Draymond Green dealt with a lot during the Warriors’ Game 2 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night at Target Center.
After picking up a technical foul in the first half and facing racist taunts from a fan during the fourth quarter, Green issued a short, impassioned statement to a few media members in the locker room before leaving.
But with an important Game 3 set for Saturday night at Chase Center, Warriors coach Steve Kerr is confident the 35-year-old forward will be fine when the players take the court.
“I don’t think it will impact the game,” Kerr told reporters on a conference call Friday afternoon. “I wasn’t aware of what happened, in terms of the fan, like the insults, until I read about it this morning. I talked to him about that and we did talk about the technical counts and just the whole set of circumstances, but I know Draymond well. He’s going to be ready to go tomorrow. He’s going to play a great game.
“He understands where we are in the series and we have this great opportunity. It’s 1-1 and we’ve got home-court advantage. We got our home crowd tomorrow. So he’s excited. I’m excited and we moved past all that stuff.”
Green’s technical foul for hitting Timberwolves center Naz Reid in the head is his fifth infraction in nine games this postseason. Two more and Green faces a one-game suspension.
Long after the outcome of the game had been decided, Green, who played 29 minutes in the 117-93 loss, was riding a stationary bike near the tunnel when he appeared to be taunted by a fan sitting nearby.
The Timberwolves issued a statement Friday morning, which Kerr commended.
“The only thing I can say is that the Timberwolves handled it perfectly,” Kerr said Friday. “For their security to be on it and remove the fan. Obviously, that stuff is ugly and unacceptable. And so we want to thank the Timberwolves organization for handling it as well as they possibly could. I just think that things like this happen occasionally.
“Happened to me a couple of times as a player. Fans crossing the line, yelling stuff at you. It’s painful. I can’t sit here and claim to know what it would be like to be in Draymond’s shoes as a Black man, to hear racially insensitive comments like that.
“But I’ve heard my share of stuff that’s really painful and hurtful and it’s not ideal, but you always want the support of the security and the crowd, the home crowd, and like I said, the Wolves handled that beautifully and Draymond is handling…
