Warriors star Draymond Green is once again on the hot seat after making “inappropriate comments” toward the officials in the Game 3 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Green, who has been fined $50,000 by the league, was caught questioning the integrity of the refs by pointing to the 5.5 point spread after the game.
“The NBA has fined Golden State’s Draymond Green $50,000 for comments questioning the integrity of the game officials, referring to the 5.5 spread number,” wrote Shams on X.
Green, a 4x champion, fouled out in Game 3 with just two points, two rebounds, and four assists in the five-point loss. It was an embarrassing effort for the former Defensive Player of the Year, topped off with an ejection after just 29 minutes of play.
“5.5,” Green said toward the refs. “I know what y’all are doing.”
The league has always taken serious measures to ensure it keeps a clean reputation, and it did not hesitate to punish Draymond for daring to challenge the integrity of their game. In this case, the penalty was $50,000, and it adds to a growing sum of fines and penalties for the All-NBA swingman.
At this stage of his career, Draymond is all too familiar with paying out NBA fines. Throughout his career, he’s always been an antagonist on the court with his fiery competitive spirit and borderline dirty physical play. To date, he’s had to pay roughly $900K in fines. He’s also lost millions in suspensions, like in December of 2023, when Green was suspended indefinitely after an altercation with Jusuf Nurkic led to overwhelming criticism and rebuke.
As an enforcer and leading voice for the Warriors, Draymond has been like this for years, and he always has a target to bully on the court, whether it’s an opponent or the officials. In this year’s NBA playoff run, Green has been completely out of sorts, and it’s no surprise that he’s found fault with the refs.
After such a miserable showing in Game 3, Draymond let his frustration out on the refs and accused them of rigging the game to match the 5.5-point spread. In reality, the game was pretty evenly called, with just a one-foul difference between the two teams (23 and 24). While physicality has been up in the playoffs this year, the officiating has been fair across the board, and it seems the NBA agrees since they fined Draymond $50,000 for the comment.
Sadly, things weren’t much better in Game 4 for Green or the Warriors. In 33 minutes, Green put up 14 points on 42.9% shooting, but it still resulted in a brutal seven-point loss on their home court. Despite his efforts, Dray was -18 in 34 minutes.
Now, going into tonight’s contest, the Warriors are down 3-1 in the series, and things are looking bleak. Without the help of Stephen Curry, they will have to rely on Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green to carry them to victory, but they’ve looked outmatched in most of the games so far.
With the odds so heavily stacked against them, it will take a borderline miracle for the Warriors to come out of this series, but you can bet that Draymond and his teammates will go out fighting.
