Draymond Green getting a Flagrant 2 for his foul on Brandon Clarke could have resulted in the Warriors losing, as they narrowly escaped with a 117-116 victory.
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Officiating in the NBA has taken the worst of turns this year. While the new rules against flopping made watching the game much more fun at the start of the season, the quality of officiating otherwise have let most people down.
It didn’t come to much notice in the regular season, but since the Playoffs started, it’s been magnified. Small-ball playing teams literally bullying the opposition’s big man was a common scene, with Nikola Jokic getting tortured physically throughout the regular season.
But with the Golden State Warriors doing that in the First Round of the Playoffs, it looked pretty bizarre watching that kind of physicality in this era. But then that very team in the 1st match of the Western Conference semi-finals came close to losing a match just because the era we are in sees this as Flagrant 2.
Draymond Green was ejected for this flagrant 2 foul. pic.twitter.com/QPYnODEXt1
— ESPN (@espn) May 1, 2022
NBA players went ballistic on refs.
Todays league: flagrant 2… BACK IN THE DAY: common foul!
— Javale PIERRE 3Xs McGee (@JaValeMcGee) May 1, 2022
We gotta have better context with these rules man.
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) May 1, 2022
Flagrant 2???
— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) May 1, 2022
Can’t officiate the PLAYER officiate the PLAY
— Trae Young (@TheTraeYoung) May 1, 2022
Draymond Green doing hilarious, cheerful, and sarcastic laps on the court became a bigger talking point than his ejection
The Warriors trailing 54-53 with just over one minute remaining in the second quarter at FedExForum, Draymond Green issued a hard foul on Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke.
The foul was totally foolishness at Green’s end, undoubtedly. Did it deserve Flagrant 1? Maybe, even if it doesn’t endanger Clarke in any way, it still is ugly to watch.
But a Flagrant 2? That’s absurd. And although most fans also found it wrong some were intrigued by Draymond’s antics, as soon as the forward came to he’s going to receive a Flagrant 2 and going to be ejected out of the game. Some compared him to the NFL star Antonio Brown.
Draymond Green right now: pic.twitter.com/pFn8vveNfH
— ⑦ ①① (@Iknowballlilbro) May 1, 2022
Draymond Green = Antonio Brown
— Nathan Wong (@NW45309) May 1, 2022
He’s celebrating getting thrown out? Never seen that one before
— Robert Schroeder (@Robert_Schroe) May 1, 2022
It all ended well for the Warriors, as this absurdity didn’t cost them the match, which might turn out to be the game that decided the series. That said, Green will have to be cautious from the next game on until the Finals, he’d not want to be out of a game that would haunt both him and the Warriors like the 2016 Finals.