The Golden State Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics 107-88 on Sunday evening. With the victory, they evened the series up at one game apiece and restored some semblance of confidence in their ability to win a championship after Game 1’s collapse.
Unfortunately, the win did not come without controversy.
Draymond Green played particularly aggressively throughout the evening, drawing the ire of both Celtics players and their families along the way.
One sequence, specifically, seemed to encapsulate how the entire night went for all parties involved:
Draymond Green and Jaylen Brown had to be separated after this interaction. pic.twitter.com/pyEdSepMjV
— ESPN (@espn) June 6, 2022
Draymond just resting his legs…on top of Jaylen Brown pic.twitter.com/dn3fcaTirB
— The NBA Expert (@RealNBAExpert) June 6, 2022
No techs were called on either Brown or Greenpic.twitter.com/ZvD1DuiVjh
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) June 6, 2022
Fans legitimately couldn’t believe that no technicals were assessed in that exchange. Particularly because Green already had one at the time, meaning that a second would have led to his ejection.
After everything went down, ESPN went to their NBA referee consultant Steve Javie and asked him whether Green already having a technical plays a role in the officials’ decision-making.
“The two guys were going after each other,” he said. “… You have to consider one player has definitely a technical foul. Is this enough to call a double T and eject the one player? Personally, I would say nothing and just let it defuse as that.”
Jackson then followed up for clarification on whether Green having a tech already, which theoretically shouldn’t matter as things are judged on a case-by-case basis, would really impact the referees’ reaction.
“Absolutely,” replied Javie. “I think that’s part of good officiating is the fact that you have to know who has the technical fouls — and in this situation, one of the players does. Is this enough to warrant an ejection is what you have to think about.”
Understandably, that revelation drew some serious responses:
Steve Javie is on live TV admitting that referees ignore the rule book to factor in ejecting Draymond. That’s so damn ridiculous.
— Roosh (@RooshWilliams) June 6, 2022
Adam Silver said earlier today the Warriors being back in the Finals is a good thing.
We had Steve Javie, the NBA’s officiating analyst, explain refs use “selective enforcement” for certain players/fouls.
The NBA knows exactly what it’s doing and isn’t even trying to hide it.
— Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) June 6, 2022
It will be interesting to see how this series progresses from here.
Green was very quick to step forward and take the blame for Golden State’s Game 1 loss. Hence his ferociousness in Game 2. He likely won’t change the way he plays going forward.
— Game 7 (@game7__) June 5, 2022
The only thing that can change is how officials respond to it. Will the increased scrutiny play a role in how Green is treated by refs going forward?
Time will tell.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
