The marquee matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night was a highly-contentious affair, in more ways than one. The two squads have quite the history, especially given the Russell Westbrook-Kevin Durant rivalry, although tensions between the former-teammates-turned-arch-nemeses have cooled significantly this season.
Somewhat surprisingly, the biggest incident from the game involved Westbrook and Zaza Pachulia, while Durant and Carmelo Anthony also got into a heated exchange on Saturday and each earned technicals for their part in the dust-up. Draymond Green also drew a technical foul in the first half for arguing a call, which marked his 15th technical of the season, bringing him just one violation away from a mandatory one-game suspension.
Upon review, however, the league offices announced on Monday that they were rescinding that technical to drop him back to 14 for the season and keeping him from being on the precipice of a suspension.
The NBA has rescinded the technical foul Draymond Green got vs. OKC, bringing his total for the season down to 14.
— Connor Letourneau (@Con_Chron) February 26, 2018
Prior to the NBA deciding to rescind his tech, neither Green nor head coach Steve Kerr seemed particularly worried about the implications of his mounting list of infractions, via Melissa Rohlin of The Mercury News:
“I got kids — I’m worried about how they grow up,” Green said. “I’m not worried about a technical foul. I’m worried about raising my kids. There’s bigger things in life than a tech.”
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“It doesn’t concern me at all,” Kerr said. “I want Draymond playing the way he played tonight. Draymond is an emotional player and plays with passion. When he’s yelling and screaming, we’re at our best.”
Green infamously earned a one-game suspension for a pivotal Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals after an altercation with LeBron James. Many to this day still believe that the Warriors would’ve won that series had Green been in the lineup.
The rescinding of his latest tech gives the fiery forward just a little more wriggle room as his team heads into the season’s stretch run, and with Pachulia also avoiding any punishment for falling on Westbrook, it was all in all a good day for the reigning champs when it came to news out of the league office.
