Michael Wilbon commends Draymond Green’s postgame comments defending his image | First Take

Michael Wilbon commends Draymond Green’s postgame comments defending his image | First Take

took game one, but they lost their star. He’s the headline. We have to figure out what we’re going to be able to do in this series without Stephs. Give Jimmy Butler all he can handle. Could not be a better start for the Wolves. I’m going to go out on a limb here. Not having Steph Curry affects their offense. That’s a big problem. Minnesota has arrived now. The Warriors will try to do all they can on their home turf. All right, welcome to your Friday edition of First Take. My name is Joe Foronball filling in for Molly, Michael Wilbond, Brian Winhorse, and of course, Stephen A. All here for a jam-packed show we’ve put together for you. Draymond Green is where we begin. He sounded off after receiving a technical foul in last night’s game. We’re going to get to those comments in just a minute, but we begin with the oncourt action where the Wolves took full advantage of Steph Curry’s absence to win game two 11793. Anthony Edwards had an injury scare of his own but was able to return in the second half. He finished with 20 points while Julius Randle led the way with 24. Series now shifts to Golden State. All knodded up at one game a piece. Will Bond, we begin with you. We waving the white towel here or do you give Golden State a shot to come back and win this thing? Um, I give Golden State a real chance to win a game at home, which is as far as you can go. We have no idea what’s going to happen with Steph Curry. Anybody who loves basketball is hoping he can get back in this series. Maybe game six if he does. But in the meantime, the Warriors to get there need to win a game. They got two games coming up at home. Minnesota is not without flaws. We We see the Timberwolves do some weird things in some games over the past couple of years, even as they’ve gone through a conference final. We’ve seen that a year ago. But I I I think at home the Warriors will figure out how and that may include a Jimmy Butler 40 plus game. uh they’ll get enough of the ensemble effort as Steve Kerr mentioned, but yeah, Joe, I’m I’m giving the Warriors a game at home and we’re going to have a series still. Hope we get that back. To say that Steve Kerr was searching in this game would be an understatement. He played 14 different players in the first half alone, not in garbage time. He was so searching that he was throwing everything he could out there trying to figure this out. When Steph Curry is on the court in this playoffs, the Warriors average 116 points every 100 times they get the ball. That is excellent. That is why they’re in the second round. When he doesn’t play, they average 93. It’s a catastrophic falloff. When Jimmy Butler is not out, not out there, it falls like another 10 points. Jimmy Butler ain’t playing 48. Okay. So, they have got to find a way to get offense from somewhere before they figure out whether they can crawl claw back a win or whether they can get, you know, three or four uh win game three or four. They got to figure out where they’re going to get scoring. Now, the the one ray of sunshine is that one of the 14 guys that he played was Jonathan Kaminga, who has not been a guy who he has played that much over the last third of the season or so. and Kuminga hit eight straight shots and gave them a chance in the second half with a with a run that for a second we thought we were going to get another 20 point a home team blowing a 20-point lead, but that didn’t happen. The Wolves held them off. Um, but unless they get that offense from somewhere, it’s just going to get elementary because actually the Wolves didn’t play very good offensively at the end of that Lakers series. They didn’t play very good offensively to start this series. Ant got called out by his head coach. They had 33 assists as a team last night. Ant went from two assists in game one to nine assists in game two. That was him responding to what Chris Finch said. And so I expect that the Wolves um are going to play good basketball here. And they’re going to smell blood. So they’re going to need the Warriors are going to need some sort of offensive explosion from somebody we don’t expect to get a win. The series is not over. And before I even go a bit further, uh it’s always beautiful to see my brother Mike Wilbond particularly in studio. And nor normally with everybody else I say sitting in that chair is a huge responsibility but it’s in reverse. I mean you sitting in that chair now I got a responsibility. I’m scared sitting in this chair. I shouldn’t be in this chair. And and and by the way and by the way you can laugh at me all game long, all show long because I’ve lost my voice because of my Nicks fandom. That’s why I’m so How are you going to pace yourself? You got to go to June. What are you doing? I I I I lost my voice, man. I I I’ll pace myself from now on. I got excited early in the week. Who the hell thought that the Knicks would be up 200 for crying out loud after America weeps? Nobody. Wait, but you lost your voice. But you lost your life on Law and Order. We’re glad to see you. I mean, you know, seriously, that’s why, you know, Law and Order is my thing now. Shout out Ted Hunter. But but it was it was Ted Hunter. It wasn’t Stephen A. Smith. Okay. Stephen A. Smith is alive and well. Ted Hunter got smoked. But anyway, let me say let me say this about um Minnesota. Jimmy Butler has got to be good for a game. He’s got to be. Um, that’s what you got him there for. You got him there for more than that. But especially in a situation like this, Jaden McDaniels, Julius Randall, um, and Ant-Man when guarding Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Butler is shooting 13% in this series, two of 15. He’s got to do better. He’s got to be able to get you one game. And that’s really what this comes down to, you knowing Steph Curry is going to be out. Draymond shooting one of six from three and not scoring too much last night. That’s not that big of a deal. That’s not what he’s there for. But he healed. You expected a little bit more. He came crashing down to earth a little bit. He had 15 points last night, but didn’t shoot too well either. Jimmy Butler can’t be shooting 39% from the field. He’s gota he’s got to raise his level of play and be the guy we know him to be come postseason for one game because if the reports are right Steph Curry will be back hopefully by game five worst case scenario game six they’ll either be tied 2-2 hopefully or even if they’re down 3-2 you got to have a chance but you got to get a game without Steph Curry that’s Jimmy Butler’s job sadly the best hope for Golden State might be Minnesota donking one off like they did in game two against the Lakers or game one of this series cuz they have had two really bad shooting efforts so far this postseason. That’s not what Golden State can bank on if they want to make a run. But Will, we’ll give you the last word here. Well, you just mentioned it. I mean, Minnesota has these games and so the notion that teams play six and seven and eight consecutive playoff games at some peak level is seriously flawed. It doesn’t happen. And not even the greatest players have runs like that. Maybe maybe one in their whole career. Talking about the greatest players. So it but it is amazing to see what Steph Curry means to the Golden State Warriors. What he means to the league, what he means to the playoffs. I want Steph Curry back. The loss received a technical foul after being fouled by Nas Reed in the second quarter. Draymond flailed his arm at Reed’s head, earning the call from the officials. It was his fifth technical of this postseason. And if he gets two more technical fouls, he would be suspended for one game. Draymond didn’t mince words post game. Look like the angry black man. I’m not an angry black man. I’m a very successful, educated black man with a great family and I’m great at basketball. I’m great at what I do to the agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous. Will Bond, you heard what Draymond have to say. Your thoughts? I don’t know what that was in response to. I I don’t know what the question was. We have no context. Um I don’t believe it had anything to do with the technical foul. I don’t know that. But we know there was an incident where a fan was thrown out of the arena because of what he said to Draymond or at least in the vicinity of while Draymond was on a bike, stationary bike trying to stay warm as players do. We don’t know. There’s too much we don’t know. Um, but you know, the the rant that we heard, if you want to call it that, um, is interesting to those of us who I’m often an angry black man and ain’t going to apologize for it. More mornings than not, I wake up that way. So, good for Draymond that he doesn’t want to be portrayed that way. Good for him. I don’t mind being portrayed that way cuz cuz I am that way often. But historically, this is a thing that has to be dealt with, has to be, you know, dealt with, accepted, rejected, whatever you do to position yourself and what you believe. And so, Draymond Green, I’d like to hear him. Draymond is a guy I’ve gotten to talk to Stephen and Wendy and I get to talk to Draymond all the time. Draymond, when you sit and talk with him, he’s not the same guy who’s on the basketball court. He’s not flailing. He is completely in control of the language and his feelings and what it is he’s expressing. And I’ve talked to Draymond for long stretches of time, including last week. So, I’d like to find out what happened on that bike that caused that reaction. I don’t have any reaction other than that, cuz anybody who fits a description of black man in America who was older than 17 has said things that trigger a response that may sound very much like that, if not identical. I get it, and I’d like to find out what triggered it. I don’t have the context or understanding of the words, so I’m going to focus on the actions. Focus on the actions that happen on the court. He’s played nine games this playoffs. He has five technicals and two flagrants. Okay. Um, he was fortunate, although if you talk to people in the league, one of the things that drives him crazy is how what Draymond gets away with after he gets called for a technical. He was fortunate in this game that the officials didn’t throw him out with a second technical after his reaction to this because he stood in Tyler Ford’s face and barked at him two or three times over. He’s fortunate he didn’t get thrown out of this game and that would have been a six technical. Okay, so just keeping that in mind. We just got through him going through this uh apology for his team for the for the flagrant foul that he got in game six um of the last series which he thought screwed that game up against the Rockets. This has repeatedly happened and once again for the eth time after the game Steph Steve Kerr gives his defense of Draymond which is he plays on the edge and sometimes we deal with him going into this. That’s all fine. And they have made the calculation in the investment. They see four rings. His his uh his fragrance may have cost them a ring. Uh and if you if he helped you win four and cost you one, that percentage is what they’re willing to live with. They they pay him. They love him. They’ve decided to embrace him. But he has no margin for error now with stuff out. Just can’t just can’t. You just just can’t be doing that. And um that play that we saw last night with Nas Reed is a similar play that we’ve seen many many times over the course of his career. Many, many times. And here’s the thing. Two of the technical fouls that he has so far in the postseason have been dead ball technicals. The clock actually stopped here because there was a foul on Nazri. Nazri fouled him. If you hit a guy like that after the dead ball, it’s not a flagrant, it’s a technical. It’s the second time that’s happened. Had those been flagrant fouls, he’d be suspended because he would have enough flagrant foul points. So, he is riding right on the edge in a moment where the Warriors are desperate for anybody to be there. I don’t any words he has going forward. Whatever happened to to to get him to say that after after the game last night, it seems like it was very unfortunate. Going forward, no more technicals, no more flagrance. Can’t afford it. He knows it. order of business is him being portrayed as an angry black man. Um, there are angry white men in this world. There are angry Hispanic individuals in this world. As black men, we’re entitled to be mad. We’re entitled to be angry when it’s called upon. And I remember years ago when I was in Indiana covering Allen Iverson and there was this big brewhaha about somebody who had spewed some racial epithet uh in his direction. Will Bond, you remember that? I’m sure you do too, Wendy, as well. I had to come to his defense because people were questioning whether or not Alan Iverson was telling the truth. I happened to be standing right there when the person had said what they said to Alan Iverson. He was telling the absolute truth. I remember Russell Westbrook looking at a fan in Utah and screaming on everything I love, you know, basically threatening them like, I’m I’m going to deal with you because the guy was screaming some stuff at him and it was highly offensive to Russell Westbrook. players go through these things sometimes and you do have fans who pay this, you know, pay their pay the price for tickets and clearly if they’re especially if they’re inebriated, they just feel emboldened to say anything that they want and it’s something that they would never do in the streets if they just walked up to one of these players. They would never do that, but they’re emboldened once they’re in the stadium. So when Draymond said what he said, I definitely could relate because I’ve seen it happen to players before. I don’t believe that Draymond is lying one bit. The fan was removed. And most importantly, under certain circumstances, players have every right under the sun to be angry. And it shouldn’t be a situation that invites skepticism. just because you angry and you happen to be black as if you’re not entitled uh to react in in in an abrasive fashion if somebody comes at you in an abrasive fashion. Having said that, now we get into more specifics about Draymond Green. Do y’all know that Draymond Green has 37 technical fouls in the postseason since entering the league in 2012 2013? That is 15 more than any other player. Why do I bring that up? Because the same Draymond that Wilbon, myself, you, Wendy, would all defend and say he’s a good man. He’s a really good dude. He’s very smart. He’s family oriented at his core. He is as decent as they come. It’s hard not to have love for Draymond if you know him a little bit because he is a really really really good brother. But there does come a point in time where even to your brother you’re saying to yourself you do understand there is some culpability here right on your shoulders when the stuff happened with Nerkage Kevin Durant your teammate. I jumped all over Kevin Durant when Kevin Durant said, "I hope he gets the help he needs because I knew people were going to pounce on that to attach something more to Draymond that extended beyond the court of basketball." And I thought that his former teammate Kevin Durant should have been sensitive to that. But the choking of Rudy Goar, the constant barking in the face of officials that would get anybody else ejected, but he gets away with it. All of these things contribute to the reputation that Draymond may have and it’s inescapable and telling him that shouldn’t invite um the level of vitriol he might come back at you with. There’s a difference between condemnation um and simply pointing out, yo, bro, we’re trying to help you here because no matter who you are and who we know you to be, that’s not how it looks on the basketball court. And as wrong as the fan is, and the fan is wrong, no question about that. As wrong as the fan is, you have to understand that what you project publicly can come back to bite you. And that’s what really this is all about. Real quick, let me mention this. Let’s be careful here. And I don’t think, and I have no way of knowing, I don’t think that the comments about how he’s portrayed and the technical foul had necessarily anything to do with one another. These are two in my mind at this point knowing only what we know which is very little. There’s the Draymond Green technical foul issue which you and Wendy spoke to and I agree with everything you talked about with that. It’s been going on for years. It’s what it’s it’s as much of the identity of the Warriors as anything except Steph Curry shooting and and then the team winning and then you have whatever happened later in the fourth quarter which was much closer to the time those comments were made. I don’t think those things necessarily have anything to do with one another. Whatever the fans said and whatever happened and whatever Draymond was, we don’t even know the question. No. So, so I don’t know that. So, we need to be careful and not relate those two things. They could be very very very very separate topics. I’m saying alluding to that based on your statement, you have to take into consideration what role you have played in that because this is how you’re being projected on the court. We’re not calling you some angry black dude. We defend you. We come on national television, people who cover the league, people who care about the league, who know these players, everybody will stand up and defend Draymond Green, the man, the character, the professional, etc., etc. We know what he’s meant to the Golden State Warriors. We know what he’s meant to basketball. We know what he is as a person. He’s a damn good person. He really, really is. What we’re saying, however, is that when you make the statement that you don’t like being portrayed as this, ultimately, what do people have to look at most? Because most people don’t see you off the court. Most people don’t see how you are in the community. No, most people don’t know that you are beloved. I know politicians who know Draymond Green personally. I once met Nancy Pelosi who told me she was a former speaker of the house who says that’s her favorite player in the world. I know elected officials who love this man. They rever Draymond Green, but most people don’t know who we know. Most people know what they see on the basketball court. And when we have when we see it and then you have the numbers to back it up in terms of technicals, flagrance, ejections, etc., You have to be mindful of the fact that fair or unfair, they’re going to come at you from that perspective. That’s what I’m saying. It’s also the idea, and again, this is just what happened on the court, that we have never ever seen any reason to believe anything is changing regarding how he responds to a perceived slight on the court. last night where he thinks he’s fouled. He throws the arm. He gets teched up. There’s a moment there to cool off on the bench. Granted, it’s a close moment, but Wendy brings it up perfectly. Walks right out to the official in his face. And you don’t need to be a professional lip reader to understand what he was saying. That could have led to an ejection. That that situation right there is the official giving him leeway. This is a guy who largely, and I was in the Bay Area covering the team when this happened, largely is blamed for the 73- win season not resulting in a championship. Not because he didn’t play well, not because he ran out of gas in the fourth quarter like Luca Donuch is blamed for, but because he got suspended in a crucial moment that swung the series. Whether or not it’s true or not in terms of putting the blame on him, you can argue it either way. But since then, there’s been an opportunity damn near a decade to try to change the narrative. And between the Steven Adams incidents, between what we saw last night, between Goar Wilbond, he’s never done anything on court to try to change how he’s perceived. He said he’s not going to. He said last week to me among others, he’s not going to change it. This is going to be who he is. And I don’t know whether you said it or Stephen A said it, Steve Kerr, the Warriors don’t just tolerate this. It’s very much a part of who they are and what they do. and and Draymond’s role which includes all of this is not tolerated, it’s encouraged. This is part of the leadership. This is what he does. And this that is not a news flash. That thing we saw last night is just part of the continual reel of 12 seasons of that kind of physicality and the tantrum throwing and the It’s like going back to Dennis Rodman and saying, "Oh my god, did you see this?" "Yeah, we saw it." And we’re gonna see it again. We’re gonna see it again next week. Now, is that why does that does that have anything to do with the portrayal? So, today he’s in the news because of the comments as much if not more than the activity. The activity we’ve seen a thousand times. We’re going to see it again. Well, Bon, um, a renowned historian who’s a huge NBA fan. And I will not give his name because I haven’t had permission to give his name. But I’m going to read to you what he just text me and let me just say you know him very very well. You’ll probably be able to figure out who wrote this to me and wanted me to say this over the air. Quote, "There is a difference between an angry black man trope and the reality of an angry man who happens to be black. Yes, we have every right to be as angry as any other man, but we must not exploit the angry black man trope to absolve inappropriate or harmful behavior. We cannot conflate the two. Let’s not forget many of the players who are fed up with Draymond and what he gets away with happen to be black. That’s what they said. Draymond Green’s behavior is always fair to be criticized and no nobody’s going to argue that if you seen if if you just watch the clips and you don’t follow the NBA at all. Draymond’s behavior and that reel of clips can always be criticized as far as you want to go. That’s earned. Okay. Right. But again, to me, and maybe this is just my word, I don’t know that what happened that people are using the comments, the statement he made last night. I don’t know that that has anything to do with what happened on the court. Well, there’s there’s on court and there’s off court. But but it the point is is that it does one can summize it does have something to do with it because that was the reaction after that game. it happened in this game and in the aftermath of the game, refusing to talk to the media and then giving that one statement. It’s easy to deduce that that’s what provoked it. So based off of that, you can say that the statement he made had something to do with what happened in the in the game. But the the most important point is there are two black men on national television right now and a white individual and Brian Wintors who all speak glowingly about Draymond Green, the man J Draymond Green, the person. We have spoken to him and have communicated with him over the years off the court. We know what a quality person he is and we know he has every right to be upset. We do understand that and we will defend him until the Cows come home. I know I will. I know you guys will. But in the same breath, we’re also pointing out that those 37 technical fouls in the postseason that are 15 more than anybody else, along the way, your goal is a championship. One year we can point to it likely costing you a championship. Another year we could point to it helping you miss the place, the postseason because of the issues that you have had. And so because that’s a reality, no matter how wrong those people are to come at him, even he himself coming into these playoffs addressed it by talking talking about talking to his team, talking to his coach, talking to his family and recognizing he needed to modify certain things. Well, why would you say that if you didn’t see a problem? You’re acknowledging you see a problem. And if you’re seeing a problem, what do you think the critics who are looking for problems are going to see? You have to know that moving forward, especially if you are going to not I’m not gonna say sensitive in a negative way, but if you’re going to be sensitive to what’s being thrown in your direction and how you believe you’re being portrayed, yes, that that means people have to correct themselves and be decent enough to be fair-minded, but you too might need to engage in some level of correction so you don’t have to worry about those perceptions being disseminated too much. That’s all I’m saying. Excellent start to the show, Wilman. We appreciate you spending some time with us. We know you’ve been burning it in on both ends watching hockey late into the morning. Thank you very much.

Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon and Brian Windhorst join Joe Fortenbaugh on First Take to discuss the Golden State Warriors’ Game 2 loss vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves where Draymond Green received a technical foul. They also discuss his interaction with a fan that caused the fan to be ejected and his postgame comments.

0:00 Warriors vs. Timberwolves
3:50 “This series is not over” – Stephen A.
7:06 Draymond’s tech & postgame comments
7:42 Wilbon’s reaction to Draymond
9:40 Windy’s breakdown of the technical
12:04 Stephen A.’s thoughts
17:11 Stephen A.’s personal experience with Draymond
19:52 Changing the narrative
22:27 On-court vs. off-court

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#ESPN