During Thursday night’s thriller between the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets, Draymond Green sparked controversy when he got a Flagrant 1 for kicking James Harden in the face. People have debated for several days over whether or not this was intentional, but even if it wasn’t, Green has a checkered history with his leg wildly flailing about and causing harm to his opponents.
One way Green tried to defend himself was by posting pictures of the Bad Boy Pistons and the movie Bad Boys to his Twitter account. On Saturday, Green faced the media and tried to justify his actions. One way he did this was by discussing Harden and the way he shoots layups.
Draymond Green completely goes in on league office for how they rule "unnatural acts" and brings James Harden's offensive tactic to light. pic.twitter.com/p80DVCUYXZ
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) December 3, 2016
What Green seems to not understand is that his actions can be viewed one of two ways. At best, he’s unable to control his body and he’s hurting people. At worst, he is actively trying to injure opponents. Neither of these things are ok, and instead of going “I need to control myself so I don’t flail around and hurt people” or “I should stop trying to injure other basketball players,” he is deflecting responsibility in an attempt to defend himself. This is fine, but seeing as how his legs always end up in a place that prevents opponents from defending themselves, it seems a bit hypocritical.
Green really needs to stop kicking people. It’s not exactly a hot take to say that he has to figure out how to stop doing this, because if he does it again – and based on the reputation he’s built up, it’s going to happen again – it’s really going to hurt the Warriors. Plus, you know, kicking people is very much not cool, whether it’s in the face, below the belt, or anywhere else. He’ll never be able to fix this until he admits he shouldn’t kick anyone, though, and it doesn’t seem like Green will get to that point any time soon.
