Draymond Green has a reputation for being two things. Both of them were on display during Golden State’s game against the Clippers on Thursday.
First, Green is one of the league’s most ruthless trash talkers. When he decides to tear into someone, he doesn’t hold back. During this game, he thought it would be cool to rip into Paul Pierce for going on a “farewell tour” while Piece was sitting on the bench.
While plenty of people find that funny, no one laughs at the other thing Green’s known for doing: kicking people. He’s an excellent basketball player, but when he kicks someone, the conversation about Green immediately turns to whether or not he’s a “dirty” player.
This happened on Thursday, as Green kicked Blake Griffin while the two were going for the ball. Green dove to the ground and got his hands on the ball, but Griffin swooped in and tried to poke it out. As a reaction to this, Green started to flail his body around wildly and his right foot looked like it caught the side of Griffin’s body.
Here is the play in slow motion.
https://twitter.com/J_Derm/status/834980224412577793
It’s hard to justify your leg would going that exact spot while you’re laying on the ground and someone is standing over you as anything other than a kick. Green has tried to play this stuff off in the past as his body’s natural movement, but it doesn’t really look like he’s doing something natural.
