February 2, 2024

An Immediate Foul Call On Draymond Green Against Joel Embiid Causes Confusion

A referee called an immediate foul on Draymond Green as he battled Joel Embiid at the tip-off.

The Philadelphia 76ers and Golden State Warriors had trouble getting started Wednesday night.

The Warriors’ Draymond Green and the 76ers’ Joel Embiid faced off for the jump ball at center court and almost immediately, a whistle was blown, stopping the players and causing confusion, according to Sports Illustrated.

The game wasn’t two seconds old. The players looked around, some throwing their arms up in disbelief over the early interruption. The ones nearest referee Tony Brothers immediately looked at him to find out what happened.

It was then that they realized that Green, whose has a reputation for—ahem—chippy play, was hit with an immediate foul call after Embiid won the toss-up.

On The Draymond Green Show, Green explained his logic, according to YardBarker.

“Number one, no one ever gets called for those fouls,” he said. “…If it was actually a better toss the grab wouldn’t have looked so egregious, but the toss was so bad, I was holding on for awhile for dear life. There’s guys that do that every game, I’m not really one that jump balls every game. It’s kind of this new thing. I won one against [Anthony Davis] like that so I was like, ‘Why not. Let’s try it again; that’s the only chance that I had. And I went for it. Tony Brothers being who Tony Brothers is called a foul because he spotted it.”

As the players regrouped. The ball was taken out by the 76ers’ Danuel House Jr., when the clock was still at 12 minutes left. No time had been taken off. So, another whistle was blown. A referee had the timekeeper take two seconds off to start play at 11:58 left in the quarter.

With order restored, the 76ers lost to the Warriors’, 119-107. Embiid had only 14 points on 5-for-18 shooting and eight turnovers a week after scoring 70 points against the San Antonio Spurs.