way this happened in the Garden in June 2022 without any recorded evidence of it whatsoever surfacing. Most everyone in the Garden at the NBA Finals has a smartphone and is using it throughout the Finals to document their $$$ experience. No way someone yelling the N-word so loudly that Dray hears it escapes being caught and uploaded on at least one of those 10,000+ smart phones, right? What are the odds of Dray telling the truth and there is not a single recording of it among 10,000+ smart phones in the Garden? Why is ESPN publishing this story without asking that question during editing? Some may say that something that approaches the disgusting behavior of yelling the N-word is someone claiming they were called the N-word when they were not? Some may say there should be consequences for making such serious accusations without any evidence to back up the accusation? If it happened, why is there no evidence it happened? Why would people believe allegations without evidence? This isn’t the 20th century. Most everyone in the Garden had a smart phone that night. The players even have access to smart phones. Come on, man…

It is accurate to say that there is zero probability. Draymond Green has been known to fabricate information.

Why did ESPN run this story? It’s so offensive on so many levels, even for people who have no fan interest in defending the Celtics. There ought to be consequences for making serious allegations without evidence, or publicizing allegations without emphasizing there is no evidence to support the allegations, right? ESPN ran a story of someone alleging something with zero evidence, and which runs completely contrary to common sense when you consider the Garden had thousands of smart phones everywhere during the NBA Finals—they still ran this story and it’s doing some level of economic damage to the City of Boston and the Boston Celtics…and now what? What kind of society has people believing allegations without any evidence to backup the allegations? Why is this social disease, if you will, so prevalent in the 2020s? How does a society build anything worthwhile when so many in society are so quick to embrace mistrust and believe in certain allegations without evidence, contrary to common sense?

[gouki88]

I find it very hard to believe that someone who loses control to emotion so easily, such as Draymond, wouldn't have made immediate mention of this on his podcast.

Nor that any Celtics players, particularly outspoken ones on social issues such as Brown & Smart, wouldn't have said anything.

I feel like with how heavily filmed all interactions are these days that this would have been caught, especially if it was "repeated"

[GreenlyGreeny]

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

TP and second this 🤣

[scaryjerry]

If this is true it would easily explain why we lost the finals. Why would our team want to play hard for a crowd full of racists?

Completely ridiculous. He’s either making it up or choosing to believe every insult thrown his way was somehow because of his race

[Kernewek]

Like to think that if someone hears a fan (or worse, many fans) yelling the N-word, at the very least someone will discreetly record it on their phone, show it to security, and security will discreetly remove the ****(s) from the building for life?

Thinking about this, there’s just no way this happened in the Garden in June 2022 without any recorded evidence of it whatsoever surfacing. Most everyone in the Garden at the NBA Finals has a smartphone and is using it throughout the Finals to document their $$$ experience. No way someone yelling the N-word so loudly that Dray hears it escapes being caught and uploaded on at least one of those 10,000+ smart phones, right? What are the odds of Dray telling the truth and there is not a single recording of it among 10,000+ smart phones in the Garden? Why is ESPN publishing this story without asking that question during editing? Some may say that something that approaches the disgusting behavior of yelling the N-word is someone claiming they were called the N-word when they were not? Some may say there should be consequences for making such serious accusations without any evidence to back up the accusation? If it happened, why is there no evidence it happened? Why would people believe allegations without evidence? This isn’t the 20th century. Most everyone in the Garden had a smart phone that night. The players even have access to smart phones. Come on, man…

It is accurate to say that there is zero probability. Draymond Green has been known to fabricate information.

Why did ESPN run this story? It’s so offensive on so many levels, even for people who have no fan interest in defending the Celtics. There ought to be consequences for making serious allegations without evidence, or publicizing allegations without emphasizing there is no evidence to support the allegations, right? ESPN ran a story of someone alleging something with zero evidence, and which runs completely contrary to common sense when you consider the Garden had thousands of smart phones everywhere during the NBA Finals—they still ran this story and it’s doing some level of economic damage to the City of Boston and the Boston Celtics…and now what? What kind of society has people believing allegations without any evidence to backup the allegations? Why is this social disease, if you will, so prevalent in the 2020s? How does a society build anything worthwhile when so many in society are so quick to embrace mistrust and believe in certain allegations without evidence, contrary to common sense?

They ran it because it's January before the AllStar break and they rely on engagement metrics to sell ads and because the Warriors and Celtics are playing tonight. But ESPN is not a serious news organisation so I think it's a mistake to hold them to that standard.

It is unlikely that any rational individual would accept the notion that Boston fans used racial slurs during the NBA finals without any repercussions. If someone holds this belief despite a lack of evidence, it may indicate a desire for it to be true rather than a logical conclusion.

Think it’s a slightly different situation to be honest - obviously we are all aware that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and we can keep that in mind while going to Hitchens’s Razor: that things asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

In other words, Green is making the claim, so the burden is on him to ‘prove it’, but the idea that it didn’t happen because no one was punished for it or because it hasn’t appeared on a TikTok clip or whatever has some holes in it.

It’s probably the legal brain here, but I’ve never liked “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”.  It absolutely is evidence of absence.  It’s not *proof*, but it is evidence to be considered.

Yup. The fact that there is no recorded evidence of racial slurs being directed towards members of the Golden State Warriors during their visit to Boston, despite the abundance of camera phones and audio recorders among the 17,000 attendees and various media outlets present, serves as strong proof of the absence of such behavior.

I agree with you both, but I want to point out you're both in line with the thrust of the aphorism, which is to be aware of and wary of a situation where people make claims amounting to the idea that whatever has not been proved true must be false (and vice versa).

But, yes, a lack of evidence can go a long way towards either proving guilt or innocence. And, outside of the courtroom, in situations like this one: if we take Green's statement as true, the expectation is that there would be more evidence than we have at present.

[CelticSooner]

Draymond Green’s moral compass is one I would not trust in the least bit. He says stuff just to get a rise out of people and create narratives to go along with it. He knows exactly what he’s doing to say this going into the first game back in Boston. If any other teammate backed up what he said then it would actually be a story.

Dude is all about trying to throw people of their game and often times it does work. Has everyone just forgotten that this dude could have seriously hurt his own teammate?

[ozgod]

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 don't believe a word of it.

[Celtics4ever]

Draymond Green’s moral compass is one I would not trust in the least bit. He says stuff just to get a rise out of people and create narratives to go along with it. He knows exactly what he’s doing to say this going into the first game back in Boston. If any other teammate backed up what he said then it would actually be a story.

Dude is all about trying to throw people of their game and often times it does work. Has everyone just forgotten that this dude could have seriously hurt his own teammate?

It could have happened for sure.  Anyone who says that word should be bounced ( I would prefer this to escorting them out but it would never happen)  from the game and banned from the NBA for life.

 I think this was Draymond trying to stir up controversy before the game and demoralize our guys.     Why wait until just before this game?