Draymond Green was trying to play nice by downplaying the criticism of referees during the Warriors-Rockets playoff series, but once somebody criticized him for that, the gloves came off.
ESPN’s Mike Greenberg became the target after leaving an Instagram comment on a clip of Green, who said it was “kind of embarrassing for the game of basketball with how much has been talked about fouls and officiating.”
“There isn’t a player in the NBA past or present who complains more about calls so this is a strange position to take,” Greenberg wrote.
It didn’t take long for Green to catch wind of Greenberg’s comment and send a reply, calling him out for his take.
“You are entitled to your opinion,” Green wrote. “However, this was less about players complaining on the floor and more about your boring ass show has spent the last two days speaking about fouls and not 1 X or O. But that doesn’t seem to be your strong suit, so proceed….”
Greenberg, host of “Get Up!,” wasn’t the only one talking about Game 1’s officiating, specifically the whistles that were not blown on the Warriors for allegedly fouling James Harden on 3s. The Rockets spent the days leading up to Game 2 complaining more about the non-calls and ended up digging more of a hole with a 115-109 loss Tuesday night, going down 2-0 in the series.
That sparked Green’s postgame comments, when he pleaded for the talk to be about basketball, not the referees.
“I think it was great officiated game,” he told reporters after the playoff game. “They let us be physical and they made the calls that they needed to make. It was kind of disheartening, for a game that I love, to see the talk over the last two days was nothing about basketball and everything about foul calls.
“I think both teams just realized what the hell was going on the last two days. You can’t really turn a blind eye to anything in today’s day and age with social media. Everyone was aware of all the talk about officiating, about foul calls.”
And now, about the beef between Green and Greenberg.