The NBA has issued a warning — but no fine — to Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green 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 a first-quarter possession 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 walked over 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 postgame about the reference to the WNBA star and former LSU player who set several LSU and SEC rebounding records. “I got 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 walked over to have a closer word. They interacted without intervention for several seconds before official Courtney Kirkland finally broke it up. The fan was given a warning but not ejected.
“He was talking at first,” Draymond Green said. “Then you get a little closer and he didn’t really say much else. But it’s fine. We move on.”
Green was fined $25,000 in May of 2022 for flipping off Memphis fans on his way to the locker room following an ejection and was docked another $25,000 in December of 2022 for “directing obscene language” at a fan in Dallas.
In this instance, he was given a warning and not a fine.
“As long as it doesn’t escalate, it’s fine [for a player] to go over and have a discussion,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “It would have been nice if security had gotten there a little bit earlier.”
