NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Golden State forward Draymond Green received a warning from the NBA after going nearly chest-to-chest with a fan during the Warriors’ 124-106 road victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, a person with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the NBA has not announced the warning.
The fan, who identified himself as Sam Green, 35, of New Orleans, was wearing a black polo with a Pelicans logo on it. He was standing and cheering after Draymond Green had been called for a shooting foul while guarding Pelicans forward Herb Jones during the game Sunday.
While players began taking their positions along the key for Jones’ foul shots, Draymond Green strode over to the fan and stood just inches from him as they spoke to one another, with the fan holding his arms out on each side.
Game officials quickly stepped between them and pulled Draymond Green away while ushers gathered and spoke with the fan.
“He just kept calling me a woman. It was a good joke at first but you can’t keep calling me a woman,” Draymond Green said, clarifying later that the fan was calling him “a woman’s name.”
“I got four kids and one on the way,” Green added. “Just don’t be disrespectful.”
Draymond Green said game official Courtney Kirkland told him, “I got it. I’ve heard him over and over and over again. You’ve handled it well. Don’t get yourself in no trouble. I’ll take care of it. Courtney was great.”
Sam Green said he was heckling Draymond Green with chants of “Angel Reese,” because several of the Warriors’ star’s early rebounds resulted from his short-range misses, starting with a Golden State possession in which Green missed five straight shots and rebounded the first four. Draymond Green finished with eight points and 10 rebounds.
Sam Green said the NBA star shouted profanity at him and threatened to punch him out if he continued the “Angel Reese” taunts — a reference to the WNBA and former LSU star who set several LSU and SEC rebounding records.
“I wasn’t using profanity and for him to walk 12 feet off the court to come and get in my face like that, it was a little unnerving,” said Sam Green, who was given a warning by ushers but was allowed to remain in his front-row seat.
Draymond Green, who has been known to draw technical fouls, fines and ejections for his confrontational and emotionally combustible on-court persona, has been fined for fan interaction in the past.
In 2022, he was fined $25,000 for what the NBA described as “directing obscene language toward a fan.”
Green has been critical of fan behavior, saying fans face relatively few consequences for saying inappropriate things, and are in fact motivated to do so by the fact that players can be fined for engaging with them.
Green said Sunday night that he is accustomed to heckling at road games and that it generally doesn’t bother him.
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