Draymond Green is known for a lot of reasons — being an intense defensive player, never making a shot when he dribbles coast to coast as fast as he can, and kicking Steven Adams of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the testicles.
Those recent infringements on Adams’ groin area have resulted in Green receiving the label of “dirty player,” which, yeah, he seems to have earned. But Charles Barkley was fired up after Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers because of a different attack by Green by Adams, and it was all because Klay Thompson felt he was the victim of a dirty play in the first quarter by Timofey Mozgov.
In Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, Green pulled out an MMA/WWE takedown of Adams, grabbing his arm and attempting to rip it out of the socket like he was the Winter Soldier.
Barkley on that arm-breaking leverage move said:
“He does cheap stuff. Kicking people, and what he did to Steve Adams. He tried to yank his shoulder out of the socket. That was dangerous. He could have pulled that guy’s shoulder out. You go back and look at that play and that was awful. I don’t know why he didn’t get an intentional foul on that. He deliberately tried to pull that guy’s shoulder out of the socket.”
Barkley’s notion of “you can’t say anyone else is dirty because you have a dirty player on your team” logic is flawed. But he does have a point — how does Draymond Green keep getting away moves a wrestling villain would use?
