“To think that a blind hit ‘on ya mans’ is an insult worthy of a smile means 1 of 2 things… you have no consciousness or you’re a weirdo…. And both make you a weirdo… weirdo

“He was mad at JT about something lol… 💍😲 He was going to keep him in Boston lol. JT got a ring and dude let out his frustrations about it.

Williams, who was ejected after running into Tatum at full speed and bringing him down as the Celtics star was dribbling in the fourth quarter, explained that he was “trying to play ball” and had no malicious intent.

“JT is one of my best friends in the league, there was no attempt to intentionally harm him,” Williams told reporters. “It was just one of those plays where he passes the ball quickly and at full speed, which probably makes it worse. When I reached for the ball after the ball was already out of his hand. I don’t think it will lead to anything if it isn’t escalated afterwards. You see me raise my hand, say I fouled him when I tried to foul in transition, got held up by teammates and walked away.

Green and Williams appeared to have mutual respect for each other after the Warriors defeated the Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals. But Green called out Williams for his role in a scuffle in a game between the Hornets and Warriors last season, telling him that he had to ‘stop all the tough guy stuff’.

Former Celtics player and current NBC Sports Boston analyst Eddie House had a similar opinion to Green about Williams’ foul on Tatum.

“Just because we might be cool, there’s something there,” House said on NBC Sports Boston’s postgame show. “That’s not even a play with the ball. That’s something that’s built up in him. That game there wasn’t a basketball game and that could have done something crazy to Jayson Tatum. Thank God that wasn’t the case.”

Celtics star Jaylen Brown confronted Williams during the game moments after he committed the foul, saying after the game “it wasn’t a basketball game” and “Grant knows better than that.”

House, who jokingly suggested Williams was acting like an informant, wasn’t sure what was behind the former Celtics ace’s actions on the play.

“He comes over and says, ‘I was just trying to foul.’ We don’t want to hear that, we know it wasn’t a basketball game,” House said. “Just like Jaylen said, he knows better than that. Or maybe not. Maybe he just says, this is what I’m going to do and it doesn’t matter.

“There are certain ways to make the tone of the game physical and there are certain ways to be borderline dirty or dirty. That muddying was right there on the borderline of being dirty.

Tatum had a strong performance in the Celtics’ 124–109 win, with the five free throws he got after Williams’ foul and LaMelo Ball’s Flagrant 1 foul in the final minutes helping his point total. The Celtics star finished with 32 points to go with 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block.

However, Tatum chose not to speak to the media after the win. So whether Tatum harbors any animosity toward his former teammate for the play is still unclear. But it should make for a more exciting matchup than a usual Celtics-Hornets matchup in November when the two teams meet again on Saturday.