By Pierre-Andréa Fraile | Sports journalist
Involved in several scuffles since the start of the season, Draymond Green could recently have pulled out the pin against Nikola Jokic. Quite frustrated at the time, he returned to this scene by revealing the words of the Serbian pivot towards him.
Rudy Gobert and Jusuf Nurkic seem well placed to say this: it is better not to rub shoulders with him too much on the floor, otherwise there will be serious reprisals. Draymond Green ranks as a repeat offender when it comes to breakdowns and has found himself at the heart of several brawls this season. Some may have also feared that he would fall back into his faults on Sunday, against the Nuggets of Nikola Jokic who greatly annoyed him:
Dray was upset there was no offensive foul on Jokić here pic.twitter.com/3wHKLAQTQS
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) February 26, 2024
Draymond Green bluntly on Nikola Jokic
A few hours after this viral sequence, Green spoke about it frankly in his podcast. The opportunity for him to give his version of the facts and reveal Jokic’s immediate reaction:
Joker shouldered me in the chin and the referees didn’t call an offensive foul. So, I belted it.
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And when we got back to the other side of the field, he told me he didn’t do it on purpose, like, “Brother, it was 100% a foul, but it wasn’t intentional.” » I told him that I knew it and that’s why I didn’t make a big mistake about him in return.
Everything therefore remained cordial between the two big men, with Draymond who this time knew how to control his emotions. This, while he admits to having been crushed by the Serb:
Tonight was truly hell for me. I had absolutely no response to him and I prefer to laugh about it. He was brilliant. He is in incredible shape. You should have seen him running across the floor. I had to turbocharge several times to keep up with his pace as he crossed the field. He wouldn’t stop, man. He never gets tired. He was just going back and forth.
Impressed by the physical condition of his opponent – yet so often criticized throughout his career – Dray could ultimately only bow to him:
Shout out to the Joker. It’s always fun to play against him. I have a lot of respect for him and always have. I love the way he goes about his business, and he’s obviously an incredible basketball player.
Has Draymond Green learned anything from his two suspensions this season? In any case, he decided to spare Nikola Jokic who assured him that he had not intentionally pushed him. Enough to attract a little more respect.
2024-02-27 12:10:00
#clash #Draymond #cashed #Jokic #told #didnt
