‘He tried to pull my pants down’ - Celtics’ Jaylen Brown on Warriors’ Draymond Green
With the debate raging on a day after their blow out loss to the Warriors in Game 2, the Celtics will be wondering how they can compensate for Draymond Green’s mind games, but if you ask Jaylen Brown there are no surprises at all.
If you’re a Warriors fan you’ve got to be feeling pretty good right about now, but if you’re a Celtics fan you’re probably fuming. That’s of course before we mention Draymond Green.
Was the Warriors’ Draymond Green pushing limits in Game 2?
On Sunday night when the Warriors took on the Celtics in Game 2 of their best of seven NBA Finals series, it was clear from the outset that the Golden State’s Draymond Green was prepared to do whatever it took to carry his team to victory. With the kind of defensive intensity that he’s become well known for, Green put on a clinic in defensive prowess and ‘gamesmanship.’ Of course you’re likely to get a very different description if you ask any Celtics fans.
It goes without saying that Celtics players, coaches and fans saw Green’s performance as simply dirty and nothing more than an attempt to get under their skin. Indeed, that’s more or less what the reaction was like online as many criticized the referee’s decision to not eject Green after an altercation with Jaylen Brown. when he was already sitting on a technical foul for an incident earlier in the game which involved Grant Williams. That decision would become one of the major talking points after a game which Boston got crushed in by a score of 107-88.
Celtics’ Jaylen Brown sees Draymond Green incident very differently
With Green having responded to those who said he should have been ejected from the game, it’s now clear where the Golden State’s big man stands and more over, where he intends to go as the series continues. On the other side of the divide, however, we have the Celtics and of course Jaylen Brown who was the other half of the contentious moment in the second quarter. As far as Brown is concerned, the referees got it wrong and there is nothing else to it.
“On that situation, Draymond fouled me on a three and put his legs on my head or whatever,” Brown said. “I tried to get up. But that’s what they’re going to do. That’s what he’s going to do. He’s going to try to muck the game up, try to raise the level of intensity...But I don’t know what I was supposed to do there. Somebody got their legs on the top of your head and then he tried to pull my pants down. I don’t know what that was about. That’s what Draymond Green does. He’ll do whatever it takes to win. He’ll pull you, he’ll grab you, he’ll try to muck the game up because that’s what he does for their team. It’s nothing to be surprised about. Nothing I’m surprised about.” While it does appear that Green attempted to pull on Brown’s pants, it would seem that the referees had already taken a decision - to call Green for a regular foul - by the time the moment occurred, which would suggest it was simply ‘after the fact.’The jury remains out. For his part Green maintained his ground. “So with the first tech [earlier], it is what it is. That’s not going to stop me from being aggressive or doing what I do on the basketball court,” Green said. “Just got to live with the results.”
Did the referees let Draymond Green off the hook?
As in any sport there are rules and then there is context with the dividing factor being the referee’s discretion. This is an age old debate and will likely continue forever. With Green on a technical foul, should he have been ejected for the situation involving Brown? If we go with the rules alone then the answer is probably going to be yes. On the other hand if we consider the stage of the game, the intensity of it, the status of the series and the offending player himself, the scenario becomes a little more complex. Understandably this scenario will look very different depending on which team you support, but rest assured it’s these kind of critical calls that very few of us can make and often times disregard the credit referees deserve for doing just that. If nothing else we can at the least say this: If there was no surprise for Brown and the Celtics where Green’s play was concerned, then why the need for a debate? Expect things to get rough and rowdy in Game 3.