Why Draymond Green Will ‘Pray’ For This Ex-Celtics Forward

The end of the Charlotte Hornets-Golden State Warriors matchup Friday night got chippy, and it led to Draymond Green putting a former Boston Celtics forward on blast.

Golden State was up 11 with less than 15 seconds to go, but the Warriors set up a lay-up for Lester Quinones. Miles Bridges wasn’t happy about the Dubs trying to run up the score, and a scuffle ensued at Chase Center. Grant Williams ran in to protect his teammate, and the reserve Warriors guard went up to the ex-Celtics forward’s face and repeated an NSFW word at him. Green and Stephen Curry tried to cool things down after the final buzzer, but Charlotte still was upset.

It’s an unwritten rule in the NBA to not score in the final seconds when the game already is out of hand. Arguments ensue when this unwritten rule is broken, as seen when the Celtics ran up the score on the Bulls to clear a point differential barrier in the NBA In-Season Tournament, which even left Boston players with mixed feelings.

However, Green felt this was a silly unwritten rule and claimed the Warriors wouldn’t have gotten mad if the Hornets did that to him. He described it as a “sore loser type thing.” But the target of his ire wasn’t Bridges, who he considered a “little brother,” but Williams instead.

“Grant Williams got to stop it, man. Being this tough guy is going absolutely wrong for him,” Green told reporters, per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater. “He’s a really nice guy. For some reason, he keeps on trying to jump onto the unlikeable side. I must tell you, it’s not always fun over here. Not always a good time. I don’t know, man. He need to figure it out. Talking too much kind of got you out of Dallas, like overdoing it. He don’t regret talking too much now. You might want to slow down, and stop all the tough guy stuff.”

Green continued noting that Williams is vice president of the NBA Players Association and pointed out that NBAPA president CJ McCollum doesn’t act that way. He made an exception for former NBAPA president and teammate Chris Paul because he’s 6-feet tall.

The Warriors star also claimed the team wanted to cut down on turnovers and didn’t want to turn it over and take a shot-clock violation since there were two seconds between the shot and game clock Quinones lay-up. He ended the question by saying, “Pray for Grant Williams.”

Williams and Green always had a complicated relationship since the 2022 NBA Finals. The ex-Celtics forward admitted he models his game after the All-NBA star, who has been involved in more serious incidents, which he’s had a chance to reflect on and might be why he’s trying to steer Williams on a better path.

Golden State and Charlotte will meet up again on March 29 at Spectrum Center.