Timberwolves say fan ejected for conduct toward Draymond Green at Thursday's playoff game
The Minnesota Timberwolves said they are investigating if a fan directed racially charged comments toward Golden State's Draymond Green during the fourth quarter of a playoff game between the teams on Thursday night.
The incident, which the Timberwolves confirmed Friday, preceded Green making a brief postgame statement saying he has grown tired of what he believes is the perception of him being an 'angry Black man.'
A fan, the Timberwolves said, was ejected following an incident with Green. The Timberwolves did not detail what happened, other than the fan violated 'the NBA Fan Code of Conduct.' There was a video circulating on social media showing Green, riding a stationary bike in an effort to stay loose midway through the fourth quarter and with security near him, responding to something said by someone in the stands.
'A second individual, who was identified by surrounding patrons as making racially charged comments towards Green, left on his own before arena security could confirm his identity," the Timberwolves said. 'The team is continuing to investigate, and additional action may be taken.'
Green got his fifth technical foul of these playoffs earlier in Thursday's game. He did not take questions afterward, only giving a brief statement to a small number of reporters in the locker room.
'I'm tired of the agenda to make me look like the angry Black man,' Green said in those remarks, the entire session lasting only a few seconds. 'I'm a very successful, educated Black man with a great family, and I'm great at basketball and great at what I do. The agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry Black man is crazy. I'm sick of it. It's ridiculous.'
With that, Green walked away. It was not clear if he was responding to the technical foul, the fan interaction, or both.
'The Timberwolves and Target Center are firmly committed to fostering an inclusive, respectful, and safe environment for all,' the Minnesota statement said. "Racist, hateful, or threatening behavior has no place at our games or in our community and will not be tolerated under any circumstances.'
Warriors coach Steve Kerr on Friday applauded Minnesota's quick handling of the issue. Kerr himself was subject of cruel taunting as a college player following the murder of his father Malcolm, president of the American University of Beirut, in Beirut when Kerr was 18 and a freshman at the University of Arizona.
'It's unacceptable for any fan to do that to a player,' Kerr said in a video call. "When you say it's unacceptable there has to be action that goes with that term and that's exactly what the Timberwolves did. Security immediately ejected the fan so we are really grateful for the way the T-Wolves handled the situation. I know that Minnesota nice is a phrase to describe Minnesotans and I found that to be 100% true.
'The last few days every single person I ran into was so kind and everybody was saying the same thing, 'I'm pulling for the T-Wolves but you guys are always welcome in our city.' It's a real thing, the hospitality in Minneapolis, in Minnesota. So I never take words from one person and label a city with that. There's just going to be people, individuals, sometimes they're drunk, whatever, who cross the line and it's unfortunate but it doesn't at all impact my view of the city of Minneapolis.'
Green — who has made headlines numerous times in his career for his physicality on the court — made his comments after Golden State's loss to Minnesota on Thursday night, a game where he got a technical foul after flailing his arms and making contact after getting fouled by Timberwolves' Naz Reid.
Officials reviewed the play after Reid fell to the floor, assessing the technical.
If Green gets two more technical fouls in these playoffs, he will face a mandatory one-game suspension by league rule. Green will receive a warning letter from the league now that he has five postseason technicals, which is standard NBA practice.
'It's part of Draymond,' Kerr said after the Thursday's game when asked about the latest technical. 'The same thing that makes him such a competitor and winner puts him over the top sometimes. We know that. It's our job to try to help him stay poised, stay composed. But the competition is so meaningful to him that occasionally he goes over the line.'
The Golden State-Minnesota series resumes Saturday in San Francisco, knotted at a game apiece.
Including playoffs, according to data compiled by SportRadar, Green has been assessed 202 technical fouls in his career.
He has faced NBA discipline countless times. Among them: Green missed 16 games last season after a suspension for striking Phoenix center Jusuf Nurkic in the face during a Dec. 12, 2023, game, earned a five-game ban earlier that season after an altercation with Minnesota's Rudy Gobert, stepped on the chest of Sacramento's Domantas Sabonis and earned a suspension during the 2023 playoffs, plus missed Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals because of an accumulation of flagrant-foul points during that postseason.
AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco contributed.
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