Draymond Green kicks people. It’s his thing. You may think he prefers to exclusively focus his kicks on the groins of opponents, but his recent kick of James Harden’s head shows he can spread the kicks around if he wants. Heck, he kicked a dude in the butt in his very next game. You could say he seems to get his kicks from kicking people!
Of course, kicks are illegal, and the NBA is against them. They’re this weird league that thinks kicking someone in the head is an unnatural motion. Green’s agent, former NBA player BJ Armstrong, has a way different take on his client’s kicks, and the take is even funnier than watching someone get kicked in the balls.
“People flail, people do things, and their bodies respond in certain ways,” Armstrong said. “I think it (the play with Harden) is a no-call. … When I played, I would never, ever try to run Reggie Miller off the line because I knew Reggie. If I ran at him, and I was trying to run him off the line, I was going to get kicked. I knew that, and people around the league knew that. And players always adjust.”
I can’t even follow that. Kicking someone in the head is a no-call? When Armstrong played, if he drove hard to the basket, Reggie Miller would have kicked him? That was still illegal though, right? You can’t just go full-Karate Kid and crane kick a guy if he drives the baseline, right? And players adjust? So why can’t Green adjust to the rule that says balls- and head-kicks aren’t legal? What type of defense is this?
It gets better.
For Armstrong, the most frustrating part of it all was that Green’s opinion – as he sees it – isn’t being heard.
“Let’s listen to what the people who are actually performing in the game need, OK?” he said. “As a parent, when I fail to listen to my kids, when our kids stop bringing us our problems, we have all failed as parents and as leaders. That’s how I felt, really, when I read (the league’s stance).
He invokes “the kids” but wait a second — Green’s opinion isn’t being heard? What is it? “I should be able to flail my legs so high that I can kick people in the head and buttocks!” OK, we’ve heard that, and we disagree because this isn’t The Octagon.
Flailing has been a thing for as long as the NBA has existed, and Green seems to be the only guy who flails into physical assault all the time. He needs to work on flailing before half the league is either battling a concussion or can’t have children.
