Warriors take issue with ‘classy’ taunts from Boston crowd
A rowdy TD Garden, hosting its first NBA Finals game since 2010, did not hold back when it came to their feelings on the Warriors’ Draymond Green.
The obvious villain of this series from the Boston point of view given his postgame comments following Game 1 and his Game 2 dust-up with Jaylen Brown, every Green miss and foul was met with thunderous applause, as well as a vulgar salute. “F–k you, Draymond,” the Garden sang between claps.
It was probably about as Boston as it gets — Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving was hit with similar chants in the first round, and Bruins fans at TD Garden welcomed the Hurricanes’ Tony DeAngelo with their own version — but it also didn’t sit well with the PG-rated ears of the Golden State Warriors.
“Classy,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “Very classy.”
“[The crowd] was not a factor. We’ve played in front of rude people before,” Klay Thompson said. “Dropping F-bombs with children in the crowd… real classy. Good job, Boston.”
But while Kerr and Thompson debated the class of the Garden crowd, Green didn’t express any shock or outrage when it came to his treatment.
“They’re just talking,” Green, who ironically enough dropped a few expletives in his postgame press conference (and with his young son sitting to his left), said when asked for his reaction to the chants directed his way. “Not really my job to react to them. They did what I expected.”
Green had bigger issues on Wednesday night. His performance was an all-time U-G-L-Y one, as Green became the first player in NBA Finals to foul out with less than five points, rebounds, and assists in over 34 minutes played, according to numbers guru Tucker Boynton. But the villain role is also nothing new to the 32-year-old veteran of over 140 playoff games.
“I embrace it, I enjoy it,” Green said of his polarizing status as a player. “I didn’t really feed off of it tonight. I don’t think I fed off much tonight. But yeah, that’s — that’s something that I enjoy. Waste a lot of energy talking to me, so it’s great. It’s great.”
The Celtics, meanwhile, were likely saved by some foul language from their head coach.
Ime Udoka may have saved the Celtics with a key question during a timeout after his team had committed some bad turnovers. According to a source, Udoka stepped into the huddle and said, "Will you guys stop playing like assholes?"
— Steve Bulpett (@SteveBHoop) June 9, 2022
Aaaaaand we have our coaching moment of the year.
Won’t someone think of the children? Or Klay Thompson, at the very least?
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Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. He has been covering the Bruins since 2010, and has been a member of the Boston chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter: @_TyAnderson.
