Sports

Draymond Green Found the Most Draymond Green Way to Bow Out of Potential Last Warriors Game

By Kristen Wong Sports Illustrated

The Warriors saw their season come to a bitter-but merciful-end against the Suns in the play-in tournament on Friday night's in what could be Steph Curry, Draymond Green and coach Steve Kerr's last ever game together.

Kerr coached through the contract extension he signed in 2024 and his future with the organization is up in the air after over a decade at the helm. Green is also looking for an extension, while Curry is the only one who is pretty much guaranteed back in the fold next season.

The Warriors' trio shared a sweet moment on the sidelines at the end of their 111-96 loss to the Suns... before Green had to go and ruin it. Here's how Green closed out what could be his final career game with the Warriors on Friday night.

Late in the fourth quarter with the game all but lost already, the longtime Warriors antagonizer was seen committing an away from play foul on Devin Booker. In the replay video, Green appeared to punch Booker in the chest immediately after Booker passed the ball:

Draymond Green, Devin Booker get ejected late in Warriors-Suns game

Green was subbed out of the game after that seemingly dirty foul with a little over a minute remaining in the game, but he and Booker kept yapping at each other afterward. That led to crew chief Scott Foster slapping them both with technicals and ejecting both players from the game.

This marked Green's 25th ejection of his career. He currently leads the league in the category among all active players and is ranked second all-time, just four ejections behind Rasheed Wallace.

Draymond Green riles up crowd, taunts referees after his ejection

But Green couldn't leave the court without getting one last laugh in. The Warriors star was seen egging on the Phoenix home crowd and also pretended to throw out the refs with ejection gestures of his own.

Green kept on waving his hands to Suns fans, asking for more boos and jeers, all the way into the players' tunnel.

Booker, for his part, downplayed his double ejection with Green in his postgame interviews: "It's nothing man. I've been there before and I understand the situation. My big brother used to beat me in NBA Live back in the day and I'd throw a fit. He's a competitor. He loves the sport."

Everything Draymond Green said after Warriors' play-in loss

Green finished with five points, six assists, two rebounds and one steal in Friday's defeat. He was coming off one of his best defensive performances of the year in which he locked down Kawhi Leonard during the Warriors' first play-in win over the Clippers, but he visibly struggled against the Suns' deep bevy of shooters-six Phoenix players put up double-digit points, including Jalen Green's team-high 36.

After the loss, Green got honest about his future with the Warriors:

"I still love to play. I think I'm still pretty decent. But this league we're in is, it's an interesting one. It's one that you don't really control everything. So for me, I hope I've done enough to still be here. Because at the end of the day, if I ain't done enough I don't want to be here," Green said.

Although he's made himself a reputation as one of the league's most notorious instigators, Green gave credit where credit was due after getting beaten by the better all-around team.

"Give Devin Booker credit. Devin Booker, everybody's like, ‘Yo, he's chasing money and he's just gonna stay there and die, and why is he standing there and not requesting a trade?' And he put his head down and led a group," Green said in his postgame presser. "Dillon Brooks give him credit. He came in, any team he goes to, there's a certain mentality that team gonna play with. You saw it all year. .... I don't think they're in the play-in if [Booker, Brooks, Jalen Green] don't miss as many games as they missed.

"... Give those guys a lot of credit man regardless of what happens in the first round of this playoffs for them I think it's a very successful season. Because they took some lemons. And they made lemonade out of it."

With the win, the Suns advance to play the Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. As for Green and the Warriors, the organization will have a lot of offseason decisions to make regarding how they can maximize Curry's superstar talent in the final years of his legendary career.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Draymond Green Found the Most Draymond Green Way to Bow Out of Potential Last Warriors Game.

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This story was originally published April 18, 2026 at 11:49 AM.

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