Draymond Green is undoubtedly one of the smartest players of his generation, but he made a brutal mistake on Monday night that cost the Golden State Warriors a chance at sending their matchup with the San Antonio Spurs into overtime.
Golden State was trailing by just three points to San Antonio when Green decided to throw up a half-court heave with 8.7 seconds remaining on the clock. His shot wasn’t anywhere close to the basket, and to make matters worse, Steph Curry was right next to him waiting for the ball.
At first, this appeared to be a case of Green forgetting how much time on the clock. Upon further review, he thought he was going to get fouled immediately when he caught the ball and elected to throw up a prayer in hope of receiving three free-throw attempts.
Green shared his take on the shot during his postgame press conference.
“I felt like that was the smartest dumb play in history,” Green told reporters. “I thought most people would see that and put two and two together on what’s actually going on there. Very smart play that ended up being dumb as hell.”
Draymond attempted a game-tying shot from near half court and missed.
Warriors lose pic.twitter.com/ENPof64vVx
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 9, 2021
It really shouldn’t surprise anyone that NBA fans started cracking jokes at Green’s expense.
Here are some tweets about Green’s half-court shot from Monday night:
Warriors: *down by 3, 9 secs left, chef curry ready to rumble*
Draymond Green: pic.twitter.com/wihPJw2mXh
— Jer (@jgart20) February 9, 2021
Curry watching Draymond chuck up a logo 3 with 8 seconds left on the clock pic.twitter.com/TUMp0rHo9k
— Stephen A. Smith Burner (@SASBurnerAcct) February 9, 2021
Sorry, Draymond… we had to 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/4UlnRz6QDH
— BROTHER (@BrotherHQ) February 9, 2021
As one of the leaders on the Warriors’ roster, Green has to be better in late-game situations like this.
Green finished last night’s game with seven points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He’ll try to redeem himself tonight, as the Warriors will once again take on the Spurs.