Draymond Green says he’ll greet Celtics fans with a smile after Finals chants (report)

For the first time since the NBA Finals last season, the Celtics and Warriors will meet in Boston for their Thursday game. While the C’s fell two wins short of the title, the Warriors celebrated winning the championship on their home court.

But there was also another subplot that came from the series: Draymond Green against the Celtics fans. Green has said since the Finals that he was called the “N-word” during the three games in Boston. While there were other chants like “(expletive) you Draymond” — which drew the ire of his Warriors teammates — Green said he wasn’t initially ready for the racial slurs.

In an interview with ESPN’s Kendra Andrews, Green detailed what it’ll be like to return to Boston just months after the Finals. Green, though, said he’ll great the crowd with a smile “just as I did after we won the championship.”

“You usually have situations where people talk crazy, but not the entire arena,” Green told ESPN. “You’ll have a situation where an entire arena will boo you, but not what the Boston fans were doing. So, it was just a different situation than I had ever seen. It took a while to adjust to it … it was just so unexpected. It caught me off-guard.”

Green struggled in his games in Boston as the Celtics took a 2-1 series lead. But the Warriors pulled off three straight wins for the title, including two victories on the Garden court.

While Celtics fans have directed profanity-laced chants at opposing players in the past — the Bucks’ Grayson Allen and the Nets’ Kyrie Irving heard them last playoffs — Green said the crowd crossed a line with the racial comments.

The Celtics take on the Warriors at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at TD Garden. The Warriors beat the C’s back in San Francisco 123-107 in the initial Finals rematch. That started what was a rough stretch for the Celtics, but they’re currently on a seven-game winning streak.

“It was such a beautiful thing,” Green said of winning in Boston. “It’s not something they hadn’t experienced before. So I think it’s great that they experienced it from us. With Steph Curry doing what Steph Curry does and the guy they chose to call the N-word. It was beautiful.”