Draymond Green sees your trolling, Jazz fans, and raises you
Draymond Green did more than his fair share of work to end the Utah Jazz’s season. The Golden State Warriors All-Star forward averaged 16 points, 8.8 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per game against Utah in the Western Conference semifinals, shooting 50 percent from the floor and 47.6 percent from 3-point range. He capped it all off with a triple-double as the Warriors knocked off the Jazz in Game 4 to cement their second straight sweep to start the 2017 postseason.
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On his way out of Utah, Green took a moment to bid farewell to Salt Lake City and the adoring fans he’s cultivated there by signing some autographs. Well, one autograph. On one very specific sign.
A post shared by Kyler Roney (@thekyler) on May 8, 2017 at 8:57pm PDT
Turning a “DRAYMOND FLOP COUNT” sign into a souvenir item sure seems like a pretty perfect way to wrap up a series during which Green said he “see any reason for Utah fans to be booing me like that,” so he decided to give them one. From his “Dray Day” podcast, as transcribed by NBC Sports Bay Area:
What did Draymond think of the Utah crowd?
“I thought they would be louder than they were. It didn’t get as loud in there as I thought it would,” he said. “It was OK. Their fans talk a little too much … shut up. No, I wasn’t really feeling their fans. Shut up.
“They don’t make sense. Some guy kept telling me to shoot the ball. Do you not realize I’m shooting 55 percent from 3 this series? Why would you want me shooting the basketball when I’m shooting that great?
“Now of course I missed a few last night and like, whatever. I’m gonna shoot the piss out of it tomorrow, so that’s cool. Their fans just weren’t very smart. They talk too much. Shut up.”
They didn’t, though, and Green — whose persistent frustration of seemingly every Jazz player’s attempts to score and insistence on pushing the pace to get the Warriors out in transition whenever possible — made them pay. From Ann Killion of SFgate.com:
Green seemed motivated by a fan in the seats behind the Warriors’ bench. Every time he hit a three — he was 3-for-5 from long range — he looked back at that fan.
“He told me shoot it and I’ll shoot us out of the series,” Green said. “I don’t know if he keeps stats very well. He’s not very smart.”
I’m not sure we can take Green’s signature as an indication that he’s vouching for the veracity of those flop-count stats. Either way, it was nice of the Warriors’ motormouthed heartbeat to leave the fans in Utah something to remember him by as they began a long offseason and he headed off to the Western Conference Finals.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
