Draymond Green was on the end of an unfortunate no-call at the end of the Warriors-Nuggets game involving Nikola Jokic and Green has revealed what Jokic said to him afterwards.
With about four minutes left in the fourth, Jokic pushed off Green before getting a pass, but there was no foul called.
However, there was a foul called on Green up the other end of the court when Jokic drove to the basket.
Instead of Green resorting to physicality with his opponent, Green talked it out.
“Joker caught me with the shoulder in the chin, and they didn’t call offensive foul, and I wrapped him up,” he said on The Draymond Green Show. “And as we was coming back down the court, he was like, ‘Bro that was definitely a foul, 100 percent a foul, but I didn’t try to on purpose.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I know you didn’t try to on purpose, which is why I didn’t foul you hard and just kind of wrapped you up.’”
After the Nuggets got the best of the Warriors, Green was surprisingly humble in defeat and acknowledged what a great player Jokic is.
“I’ve had my fair share of good matchups against Joker,” Green said. “I’ve given him a little bit of hell on some nights, but he gave me total and complete hell tonight. I had absolutely no answers. I’m just going to laugh about it because either you laugh or you cry.”
Jokic seems to be one of the only players in the league Green doesn’t have an issue with.
“I love playing against the guys where there’s a mutual respect of the work that you put in, the work that I put in,” Green said. “There’s a healthy competition, so I always enjoy the honor of playing against Joker. That’s a guy I got a tremendous amount of respect for.”
Jokic spoke highly of Draymond after the game as well.
“He’s good,” Jokic said of Green. “He won a couple Defensive Player of the Year [awards]. He’s a fighter, he’s a warrior, he doesn’t back down. He’s playing physical. He’s a really good defender. I think he can guard multiple positions. He’s been doing that for a long time, so a really tough matchup for anybody in the league.”
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