Steve Kerr Says Celtics Fans 'Crossed the Line' with Draymond Green Chants in Finals
The NBA Finals are over, and the Golden State Warriors came out victorious, but Steve Kerr hasn't stopped talking about how Boston Celtics fans treated Draymond Green throughout the championship round.
When the Warriors played the Celtics at TD Garden, the Boston crowd frequently made some profane chants toward Green. During an appearance on the Point Forward podcast, Kerr said he thought C's fans crossed the line.
Kerr said, via Taylor Wirth of NBC Sports Bay Area:
"I thought they crossed the line. I'm all for booing guys, cheering for your own team. The appropriate cheer -- if you want to go down that path -- is 'so-and-so sucks, so-and-so sucks.' ... when they were saying 'F you Draymond,' 20,000 people, I thought of Draymond's kid too.
"Like DJ, five years old, sweet kid, like the nicest kid ... this sweet and innocent little guy, and he's gotta sit there and watch as his dad gets cussed out by 20,000 drunk fans. People don't think of it in those terms when you're watching from the outside. I do think it rattled Draymond a little bit because that's pretty extreme."
Klay Thompson also addressed the Boston crowd's chants during the series, saying it was wrong for fans to be shouting profanities at players with children in attendance.
"We've played in front of rude people before," Thompson told reporters after Game 3. "Dropping f-bombs with children in the crowd. Real classy. Good job, Boston."
In addition, Green's wife, Hazel Renee, called out Celtics fans on Instagram, saying it was "disgusting" and "shameful" for fans to be yelling obscenities at players.
The Boston crowd began chanting things like "F--k you, Draymond" and "Draymond sucks" when the series began to get a little more physical.
The Celtics were undoubtedly the more physical team in Game 1 of the Finals, and that helped them steal a win in Golden State. However, the Warriors fought back in Game 2 with much more physicality to tie the series 1-1.
During Game 2, Green immediately got tangled up with Al Horford on the opening possession and forced a jump ball. He received a technical foul later in the game after baiting Grant Williams into a foul and nearly received a second technical for an altercation with Jaylen Brown.
Heading into Game 3, Green said that he "wouldn't be able to live with" the Warriors not matching the Celtics' physicality throughout the remainder of the Finals.
Games 3 through 6 were pretty physical, but the Warriors got the best of the Celtics to capture their fourth title in eight years. What likely made it even more satisfying for Green was that the Dubs accomplished the feat in front of the Boston crowd that had been heckling him all series.
That said, the heckling might have affected Green's performance, as he averaged just 6.2 points, 8.0 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.7 steals per game. However, he got the last laugh, which is really all he probably cares about.
