Draymond Green is taking a deserved victory lap after winning his fourth NBA title with the Golden State Warriors. But not all of his boasts can go unchecked.
During a recent appearance on "The Old Man and the Three" podcast with JJ Redick and Tommy Alter, Green proudly claimed that he got the best of Jaylen Brown during the 2022 NBA Finals when he got tangled up with the Boston Celtics wing in Game 2 of the series.
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"When Jaylen Brown went in the media and said, ‘He tried and pulled my shorts down,’ I knew I took his heart," Green told Redick and Alter. "I knew I took his heart. And not that I’ll have it next year. I gotta regain it next year and the next time we play them, but I knew for the rest of that series, I had him.
"Because you know you’re standing over me and you gotta go to the media and say, ‘He was trying to pull my shorts down.’ Like come on, bro, you’re standing over me."
Brown caught wind of Green's comments Thursday and naturally disagreed with Green's suggestion that he "took his heart."
"Draymond got a podcast and lost his dam(n) mind," Brown replied on Twitter, before adding an apparent message for Green: "You could never."
Brown and the Celtics may have let Green get in their heads during that Game 2 loss, but Boston bounced back with a Game 3 victory before losing the series in six games. Green's Warriors didn't exactly put the clamps on Brown, either: Brown averaged a team-high 23.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists in the series.
Boston Celtics
Golden State's championship experience won out in the end, however, as turnovers and inconsistent bench play cost Boston in Games 4 through 6. Green also called out Brown for claiming that the Celtics were "not scared" of the Warriors entering the Finals.
"Nobody asked you are y’all afraid of us? Why the f--- are you talking about that?" Green said on the podcast. "He’s like, ‘We are not afraid of them. We will do this and we’ll do that.’ I knew at that point. I’m like, yup, this is baby food and this is over and we’re gonna walk on out of here with a championship."
That's a bit of revisionist history from Green after a series in which the Celtics owned a 2-1 lead after three games and were five minutes away from taking a 3-1 series lead in Game 5. But the details have never stopped Green from speaking his mind.
Judging by Brown's tweet, you can expect the C's to be very ready for Golden State when the teams play each other next season.