Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green was critical of the Grizzlies‘ response to him tripping rookie center Zach Edey in Friday’s win, calling out Memphis head coach Taylor Jenkins for being “too emotional.”
The foul, which was upgraded to a flagrant 1 the following day after a league review, occurred in the third quarter after Green lost the ball on a drive. Edey had picked up the ball and threw an outlet pass when Green’s left elbow got tangled with Edey’s right foot and the Grizzlies center tripped over Green’s sprawled out leg.
Jenkins and Edey both said the play should’ve been reviewed for a flagrant foul during the game, with Jenkins intimating that Green broke a “code” in the league with the trip.
“…You run into the media crying about a foul that, c’mon bro, with your 7-3 rookie,” Green said on his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis, published Tuesday. “So guess what you just taught your 7-3 rookie? How to be emotional and run to the media talking about a foul. We bigs, we big men. You don’t run to the media talking about the foul, you a big man.”
The play was ruled a transition take foul at the time and was not reviewed.
“So I know there’s a code in this league, and I don’t understand how that wasn’t reviewed,” Jenkins said after Friday’s game, in refence to the foul. “Very disappointing.”
Edey said the trip “definitely wasn’t a basketball play.”
The Warriors and Grizzlies have a history, dating to a heated Western Conference semifinals series in 2022 that the Warriors won in six games.
“You got janky Taylor Jenkins, who’s a softie, goes out and at some point … we beat y’all in the NBA playoffs because he was too emotional,” Green said. “And so then his team followed that, and they follow your lead and collapse because they couldn’t deal with the emotions of it. But they coach couldn’t deal with the emotions of it.”
Green has a history of questionable fouls, including last season, when he was suspended for hitting Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the face.
