Warriors' Draymond Green on Celtics Prediction: 'I Thought They Were the Better Team'
May 31, 2022
Draymond Green was right.
The Golden State Warriors star turned heads when he said he believed his team would face the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals when the Eastern Conference representative was still battling the Miami Heat. That turned out to be the case, but Green still explained his reasoning.
"It wasn't a prediction or a slight at anybody," he said, per 95.7 The Game. "I thought they were the better team, and clearly I wasn't far off."
He provided further explanation:
Green made his prediction after the Warriors defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals, and that didn't sit well with Heat forward Udonis Haslem. In fact, the veteran approached the ESPN announcers' table after Miami defeated Boston in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals and thanked the Michigan State product for the motivation:
"Draymond broke the code," Haslem said, per Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. "You ain't supposed to say some s--t like that. That's disrespectful. He know better than that."
It turns out Green knew better than to think the Heat were going to beat the Celtics because Boston won the decisive Game 7 in Miami, and it will face the Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday in San Francisco.
