Draymond Green Tells Knicks Fans to Cool It After Game 1 — Jr Smith
Draymond Green told Knicks fans to settle down after Game 1, saying they could not celebrate a 137-98 win over the Philadelphia 76ers like that and pointing to the scene outside Madison Square Garden, where J.R. Smith was surrounded. jr smith was part of the crowd reaction Green singled out on a recent episode of The Draymond Green show.
Green Targets The Garden Scene
Green did not frame the crowd as a harmless postgame celebration. He said, “I saw y’all after game 1, y’all had JR [Smith] surrounded, and all this stuff, and I’m just saying you cannot celebrate these things like this,” then added, “But stop having these melees and these parades outside of The Garden.”
He also drew a line between a second-round win and a true finish. “I told this to y’all before. You have a parade after you win a second round,” Green said, and later added, “How you going to win the Conference Finals we had the parade already?”
Knicks’ 137-98 Win
The celebration followed New York’s 137-98 rout of Philadelphia in Game 1 of the second-round series. The size of the margin left the Knicks in control of the series opener, but Green’s comments focused on the reaction around the building rather than the score itself.
The Knicks were in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, and Green reminded fans not to blow up a single playoff win into something bigger than it is. “I know that it’s been a rough go and I know it’s taking a while, but don’t blow it,” he said.
Three Wins Still Needed
New York still needs three more wins to reach the next round, which is the practical limit on the celebration Green was pushing against. His point was blunt: if the series is only at Game 1, the fan base has not reached the finish line yet.
He told fans what to do instead after the final buzzer: “When the game ends, go to a bar, go home, go drink, and do whatever you’re going to do.” For now, the message from Green is simple enough for Knicks fans outside Madison Square Garden: save the parade for when the series is actually over.
