A controversy rocked the NBA recently when a Memphis Grizzlies scorekeeper was accused of inflating big man Jaren Jackson Jr.’s stats.
The NBA later denied the allegation, but it seems like fans are still questioning whether or not something nefarious took place.
Golden State Warriors superstar Draymond Green recently spoke about the controversy and seemed to imply that some scorekeepers across the league aren’t recording his steals and blocks accurately.
Hey @NBAStats,@money23green just wants the stats he deserves pic.twitter.com/fhjziigHvy
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) February 1, 2023
“I can’t sit here and say, ‘Oh man, his stats are padded,'” Green began. “But when this came out, I was like, ‘Well, maybe I should acknowledge this.’ … To say that I’m only averaging 0.8 blocks and 0.7 steals or something like that, like I know that’s not accurate.”
Green then went on to mention the Warriors’ most recent game against the Oklahoma City Thunder in which he finished with zero blocks on the stat sheet. He claimed that he had two blocks throughout the game and said that he would “like my two blocks.”
Tim Frank, the league’s senior vice president of communications, came out with a statement once the allegations against the Grizzlies scorekeeper started to make waves on social media.
“In order to ensure the integrity of our game statistics, auditors, independent of the statisticians on-site, review all plays and stats decisions in real-time during NBA games,” Frank said. “If changes are necessary, they are made at that time or following a postgame review. All of the plays questioned in the post on Memphis games were scored consistently within the rules set forth by the NBA statisticians manual.”
Based off of Frank’s statement, it seems like the league reviewed the plays from the Warriors-Thunder game on Monday and determined that Green did not register a single block during the contest.
It will be interesting to see if Green continues to speak out about what he seemingly feels like is an injustice to him. The four-time champion is averaging 7.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 6.9 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.8 blocks per contest this season while knocking down 51.5 percent of his shots from the field and 32.5 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc.
The 32-year-old is one of the best defenders of the current generation, having made seven All-Defensive teams so far in his career and won one Defensive Player of the Year award.
Green appears to have put his infamous practice scuffle with Jordan Poole from October behind him, and he’s surely hoping that he can continue to help the Warriors climb the Western Conference standings.
Golden State sits in fifth place in the West, riding a three-game winning streak that it will look to extend on Wednesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
