The Warriors’ Draymond Green called it, but Miami’s Udonis Haslem didn’t appreciate the prediction of a Warriors-Celtics Finals, saying Green ‘broke the code.”
Now, the Warriors’ most outspoken player has fired back.
“It was exciting to know that people pay that much attention to my words and what I say. Wow. They really watched what I had to say and that motivated them? I’m getting better at this motivational thing. That’s great.” Green told Marc J. Spears of Andscape in an interview.
The Heat lost to the Celtics 100-96 in Game 7 in Miami.
Green made his bold prediction when the Celtics were up 3-2.
When the Heat tied up the series at 3-3, Haslem spoke with Yahoo’s Chris Haynes. “You ain’t supposed to say some sh** like that. That’s disrespectful. He know better than that,” said Haslem.
Regardless of whether Green “broke the code” or not, he was right.
The Warriors and the Celtics will tip off Game 1 of their series Thursday night at Chase Center in San Francisco.
Jayson Tatum, the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP, will square off against Steph Curry, the Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals MVP.
The two teams split their regular-season series, each winning on the other’s home court.
This will be the Warriors’ first Finals appearance since losing to Toronto in 2019 and the Celtics’ first appearance since they lost to the Lakers in 2010.
The two teams met once before in the Finals in 1964 when the Bill Russell led Celtics defeated the Wilt Chamberlain led Warriors 4-1.
It was the sixth of eight straight titles for Boston, winning 12 titles in a 13-year period.
