The boos are one thing. As with all great athletes, becoming the lightning rod for an opponent’s fans can supply extra motivation, a boost just when it’s needed in a crucial game or playoff series.
Draymond Green thrives on that kind of rejection, the kind of ire that makes people like TNT’s Charles Barkley apologize for saying that he wanted to sock the Warriors’ star in the kisser. But one fan went way, way too far during Game 4 of the Golden State Warriors’ playoff series against the New Orleans Pelicans. Andrew Polk, a Ruston, La.-born stand-up comedian, tweeted that he hoped Green “gets shot in the face as soon as he leaves the arena, which looking at the citywide stats, is like 37 percent.”
Polk deleted his account, reactivated it to apologize to Green and then deleted it again.
“I tweeted a very dumb thing meant to be an edgy joke,” he wrote (via Nola.com). “As a frustrated basketball fan, I go through ups and downs, and as a comedian, I don’t always express those in a digestible way. I wish no harm to anyone over a simple game, and I apologize sincerely.”
In an email to USA Today, he wrote that he took no pleasure in having “crossed a line” with the tweet. “I accept the backlash and take responsibility for the criticism. It was a mistake I regret making. This is a simple game and I was making an inflammatory joke from a side of frustration and exaggeration. I didn’t take into account the very real human beings on either side of the joke, and for that, I apologize.”
After the Warriors took a 3-1 series lead with a 118-92 victory in New Orleans, Green told reporters he had heard about the threat and images of the offensive tweet are everywhere.
“If you feel the need to do something like that about basketball, then I feel bad for him,” Green told reporters. “It’s kind of sad that someone would take this that serious. When you’re talking about at the end of the day what’s a game, making death threats and talking about life — I just pray that he gets the help that he needs. I personally don’t worry about it and No. 2 don’t care that much about it. I care a lot about basketball, but I don’t care that much. Being that we’re in it every day, we’re literally blood, sweat and tears in this every day — and it don’t mean that much to me, it shouldn’t mean that much to him either. I just pray that he gets the help that he needs.”
In tweets, Green called for Twitter to ban Polk and wrote that his apology was “wasted.’
As for generic booing, Green is content to be a target.
“I get booed everywhere I go,” he said. “I appreciate them booing me. That’s some deep love they got for me if you’re going to risk losing your voice trying to boo me. Thanks, I enjoy it.”
Green is an emotional player and Coach Steve Kerr said he has learned to use that to his advantage. “Draymond has been phenomenal the whole playoff run,” Kerr said (via the Mercury-News). “He’s just bringing it every single night. The intensity, the defensive acumen, the effort. He’s more experienced than he was a few years ago. He knows how to toe that line.”
Fans often do not. Polk’s website, like his Twitter account, is unavailable, but he explained his approach to comedy and social media in a Medium.com interview last May, adding that his Twitter feed “is sports, funny human beings (like, three comics), and pictures of dogs.”
“I was at an open mic a few weeks ago, and my friend said he wanted to tweet something that I thought was very funny, and another comic said, ‘You can’t do that’ only because it could have upset some people. I don’t understand where that blockade came from,” he said. “Who [expletive] cares? If someone wants to unfollow me, or mute me, how does that change my life in any way? I wouldn’t want to work for a TV show that doesn’t want the actual, uncensored me, and I would not want to pretend something [expletive] is good just in the hopes of getting on it.”
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