Game 4 of the NBA Finals was both entertaining and wild almost from the outset, but things peaked from a weirdness standpoint during the third quarter. Golden State Warriors All-Star Draymond Green was assessed a technical foul for a reaction to a referee’s call, and at the time, the entire NBA world assumed that he was ejected from the game.
The reason that this assumption was made was, well, that Green had been given a technical foul back in the first quarter.
First half box we were given on press row, for what it's worth. Clearly states Draymond had been given that 1st quarter tech pic.twitter.com/wwDhCeophJ
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) June 10, 2017
However, there was mass confusion that resulted in Green being able to stay in the game and ABC’s Doris Burke broke it down from courtside.
sonofthebronx: Doris Burke reports the officials meant a technical foul … ABC NBA Playoff: … https://t.co/F7GRmWvHFF pic.twitter.com/TjjyeK1VBU
— FanSportsClips (@FanSportsClips) June 10, 2017
In short, Burke’s reporting indicates that the officials appeared to override the initial call saying (two quarters later) that the first technical was actually given to Warriors head coach Steve Kerr instead of Green. This is certainly not standard operating procedure, and at the end of the clip, ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy expressed his displeasure in saying it was “not a good look for the NBA.”
At the time of the incident, Green still went to the bench with his fourth personal foul, but the conspiracy theorists certainly will be able to get quite a bit of mileage out of what transpired. In general, the officials lost control of the proceedings in the third quarter, but in this case, Draymond Green drew two apparent technical fouls and managed to avoid ejection. Draw your own conclusions.
