Draymond Green was named an honorary Splash Cousin after contributing to one of the Golden State Warriors' best shooting nights in recent history in Tuesday's 134-120 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. But while all the attention has been focused on Green's impressive offensive performance, the veteran forward wished more attention had been paid to his egregious foul call error in the third quarter of the game.
In the incident in question, Green went up to counter Lakers' Austin Reeves' layup Reeves appeared to swing his elbow into Green's face while making the basket, then fell to the ground.
Green was seen listening to the referees about the no-call, and then gave a frank assessment of the situation in the postgame press conference.
“I get punched in the face every game, but I don't get any foul calls,” Green said. “If you punch someone in the face, you go to jail. But when you get punched in the face, we don't know it…I don't know if you've been called once. I sprayed it and they are reviewing it as a gross foul.”
Green had 15 points, 10.0 assists and 6.0 rebounds, shooting 5-of-7 (71.4%). Tuesday's win marked the first game in which they made at least five threes since 2017, with the Warriors making 26 threes as a team to clinch the season series with the Lakers.
Green, perhaps best known for his on-court altercations, was suspended for five games last November for putting Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a headlock. Less than a month later, he was suspended indefinitely for punching Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the face and ended up missing an additional 12 games. .
His infamous reputation aside, Green went on to explain what he believes is a double standard in today's hosting.
“When I don't answer the phone, he hits me in the face with a club and says, 'I don't want to talk to you!'” Get out of my face! 'For example, who are you? I couldn't answer the phone. “I'm not going to get mad because I missed a call,” Green continued. “Steph was standing there, and it was great because he was listening to how the referee spoke to me. And he immediately stopped talking to me and said, 'Oh, you speak. I can't do it.'' [Green] so. I think that's the weirdest part. You can talk to me whatever you want, but if I say something back, it's a technique. That's strange to me. ”
