new Orleans — golden state Ahead draymond green Got almost chest-to-chest with a fan during the Warriors’ game against New Orleans Pelicans On Sunday night.
The fan, who identified himself as Sam Green, 35, of New Orleans, was wearing a black polo shirt with the Pelicans logo. He stood and cheered after Draymond Green was called for a shooting foul while guarding Pelicans forward herbert jones,
As the players began to take their positions with Jones keying foul shots, Draymond Green approached the fan smiling and standing just inches away from him, talking to each other while the fan had his arms out to his sides.
Game officials immediately stepped between them and pulled Draymond Green away, while ushers gathered around and talked to the fan, who seemed amused by the exchange.
Sam Green said he was taunting Draymond Green with chants of “Angel Reese” after many of the Warriors star’s early rebounds resulted from his short-range misses, beginning with a Golden State possession in which Green missed five consecutive shots and rebounded the first four.
“He just kept calling me a lady,” Draymond Green told reporters after the game. He later clarified that the fan was calling him “by a woman’s name”.
“It was a good joke in the beginning, but you can’t call me a lady. I’ve got four kids, one on the way. You can’t call me a lady.”
Sam Green said Draymond Green yelled abuse at him and threatened to throw him out if he continued.angel reese“Taunt” (a reference to the WNBA star and former star). LSU Player who set several LSU and SEC rebounding records).
“I wasn’t using any profanity, and to have him walk up to me 12 feet away from the court was a little unsettling,” said Sam Green, who was warned by ushers but was allowed to remain in his front-row seat.
“He was talking first,” Draymond Green said. “Then you get a little closer and he doesn’t really say anything else. But that’s OK. We move on.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said in post-game comments that he could not comment in detail about the confrontation because he was not sure what was said.
“As long as it doesn’t escalate, it’s fine [for a player] To go there and discuss,” Kerr said. “It would have been nice if security had gotten there a little earlier.”
Draymond Green, known for his confrontational and emotionally flammable on-court personality that has resulted in technical fouls, fines and ejections, has been fined before for interacting with fans.
In 2022, he was fined $25,000 for what the NBA described as “directing obscene language toward a fan.”
He has been critical of fan behavior, saying that fans face relatively few consequences for saying inappropriate things and are motivated to do so by the fact that players can be fined for engaging with them.
ESPN’s Anthony Slater contributed to this report.
