The league has a potentially history-altering decision to make today regarding Draymond Green’s groin kick on Steven Adams. If they decide it was indeed intentional, he could be suspended for Game 4 on Tuesday, and with the Warriors now trailing the Thunder 2-1 in the series, it might very well sign their death warrant. Complicating matters is the fact that there is some very recent precedent for this out East regarding Dahntay Jones being suspended for a similar low blow to Bismack Biyombo.
Naturally, there was a lot of lobbying in the immediate aftermath from both sides. Green, of course, is adamant that the kick was inadvertent, and he pushed back against Russell Westbrook’s insistence that it was intentional by calling out the Thunder guard for his own indiscretions regarding the way he sometimes kicks his feet out when attempting to draw foul calls. Via Ben Golliver of SI.com:
“Russell said I did it on purpose, but he’s a part of this superstar group that started all this acting in the NBA,” Green said. “I didn’t. I sold the call. I don’t think it can be compared to a punch. A leg going in the air is completely different.”
Westbrook, of course, took exception to that.
Russell Westbrook: "I've never been fined for one flop. I don't know how to flop."
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 23, 2016
Technically, Westbrook is telling the truth. He’s never been fined for a flop. He has, however, received a warning for this play back in March of 2015.
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It’s also not a far cry from what he did toward the end of the first half of Game 3 on Sunday when he very nearly caught Green with an errant kick. Hopefully, the league will announce their official ruling soon so we can all move on.
(SI.com)
