Draymond Green is a whole eighties renaissance in the NBA. The old NBA was one where physicality was part of the game, and teams like the Detroit Pistons with Bill Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman ran the gamut on bully basketball. However, in today’s NBA, there is only one main bully: Draymond Green, and he won’t stop his Bogart ways anytime soon.
However, the NBA chin checked Green back, suspending him indefinitely on Wednesday “for striking Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in the face,” according to league executive vice president/head of basketball operations Joe Dumars. “This outcome takes into account Green’s repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts. He will be required to meet certain league and team conditions before he returns to play.”
On Tuesday, Dec. 12, Green was ejected from the Golden State Warriors game against the Phoenix Suns for slapping Jusuf Nurkic in the face. Green was ejected after receiving a flagrant foul two with 8:23 left in the third quarter after defending Nurkic and fighting for positioning. Initially, Green had his back turned to Nurkic until he swirled around while waving his hands and hit Nurkic in the head.
The ejection is his third of the season, but it comes after he just returned to the court after a five-game suspension. Now he is waiting for a league review, which could yield the possibility of another suspension.
Draymond Green Energy
Green is relatively indignant about the latest infraction and attempted to explain a basketball strategy that went left.
“I am not one to apologize for things I mean to do, but I do apologize to Jusuf because I didn’t intend to hit him,” Green said postgame. “I sell calls with my arms, so I was selling the call and I swung, and unfortunately, I hit him.”
For Nurkic, the hit indicated a deeper issue with Draymond Green.
What’s going on with him? I don’t know,” Nurkic said postgame. “Personally, I feel like that brother needed help. I’m glad he not try to choke me. At the same time, it ain’t nothing to do with basketball. I’m just out there trying to play basketball. He’s out there swinging. I think we saw that often. I hope whatever he’s got in his life, it gets better.”
Under the lens of stereotypes, Nurkic’s comments veer toward the angry Black man trope. Green has no visible issues in life as a four-time NBA world champion and married father. He is certainly territorial on the basketball court and acts as the beating heart of a team that is this generation’s version of the Chicago Bulls.
What is more likely is that Green is a throwback ball player who understands that the NBA is at another level and that players like Dennis Rodman or Rasheed Wallace and more understand they would have casualties in playing their version of the bully ball.
Warriors Come Out And Play-ay!
“We need him,” Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “We need Draymond. He knows that. We’ve talked to him. He’s got to find a way to keep his poise and be out there for his teammates. It seems like every game our bench has to come in and rescue the game. Our starting group hasn’t been able to put it together. That’s why we are treading water.”
The Warriors lost 119-116 to the Suns without Green and other key players on the court. Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins were benched for their bad play, and Steph Curry was left to put the team on his back. Thompson scored seven points on 2-of-10 shooting, going 1-of-8 from 3-point land in 27 minutes. Wiggins additionally scored just three points on 1-of-7 shooting in 17 minutes.
This marks the sixth time Green has been suspended with four of the suspensions in the past nine months. Green’s now tied for the most ejections he has had in a season with three, with his worst one coming against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Nov. 14 when he put Rudy Gobert in a chokehold. The NBA looks at Green’s history as a repeat offender, but can he be effective without being physical?
Probably not, but Draymond Green is from a sad, bully-ball NBA era that will never return.
