Golden State Warriors power forward Draymond Green voiced his frustration with the “agenda” to illustrate him as an “angry Black man” after he was given a technical foul in the Warriors’ 117-93 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
During the second quarter of last night’s game, Green was fouled by the Timberwolves’ Naz Reid with 8:46 left in the half. Immediately after he was fouled, Green whipped around his left arm, hitting Reid in the head and causing him to fall to the floor. Following a review by the refereeing crew, Reid was assessed a personal foul while Green was given a dead-ball technical foul.
Later in the fourth quarter, Draymond Green was seen using a stationary bike before getting into a back-and-forth with a fan, who was eventually escorted out of the building by authorities. The Golden State Warriors’ security team confirmed that the fan shouted a racial slur at Green during the altercation.
“[I] looked like the angry Black man. I’m not an angry Black man,” Green said in a postgame interview. “I’m a very successful, educated Black man with a great family, and I’m great at basketball, and I’m 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.”
Draymond Green receives his 5th tech of the playoffs after hitting Naz Reid in the face 😳
Green would face suspension with two more.
(via @HoHighlights)
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) May 9, 2025
On ESPN’s First Take, Pardon the Interruption’s Michael Wilbon discussed the “agenda” that Green was referring to.
“I’m often an angry Black man. I ain’t gonna apologize for it. More mornings than not, I wake up that way.” Wilbon said. “Good for Draymond that he doesn’t want to be portrayed that way. Good for him.”
“Historically, this is a thing that has to be dealt with, has to be dealt with, accepted, rejected, whatever you do to position yourself and what you believe,” he continued. “Draymond, when you sit and talk with him, he’s not the same guy who’s on the basketball court… Anybody who fits the description of a Black man in America who’s older than 17 has had things that trigger a response that may sound very much like that, if not identical. I get it, and I would like to find out what triggered it.”
Stephen A. Smith, who was also on the panel, spoke calmly about Green’s portrayal as an “angry Black man.”
“As black men, we’re entitled to be mad. We’re entitled to be angry when it’s called upon,” Smith said. “When Draymond said what he said, I definitely could relate because I’ve seen it happen to players before… Under certain circumstances, players have every right under the sun to be angry. It shouldn’t be a situation that invites skepticism just because you’re angry and you happen to be Black, as if you’re not entitled to react in an abrasive fashion if somebody comes at you in an abrasive fashion.”
Draymond Green just wanted to give one quick postgame statement: “The agenda to continue to keep making me look like an angry black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous.” pic.twitter.com/ay7TLFhjWL
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 9, 2025
Even though Stephen A. Smith understands that Draymond Green is entitled to his emotions, he said that Green is not blameless when it comes to being assessed technical fouls during games.
“It’s hard not to have love for Draymond if you know him a little bit,” he explained. “But there does come a point in time, where even to your brother, you’re saying to yourself, ‘You do understand there is some culpability here, right? On your shoulders.’… There’s a difference between condemnation and simply pointing out, ‘Yo, bro. We’re trying to help you, here.’ Because no matter who you are and who we know you to be, that’s not how it looks on the basketball court.”
Michael Wilbon acknowledged that Draymond Green’s history of technical fouls is ingrained in the Warriors’ culture.
“I don’t think that the comments about how he’s portrayed and the technical fouls had necessarily anything to do with one another,” he explained. “There’s the Draymond Green technical foul issue… It’s been going on for years. It’s as much as the identity of the Warriors as anything, except Steph Curry shooting and the team winning. And then you have whatever happened later in the fourth quarter, which was much closer to the time those comments were made. I don’t think those things necessarily have anything to do with one another.”
Last night was Draymond Green’s fifth technical foul of the 2025 NBA Playoffs. If he receives two more technical fouls this postseason, he will be given an automatic one-game suspension.
