For Draymond Green, the NBA Finals wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.
He struggled on and off throughout the series and got some very enthusiastic questioning from Boston Celtics fans.
In a controversial move late in the fourth quarter of Game 4, Warriors coach Steve Kerr pulled a struggling Green from the game, and Draymond wasn’t thrilled, but Finally understood. After the Golden State Warriors won their fourth championship in eight seasons and celebrated in San Francisco’s Market Street Parade, Kerr joined Andre Iguodala and co-hosted Egypt on the “Point Forward Podcast.” Vin Turner, where he defended the move.
“I’ve been here for eight years, so I know all these people very well,” Kerr said. “When I knocked Draymond out in Game 4, I didn’t think about it too much because that team wasn’t playing well, so I was really looking for a turnaround. I thought I’d take him out for a while. Two minutes and let him come back.
“In the NBA, if you find a team that works, then you stick with it, it doesn’t matter who’s on the court. You can’t worry about anyone getting hurt or anything like that. So when that team starts to play well, I Didn’t pay attention to the bench but Andre, you were there, I heard you were there talking to Draymond, and I’m sure he was ready. Sure enough, when the game was over we got back to him and he was very Fantastic and made a huge contribution in the final stages, it all worked out.”
When Green and the Warriors first appeared in front of a raucous Boston crowd for Game 3 at TD Garden, Celtics fans sprang up with NSFW chants against Draymond, which Kerr felt crossed the line, especially after with children.
“I think they crossed the line,” Kerr added. “I’m all for booing, cheering for your own team. Proper cheering – if you want to go that route – is ‘So-and-so sucks, so-and-so sucks. … When they say ‘F you Draymond’, 20,000 people, I think about Draymond’s kids too.
“Like a DJ, five years old, cute kid, like the best kid…this cute and innocent little guy, he has to sit there and watch his dad get cursed by 20,000 drunken fans. People don’t think “Those terms when you look at it from the outside. I do think it upsets Draymond a little bit because that was so extreme. “
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It’s not an easy series for Draymond by any means, but in the end, he’ll have another ring on one of his fingers, and that’s what matters.
That rivalry will almost certainly continue when the Warriors return to Boston sometime in the 2022-23 season.
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