Draymond Green was not happy when he was ejected for the altercation with Bradley Beal on Friday night when he and the Wizards’ star shooting guard got locked up and ended up wrestling on the ground on the baseline. The incident was certainly instigated by Beal, who hit Green in the head while battling for a rebound, leading to the fracas.
On Sunday, the NBA handed down fines and suspensions for the incident, with none of the major players earning suspensions — Markieff Morris and Carrick Felix got one game suspensions for leaving the bench area. Beal was hit with a $50,000 fine and Kelly Oubre Jr. was fined $15,000 for jumping into it with aggression and throwing an apparent punch that clipped teammate John Wall.
For his part in “continuing” the altercation, Green was slapped with a $25,000 fine. He will undoubtedly be upset about the fine, as is his coach Steve Kerr, who questioned why he was fined prior to the Warriors’ matchup with the Pistons on Sunday.
Steve Kerr on Draymond Green's fine pic.twitter.com/V8PgYcosPy
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) October 29, 2017
“A little confused. I don’t know how you get fined 25 grand for getting attacked. So I don’t know. Seemed like maybe there’s some prior reputation involved. I haven’t really talked to the league, I haven’t talked to Bob [Myers], I just saw the news myself. There’s some curious stuff in there. It looked to me like Oubre came out there running into the crowd, caused a lot more. Draymond was the one who was attacked in the first place. Seemed like maybe those fines could have been reversed, but it’s not my job, fortunately.”
Kerr is sticking up for his guy and that’s what we’ve come to expect from the Warriors coach. While no one questions Beal instigating the incident, no one can be really surprised Green got a fine as he was involved in getting in Beal’s face and the eventual rumble that spilled onto the baseline (again, understandably). Kerr is questioning the amount, noting, as Green did in the immediate aftermath, that his reputation likely played a role.
As for his note about Oubre’s fine, it did seem curiously low, considering video appeared to show fairly clearly a punch was thrown, which is generally a big no-no for the league because of how dangerous a punch from an NBA player is (see: Mirotic, Nikola). In any case, this entire situation should be something everyone moves on from after today, at least until the two teams meet again in Washington on Feb. 28.
(h/t CBS Sports)
