Draymond Green recalls racist taunts from Boston Celtics fans ahead of return to TD Garden: "The guy they chose to call the N-word"
Draymond Green recently recalled the last time they were in TD Garden. The Golden State Warriors are set to face the Boston Celtics, who have a home-court advantage.
The last time the Warriors played at the Garden was during the 2022 NBA Finals. It has been seven months since then and Green seems to be fired up to get back to Boston.
According to ESPN, Draymond Green shared his experiences playing at TD Garden in the NBA Finals. Despite the pressure playing in Boston brought about, Green thinks it was a beautiful sequence of events. While Celtics fans kept making racist remarks towards Draymond, his teammate Steph Curry kept on hushing the crowd with his magnificent shooting prowess.
"It was such a beautiful thing," Green said. "It's not something they hadn't experienced before. So I think it's great that they experienced it from us. With Steph Curry doing what Steph Curry does and the guy they chose to call the N-word. It was beautiful."
Looking back at the time Draymond Green felt the pressure at TD Garden
The 2022 NBA Finals featured the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors. Ultimately, the Warriors beat the Celtics in six games, but it wasn't easy. Draymond Green recently discussed with ESPN how he felt about the pressure of playing at TD Garden. Green was typically unfazed by the hostile environment, however, and the Boston crowd became too much for him to handle.
Draymond Green elaborated that he's used to hearing people talk trash towards him. But it was a different case when they played in the Garden. This time around, the entire arena was booing Green and swearing at him. Others even called him racist names. As a result, the Warriors veteran was thrown off, and it took a while for him to make adjustments.
"You usually have situations where people talk crazy, but not the entire arena," Green said. "You'll have a situation where an entire arena will boo you, but not what the Boston fans were doing. So, it was just a different situation than I had ever seen. It took a while to adjust to it ... it was just so unexpected. It caught me off guard."
However, after having that horrifying experience, Draymond said that he is mentally prepared for the worst the Garden has to throw at him. He's also excited to hear all those insults, only to beat them once again.