Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green had to be escorted away by a referee after getting into an animated discussion with a courtside fan during Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
‘He just kept calling me a woman,’ Green told reporters after the game, later saying the fan was calling him ‘a woman’s name.’
‘It was a good joke at first, but you can’t keep calling me a woman. I got four kids, one on the way. You can’t keep calling me a woman.’
The Pelicans fan, whom ESPN identifield as Sam Green of New Orleans, said he was hecklling the Warriors star by chanting ‘Angel Reese,’ because he had been getting rebounds off his own missed shots earlier in the game.
The incident occurred in the second quarter of the Nov. 16 game with the Warriors leading the Pelicans 53-47.
The fan said he started taunting Green after a Golden State possession in which he missed five straight shots and rebounded the first four.
Reese, a star forward for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, is a tenacious offensive rebounder who earlier this year filed to trademark the term ‘mebounds’ – which usually refers to players rebounding their own missed shots.
After the discussion continued for a few seconds, referee Courtney Kirkland stepped between Green and the fan, and ushered Green back toward the court.
‘As long as it doesn’t escalate, it’s fine to go over and have a discussion,’ Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the game. ‘I had no problem with it. It would have been nice if security had gotten there a little bit earlier … it’s hard to comment on it because I don’t know what was said.’
Green finished with eight points and 10 rebounds as the Warriors won the game 124-106.