Draymond Green will return to the Warriors lineup on Tuesday night against the Kings after serving his 5-game suspension for putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold two minutes into a game against the Timberwolves two weeks ago. Without Green (including that Minnesota game they played 46 minutes without him), Golden State has gone 2-4, stumbling to 10th in the West at 8-9 on the season.
Part of the reason Green was suspended for so many games was his history of crossing the line, whether that be by way of low blows, punching a teammate in practice, stomping on an opponent, or, in this case, putting someone in a sleeper hold. The league cited Green’s past incidents of “unsportsmanlike acts” as part of the reason for his 5-game suspension, which irked Green, who spoke to reporters on Sunday for the first time since returning to the team.
Green felt he shouldn’t continue to be punished after serving his punishment for those incidents previously.
Draymond Green on the league holding him to a special standard for punishment: “To continue saying, ‘oh, what he did in the past..’ I paid for those. I got suspended for Game 5 of the Finals. So you can’t keep suspending me for those actions.”
— Shayna Rubin (@ShaynaRubin) November 26, 2023
Unfortunately for Green, the NBA will absolutely continue to hold his past actions against him, as they see it as a pattern of behavior and will offer increasingly severe penalties for those actions if he keeps up the antics, as it indicates the past punishments weren’t enough to get him to change his ways. Now, while Green wouldn’t go so far as to say he regretted his actions, he did seem to notice the way those around the Warriors weren’t willing to simply brush this one aside. Steve Kerr called his suspension “deserved” and no one was really up in arms about the league putting the hammer down this time.
Green noted he has to listen to that — and the league — and find ways to make the needed changes to stay on the floor.
“What matters to me is how the people that I care about first and foremost, who are affected … what do they think.” https://t.co/ebQDvcndgB
— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) November 26, 2023
Green: "(The league) made it clear the’re going to hold everythig against me that I’ve done before. That’s OK. I need to adjust where I see fit, my teammates see fit, my coaches see fit, our front office sees fit … When I hear them say something, it means something to me."
— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) November 26, 2023
For years, Green has toed the line with his aggressive play and the Warriors have been fine with the tradeoff of Green crossing that line because of what he brings them otherwise. However, the last two years the frustrations have seemed to be a bit higher on the Warriors side and Green seems to be hearing that he’s got to find a better way to control that aggression. Whether he can actually do that is an entirely different question (and one that most would be skeptical of).
Source: https://uproxx.com/dimemag/draymond-green-nba-suspension-past-actions-quote/