Draymond Green addressed his confrontation with a fan in New Orleans that earned him a warning from the NBA in the latest episode of his podcast.
Green had a verbal altercation with a courtside fan during the second quarter of Sunday’s game in New Orleans. In the postgame locker room, Green said that the man had called him “a woman’s name” but declined to specify what name it was.
In an interview with the Associated Press, the fan identified himself as Sam Green and said he continually referred to Draymond Green as “Angel Reese,” the WNBA star who became a household name at nearby LSU.
Draymond Green was given a warning by the NBA on Tuesday, but was not fined, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
On his “Draymond Green Show” released on Tuesday, the NBA star shared his perspective on the situation.
Green was, at first, fine with the fan calling him Angel Reese after he grabbed multiple offensive rebounds and missed multiple layups on the same possession.
But he said the fan continued to call him that the rest of the game while adding what he called expletive-laced ‘fillers’ to the comments.
“To use Angel Reese’s name as a negative connotation, I really don’t like that for the young queen, because she’s done what she’s done to become who she is,” Green said on his show. “It gets to the point as a man with four children and about to be five, once you start the add the different fillers onto your Angel Reese, you’re just disrespecting me.”
The continued verbal jabs from the fan was enough to get Draymond Green to approach him with 2:02 left in the second quarter, getting within a few feet but not making physical contact with the fan.
“‘Hey man, relax. Watch yourself now, you’re getting real disrespectful,’” is what Draymond Green said he told the fan. “You continue to do the same thing and add these little fillers. You’re no longer saying what you were saying before. I’m not going to continue being some woman.”
Head official Courtney Kirkland then interceded. The fan was allowed to stay in his seat for the rest of the game.
Courtney came to me and said ‘Draymond, I’ve heard it over and over again. You said what you had to say to him, now let me handle it,’” Draymond Green said. “Courtney handled it, and didn’t have any issues with the guy the rest of the game.”