“F— you, Draymond! … F— you, Draymond!” That’s what the capacity crowd of 19,156 people at TD Garden were yelling at Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green during game 3 of the NBA Finals, a 116-100 loss to the Boston Celtics. The obscenity was out of bounds and over the line, but not unexpected with a player like Green. The seven-time All-Defensive team and three-time champion is an agitator and irritant who enjoys playing the villain role and drawing ire from opposing fans.
What made Wednesday’s situation uncomfortable was Draymond’s kids and wife were in the crowd, including his son Draymond “D.J.” Green Jr.. Wives and children of players that travel on the road in the postseason, especially the Finals, expect a certain amount of animosity aimed at their loved one. But things can get out of hand.
“Tough loss tonight but in NO WAY, shape or form should fans be allowed to chant obscenities at players!” Green’s wife Hazel Renee wrote on her Instagram Story. “Are they not human? Is someone standing at your job saying off the wall things to you? The NBA has the audacity to have a whole code of conduct cart at every seat about fans and their behaviors and how they could be ejected from a game or banned but a whole crowd/section/numerous people get to chant (expletive) YOU DRAYMOND or call him a (expletive) or MF? And nothing? Like that’s OK? (Warriors) fans would NEVER!! My kids were at the game tonight hearing that mess! Very DISGUSTING of you little Celtics fans. Just shameful!”
You can understand a mother and wife reacting that way. Fans shouldn’t be allowed to chant obscenities at players, but unfortunately that is part of sports culture. Regardless of the code of conduct card that is placed on seats and warns that certain behavior is grounds for ejection.
It’s kind of hard to eject 19,156 people or whatever fraction of that total were chanting.
While you can empathize with Renee, her husband courts this behavior. He’s overtly physical and aggressive. He’s always right on the edge, sometimes over, of what is legal on a basketball court. He jaw-jacks with the best of them. Not only opposing players but their fans too.
After Game 2 he boasted that he’s allowed to play physical and get away with things because he’s earned that type of treatment.
During Game 2 of the conference semifinals against the Memphis Grizzlies, Green got elbowed and was heading to the locker room in Memphis to receive stitches. The Memphis crowd booed him and he flipped them off. He was fined $25,000 by the league.
They were just boos, nobody yelled any obscenities at him. But Green doubled down and said he’d be “nasty” if they’re being nasty, noting that $25,000 is nothing because he makes $25 million.
Right or wrong, it is Green’s disposition, the fact that he has no back down, and his trash talk that elicits this response from fans. But he knows this and revels in it.
“That’s a part of it. He’s here. He has to know what’s up,” Green said of his son. “It is what it is. It’s all a part of it. If it bothered me, I wouldn’t bring him. But he has to know, because he may be in this position one day. And if so, I’m going to sit right in the stands and watch him. And I’m going to say, ‘F— them’ back.”
No back down.
Renee’s IG post has bothered some fans, as they find it hypocritical that she’s worried about her son hearing obscenitie when Green brought D.J. to the postgame presser and swore in front of him when he said he played like “sh*t.”
Overreach from some of those people? Probably. But the sentiment stands.
The Celtics fans are anti any player that’s not one of their own. But they don’t say “F—you” to every opposing player or villain.
Anna Horford, sister of Celtics’ forward Al Horford took to Twitter to address the behavior of Boston fans and said it wasn’t anything you don’t hear at every other arena in the NBA.
People try so hard to villainize Boston’s fan base when the behavior from our fans is pretty much on par with just about every other team in the NBA. Passion is everywhere. Vulgarity is everywhere. Like it or not, it’s part of the game – always has been.
— Anna Horford (@AnnaHorford) June 9, 2022
NBA commissioner Adam Silver was even asked about it postgame and he couldn’t outright condemn it.
"I love the energy Boston fans bring to the game," #NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says in response to the Garden crowd screaming F– You Draymond [Green]. “I want fans to enjoy themselves, of course from the league office you want to see it done with respect, but I get it." #wcvb pic.twitter.com/pNok8CaBFU
— Peter Eliopoulos (@petereliopoulos) June 9, 2022
We can certainly argue that fan culture is problematic and there should be changes and obscenities shouldn’t be a part of it. But mob mentality has been around forever, and that’s not going to change for Hazel Renee or any other wife and mother.
But her husband knows this and encourages it with his actions. He believes he’s playing a mental game with opposing fans.
“Because you’re in their head,” Green said. “It’s all how you look at it. They’re going to spend all their time focused on me, then clearly, you’re living rent-free in their head. It’s all in their head.”
Those are the words of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing, and while the Boston crowd may seem out of bounds to his wife, it’s clear this is exactly what he expected.
