Draymond Green somehow hasn’t been ejected from Game 4, although it’s not really clear why. Halfway through the third quarter, Green was assessed his second technical foul, which would have led to an automatic ejection in the midst of a 14-point game.
Draymond Green got ejected, then didn’t in the weirdest moment of the 2017 NBA Finals
What the heck was this from the officials?
However, the referees said that Green’s first technical — which was supposedly given to him on the scorer’s sheet and announced in the building as such — was actually on Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. The referees retroactively got Kerr for complaining about Green elbowing Iman Shumpert in the face.
So when the referees called a technical on Green that everyone thought was his second but wasn’t, it confused everyone in the building. It was also complicated by the fact that Green didn’t appear to deserve the technical called on him in that third quarter at all.
Here’s a freeze frame of the call:
ABC’s Doris Burke checked with the scorer’s table shortly after and confirmed with what the referees originally said in the first half: that the technical had been assessed to Green, and it was only after the second one was called that the officials clarified the call.
“They all agreed as a unit that they were told by the officials that that first-half technical was in fact on Draymond Green. That’s why it was marked that way in the scorer’s table. It wasn’t until that last incident, when there was that stoppage in play, that the officials went to the scorers and said, ‘No, that first-half technical was on Steve Kerr,” Burke said.
Green remained in the game with just one technical on his ledger, at least according to the referees. Afterwards, Kerr said he too thought the first technical wasn’t on him.
However, Green said he knew all along that the initial technical was actually on Kerr.
Of course, it was Green who was suspended last year in Game 5 that swung the 2016 NBA Finals back into the Cavaliers’ direction. Green isn’t in danger of that — he isn’t coming into the series with flagrant fouls committed in the previous series. But it is a bizarre moment for everyone involved, especially the referees.
