NBA Finals Game 4: Officials explain why Warriors' Draymond Green wasn't ejected
It appeared that Green was going to be ejected in the second half, but that turned out not to be the case
Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals was one of the strangest basketball games in recent memory. One of the main reasons for that was a strange incident in the second half in which it appeared that Draymond Green was about to be ejected, but that soon turned out not to be the case, as he remained eligible for the remainder of the game.
As it turned out, there was a miscommunication between the referees and the scorer's table in the first half, when Steve Kerr was hit with a technical, but it was incorrectly assessed to Green. Thus, when Green was given a technical in the third quarter, everyone believed it was his second, which would have disqualified him from the game.
After the game, the referees spoke to Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press, who was serving as the pool reporter, in order to clear up the incident.
The following was released by the NBA: pic.twitter.com/KwfBulGj4b
— NBA Official (@NBAOfficial) June 10, 2017
The refs noted that they realized there was a problem with the first technical at the same time as everyone else, saying, "we found out at the same time when we called the first technical foul (6:18, 3rd). That's when we were informed by the table."
John Goble, who called the tech on Kerr in the first half, took full responsibility for the mix-up, saying he should have done a better job communicating.
"After calling the loose ball foul on Draymond Green, I noticed the reaction by Coach Kerr, and then assessed the technical foul. In the moment, I thought I had verbalized to the table that the technical foul was on Coach Kerr. After looking at the video, I did not verbalize to the table and looking at the video I should have done a better job of making sure that the table knew the technical foul was on Coach Kerr."
All in all, this does seem like an accident, and with how loud Quicken Loans Arena was, it's understandable that there was a miscommunication. Still, this was not a good look at all for the NBA, and they really dodged a bullet with the Cavaliers holding on to win that game.
If the Warriors came back to complete the sweep and win the title thanks in part to Draymond, who appeared to have been ejected, this story would not have gone away for a very long time.
















