The NBA issued a warning – but not a fine – to Warriors of the Golden State Before Green Draymond for his interaction with a vocal fan in New Orleans on Sunday night, a source told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Tuesday.
After Green had possession in the first quarter with several offensive rebounds and missed shots, the fan yelled “Angel Reese” toward Green, who said he initially laughed. But after the fan repeated the chant several times, Green approached to confront him on the baseline during a second-quarter stoppage.
“It was a good joke at first, but you can’t keep calling me a woman,” Green said after the game about the reference to the WNBA star and former LSU player who set multiple LSU and SEC rebounding records. “I have four kids, one on the way. You can’t keep calling me a woman.”
The fan, who identified himself as Sam Green, 35, of New Orleans, stood up when Draymond Green approached to speak with him more closely. They interacted hands-off for several seconds before official Courtney Kirkland finally broke it up. The fan received a warning but was not ejected.
“He was talking at the beginning,” Draymond Green said. “Then you get a little closer and he hasn’t really said much else. But that’s okay. We move on.”
Green was fined $25,000 in May 2022 for flip-flopping Memphis fans on their way to the locker room after an ejection and received an additional $25,000 in December 2022 for “directing obscene language” toward a fan in Dallas.
In this case he received a warning and not a fine.
“As long as it doesn’t escalate, it’s good (for a player) to go in there and have a discussion,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “It would have been nice if security had arrived a little earlier.”
