Draymond Green Can’t Call Flagrant Foul ‘Unnecessary, Excessive’

The Warriors forward said he was trying to hold Memphis forward Brandon Clarke up and that the foul didn’t warrant a flagrant 2.

Warriors forward Draymond Green recorded a brand new episode of The Draymond Green Show on Sunday afternoon following his team’s 117–116 victory in Game 1 of their second-round match-up with the Grizzlies.

Green was the topic of conversation after the contest, as he was ejected from the game with 1:18 to play in the second quarter. He was charged with a foul that was questionably ruled a flagrant-2, which leads to an automatic ejection.

Green made contact with the head of Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke as Clarke drove to the basket, swiping down with his arm and grabbing Clarke’s jersey in the process. It appeared that Green was trying to ensure that Clarke didn’t fall hard to the ground after committing the foul against him on the drive to the basket, but the officials saw it differently and threw Green out of the game.

“Now let’s talk about what everyone’s here for … which is me getting ejected for … I’m not sure for what … for a foul … a very interesting one,” Green said on his podcast.

“One thing about that foul is that I actually tried to hold him up … guys were told that I was ejected for throwing him down, which is interesting because even once he hit the ground I was still holding his jersey up. At this point, I kind of expect things like that. I’ve been suspended from Game 5 of the NBA Finals. Do you think for one second don’t believe I would get kicked out of Game 1 of the second round? Not surprising to me at all, not one bit.”

Green elaborated, stating that he felt the call was “probably a reputation thing” rather than a legitimate call. 

“We’ve seen questionable calls in the first round … some things that didn’t get reviewed,” he added. “Sometimes I guess it’s just a case-by-case thing, it’s a reputation thing. I think tonight was probably a reputation thing more so than a hard foul.” 

Green is hoping his flagrant-2 foul is rescinded by the league ahead of Game 2 so that he doesn’t have to worry about another flagrant foul putting him in jeopardy of missing future games in the series.

“My biggest worry moving forward is that gives me two flagrant foul points and as we know I’ve been ejected for an accumulation of flagrant foul points, so my hope is that the right thing will happen and that it will at least get rescinded to a flagrant one … I can’t quite say it was unnecessary … and to say it was excessive would be a bit extreme.”

Game 2 between the Warriors and Grizzlies will take place Tuesday night at 9:30 p.m. ET on TNT.

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