Draymond Green is once again at the center of the conversation around the NBA after his latest ejection (his third in 15 games this season) for swinging around wildly and hitting Jusuf Nurkic in the head.
Green was given a Flagrant 2 and is likely going to be given another suspension by the league, as this incident came less than three weeks from his return to the Warriors after serving a 5-game suspension for putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold. Green apologized after the game to Nurkic, saying he was just trying to sell a call, which isn’t a great excuse for clocking someone upside the head when the initial contact was a hand on a hip. Nurkic said he was just glad he didn’t get choked like Gobert, noting that it seems Green has some issues going on right now that extend beyond the basketball court he needs to sort out, saying succinctly “that brother needs help.”
Considering Green is fresh off a 5-game suspension that clearly did not have the intended effect of curbing these kinds of actions, many have been speculating on how long the league will have Green sit after this latest incident. On ESPN’s NBA Today, Kendrick Perkins called on the league to send a serious message, saying Green should be suspended for “at least” 25 games.
https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/1735041311646888205
Now, it would be shocking if the league handed out a 25-game suspension to Green, but Perkins isn’t alone in being fed up with Green’s antics and calling for the NBA to bring the hammer down. The NBA has typically not handed out long suspensions for plays like this, as it was not escalating an ongoing scuffle like when he choked Gobert, but was something that happened in the run of play (but clearly was excessive and unnecessary). That said, they’ve made it clear his past actions are being counted against him and will be considered in future punishments. As such, it’s hard to know what exactly the league will do here, and it’ll be impossible for the league to satiate everyone when it comes to what they decide.
