Many people were surprised that Draymond Green made it all the way through the NBA’s Western Conference Finals. After a much-discussed play on which he made contact with Steven Adams’ nether regions in Game 3, the league was expected to suspend Green for his arguably intentionally dirty play. That action still has ramifications today.
The NBA, instead, upgraded the foul to a Flagrant 2, which allowed Green to finish the series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and his Golden State Warriors won in stunning comeback fashion after falling behind 3-1.
Said upgrade put Green on thin ice, though. One more flagrant foul and he could be suspended for a game. Some thought he played aggressively enough in the rest of the series against the Thunder to earn such a suspension, but the NBA and its referees continued to let him play in a series that was, overall, allowed to be quite physical. This suspicious play involving Green and Enes Kanter, for instance, earned no whistles:
Green’s Flagrant tally carries over into the Finals, so if he’s caught attacking someone’s precious parts or trying to trip them, again, a suspension could do a lot to change the matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers. But Green says he isn’t putting on his kid gloves. “Doesn’t matter,” he said, when asked about the situation yesterday. “I’m going to play basketball and do what I do on the floor. What’s going to happen is going to happen anyway. Just play my game.”
