Draymond Green’s ‘angry Black man’ comment is complex because of the messenger — Andscape

Just because Draymond Green has long turned being one’s own worst enemy into a hardwood injustice doesn’t mean he’s a deserving victim of America’s original sin.

Green’s Golden State Warriors prepare to clash with the Minnesota Timberwolves in a critical Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinals series tonight at the Chase Center in San Francisco. Yet, the intersection of basketball, race and Black life in America came to a head during Game 2.

Following his fifth technical foul of the postseason for swinging his arms and making contact with Timberwolves center Naz Reid’s head, Green was reportedly pelted with racial taunts while riding on an exercise bike near the Warriors’ bench. During the fourth quarter of the game, Timberwolves PR confirmed the fan had been ejected. Another left before being identified by security, though an investigation remains ongoing. Green responded after the Warriors’ Game 2 loss.

“Looked like the angry Black man. I’m not an angry Black man,” Green said in the locker room after the game. “I am a very successful, educated Black man with a great family, and I am great at basketball, and what I do. The agenda (tries) to keep making me look like an angry Black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous.”

The heart of the debate lies in that very quote. It’s about a boisterous Black man, one who’s two technical fouls away from an automatic one-game suspension and whose history in the NBA in such matters will ultimately immortalize him as one of the game’s all-time polarizing lightning rods. It’s also about a society that fosters and emboldens racist aggressions.

Green wasn’t necessarily wrong in his diatribe. As a four-time NBA champion, an Olympic gold medalist and one of the great defensive stalwarts in league history, Green doesn’t fall under the superstar category like his teammate Stephen Curry. Yet, he is an undeniable fixture in one of sports’ great dynasties of the last half century and a basketball mind that has anchored championship teams on both sides of the ball. Green just stepped into the rare class of NBA greats — like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Larry Bird, among others — to amass 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in his playoff career.

Green has also positioned himself as an astute businessman and a profoundly opinionated player already preparing for a life in the media long after his playing days. He is who he believes he is, in that regard — an unabashed success with a career destined for Springfield, Massachusetts and the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Still, amid all of his success, Green has never been able to get out of his own way. His 23 ejections match his jersey number and place him second in NBA history, only behind Rasheed Wallace. Though his 163 career technical fouls don’t even put him in the top 10 historically, Green’s antics on the court have long earned him the reputation as one of the league’s dirtiest players. Green has flailed legs, kicking players in the groin. He’s stomped on chests. He choked Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert. He’s chirped at players and referees alike to the point he’s been thrown out of games. Though the two appear to be on better terms now, Green’s incredibly successful, yet contentious relationship with former teammate Kevin Durant did play a part in the two-time NBA Finals MVP leaving for Brooklyn in 2019.

At best, Green’s fearlessness has been the perfect complement to Curry’s (and Klay Thompson and Durant’s) sniper-like marksmanship. At worst, it altered history, a la the 2016 NBA Finals and how his Game 5 suspension helped ignite the most storied comeback in basketball history.

Green is no pushover, oftentimes to his own detriment. Green is a live wire, and with live wires there’s little control between productivity and destruction. Green has played both the angel and the devil. Green, a Black man, does play angry. However, in understanding the scope of American history and America’s present, Green’s admonishment of the “angry Black person” label is understandable.

Regardless of Green’s history or reputation, being allegedly peppered with racial taunts is inexcusable, especially in the city where George Floyd was murdered nearly five years ago. In 2025, Minneapolis remains a city with significant racial barriers and gaps. Even if Green never intended to reference this specific context, the irony isn’t lost. Dating back well over a century, the angry Black person trope has long been an effective gaslighting method.

The conversation is far larger than Green or his questionable actions during the playoffs. What the label is – and this is what the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year was referencing – is how dehumanizing it is. It’s been used in everything from denying Black men, women, boys and girls equal opportunity to vent societal frustrations they can’t escape. In the most tragic situations, it’s been used as a weapon to inflict trauma on Black people. There is danger in assuming Black people are inherently violent and that feeds a complex rooted in racism, capitalism and the overall desire to marginalize the community.

Racial microaggressions, especially in 2025, are part of the fabric of everyday life. Black history is under constant threat. Disparities in healthcare based on race or ethnicity continue to happen “very often,” according to physicians. Educational and financial inequalities are in direct battle with policies to increase them.

Again, this is bigger than Green, but he did open a portal to a far larger conversation. For decades, the demand to see athletes beyond their prowess on the court, field or whatever platform of domination has been a constant cry. Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch addressed this sense of entitlement following the incident with Green.

“Where we are as a society, it feels like everybody feels like they have the right to say whatever the heck whenever they want to, regardless of being respectful,” he said. “I probably have noticed a little more loudmouths around the court than in years past.”

Racial taunts by fans are a generational issue for the NBA. The problem represents one that the league can’t get in front of because it’s indicative of the society that consumes its product. The NBA and the Timberwolves followed protocol and handled the situation as best as reasonably possible. It won’t, however, stop fans from maliciously attacking players no matter the threat of expulsion. For that to suddenly change would mean a direct cultural shift America has historically shown itself incapable of.

As for Green, he should never be the subject of attacks he said were thrown at him. Yes, the history of the “angry Black man” guise is far beyond hurtful and more so lives in the realm of violence directed toward Black bodies. Yet, as it relates to his standing in the league — one ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst alleged has long grown tired within league circles — Green has to assume responsibility here, too. The unpredictability of what Green can and will do whenever he steps on a basketball court is exhausting because he is such a dynamic player. He could win his team a game just as much as he could lose it for them. We know this because we’ve seen both outcomes in the most critical situations.

This is an imperfect situation with no clear resolution. It’s a player whose proclivity to hypothetically shoot himself in the foot isn’t changing any time soon. And it’s a society stuck in its ways with the means to police itself seemingly evaporating by the day. It’s impossible to call this a culture war because wars eventually end.

In his own way, Green is saying this is who he is and how he will always play. Criticism is warranted, but not necessarily effective.

The same has long been said about America.