Despite His Earlier Claims That He Was A Changed Man, Draymond Green Basically Threatened To Knock Out A Ref For Getting In His Face

Noah Graham. Getty Images.

Ever since Draymond Green returned from his suspensions, he's been pretty vocal about how he's a "changed" man when it comes to his actions on the court. No more choking players out or kicking him in the dick, he's turned a new page suggesting that his therapy has really helped. I certainly hope that's true, and anyone who might also be dealing with some internal demons does everything they can to talk to someone about it and get help to learn how to handle those things in a healthy manner.

I bring all this up of course because of what transpired between the Lakers and the Warriors to end their game on Thursday night. For someone like me, this is a bit of a sticky situation seeing as how I despise everyone involved. I'm a well-documented Lakers hater, Draymond and the Warriors will always be on my shit list for what happened in 2022, and NBA refs are literally basically terrorists who every single night continue to find a way to insert themselves and ruin the product.

Our latest example came from the final minute, where the refs once again made a crucial error in a high leverage moment that very well may have impacted the result

Let's start off by being very clear here. This was an 8 second violation and frankly, it wasn't even close

I'm not a huge math guy, but the ball does not look to be over halfcourt at the 15 second mark. That's about as clear as it could possibly be, which is why EVERY Warrior immediately lost their shit. Say what you want, but a 6 point game with 53.8 seconds left when the other team has Steph Curry is basically the same thing as being tied. Momentum swings, Curry you know would have hit another 3 to cut it to within one possession, and the Warriors would have had enough time on the clock to play defense without fouling with one final chance to tie it.

So right off the bat, this was another case of the Lakers getting a prayer via an official being horrendous at their job, which conveniently won't be documented on the L2M given the score was 6 points and not within 3 at the time. Funny how that works! 

As you can see in that clip above, while at the FT line, a ref tries to walk up/get in the way of Draymond to which he tells him to get out of his face. Seeing as how that ref just made a horrendous mistake, it's not crazy to think a guy like Draymond might be a little hot, and what we saw is something that truly illustrates the issue with these NBA refs. They made a mistake, they knew they made a mistake, and then they compound it with a tech when a player calls them out on their mistake. It's all so backwards and yet the league does nothing about it.

After the game, Draymond certainly didn't hold back when explaining his side of that whole situation

and even though I can't stand Draymond and think his reactions towards refs are a little insane, he's also not wrong here. When do refs ever get in the face like that of a player shooting a FT? It is kind of fucked up that a ref can do something like that/bait a player, yet the player is now the one who has to cut the check while the ref has no repercussions for their own actions that went into that whole ordeal.

My favorite part of that rant though had to be where he basically threatens to knock out a ref. The "if you walk into someone's face we all know what can happen" part is correct. We do know what can happen, specifically with Draymond. He'll punch you in the face. So much for all that therapy and being a changed guy, but at the same time I find myself agreeing with his overall point. What happened to end that game was bullshit, even if you think the Lakers would have won anyway. That doesn't change the fact that the refs' mistake impacted the ending, and then their own actions afterwards caused a tech.

It really begs the question of how on earth can Adam Silver look at this stuff every night and continue to do nothing about it? Another high profile game on National TV and another instance of NBA refs being the absolute worst. I mean we JUST saw stuff like this not even a week ago

on another National TV game. I'm not saying Draymond threatening to knock a ref out is good or should be encouraged, but at some point, it wouldn't surprise me if it happened given how consistently NBA officials are having issues like this.

So as much as it pains me to do anything that could even remotely be considered sticking up for Draymond, as someone who watched this all unfold in real time, I understand his frustration and his overall point. It's yet another example of the refs not having to worry about any accountability for their mistakes and as we see time and time again, until the NBA figures out how to solve their officiating problem, this is only going to continue to happen. 

Just wait until something like this impacts a playoff game. You know it's coming, and you know the NBA isn't going to do a damn thing about it.