
With the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 2 loss to Oklahoma came a scorching protest against the officiating. But while the Lakers went on to make their case, Draymond Green had to disagree.
The initial claim of Lakers’ coach JJ Redick was that LeBron James receives the worst whistles compared to any star players he had ever seen. But the Golden State Warriors’ star couldn’t quite digest it as a fact.
“JJ Redick says LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player he’s ever seen. Has he ever watched Steph Curry play?” Green stated on his podcast this Saturday. “Is Steph Curry considered a star player? … If Curry is a star player, which I think he is, no one gets a worse whistle than (him).”
Draymond Green believes Stephen Curry gets a worse whistle from referees than LeBron James
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) May 9, 2026
“JJ Redick says LeBron has the worst whistle of any star player he’s ever seen. Has he ever watched Steph Curry play? Is Steph Curry considered a star player? Got nothing but love for… pic.twitter.com/vnDtTc6iOI
The coach stressed that “the smaller guys, because they can be theatric, they typically draw more fouls.” But for a 6’9 Forward like Bron, who mainly absorbs the blows, contacts aren’t visible to draw a whistle.
Now, it could’ve been a Curry vs Bron comparison, unless it wasn’t. As the 6’2 Guard, Curry fits Redick’s “theatric” descriptions perfectly. And if even he’s not getting the whistles, then it just reveals a bigger problem.
But whether Green accidentally agreed with Redick or not, the Warriors’ star had borne the same sentiment about Curry for quite a long time now. And he had a solid justification, too.
On numerous occasions, calling out the refs has been a usual pastime. However, it seemed like the 4x Champion had been pretty serious about it, as he would go on to reason out why Curry gets this uneven treatment.
“Does his lack of saying things to the referee affect the whistle that he doesn’t get? I think so,” he said on his podcast in early January. “Not that Steph isn’t someone who’s going to stand up for himself. He just doesn’t on the court from a referee perspective.”
“But I do think it ultimately affects him,” he added. “I think I get a better whistle than Steph. A much better whistle than Steph, in my opinion. If something is wrong, it’s wrong.”
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