Draymond Green will not be suspended from Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals following his kick to the groin of the Thunder’s Steven Adams, but according to the NBA’s former dead of discipline that was the wrong decision. Green was fined $25,000 by the National Basketball Association on Monday and the foul was upgraded to a flagrant 2, but he was not suspended and will be in uniform when the defending champion Warriors try to even the series at 2-2.
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“Honestly, I think it’s intentional”, Thunder All-Star Russell Westbrook said.
Draymond Green has denied kicking the Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams in the groin on goal on Sunday night, and has launched into an attack on Russell Westbrook’s “acting”. “You’ve got to get to a place after each game – what happened in the game, what do we need to get better, what do we do well, what are some changes or adjustments we need to make – and then you’ve got to move into the next one”, Donovan said. Westbrook later said Green kicked Adams intentionally and that didnt go over well with the Warriors standout. As the saying goes, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, wear protective gear for your sensitive area. Instead, the National Basketball Association upgraded his penalty to a fine and a flagrant foul 2. The league is pro-business, so I get it. They’re not gonna suspend him. When things arent looking great, he usually plays his best..
The NBA fined him $25,000 and now it’s time to move on and hope something like this doesn’t happen again, but Green can nearly assuredly be waiting for some kind of retaliation.
By the end of the game, it became clear that Green’s response in wake of the criticism for a kick he said was unintentional was a lackluster one.
To his credit, Green issued the apology Adams said “wouldn’t matter” in the form of an Undefeated diary.
“I didn’t really think about it”. “I’m not trying to kick somebody in the men’s section”. “Seems like he was the one flailing and kicking his legs out yesterday”. Whether he believes me or not, which I don’t think he will and wouldn’t in the moment, which is why I didn’t say anything. The worst came in the last two games, a playoff-record-low -43 in Game 3 and a -30 in Game 4.
Had Green been suspended for Game 4, that could’ve changed everything about a series that the Thunder lead 2-1. I’m like, ‘What happened?’ I’m standing at the 3-point line, I look at Andrew Bogut, and he looked at the replay, and he was like [cringes].
Green and Kerr compared the kick to what Westbrook does in an attempt to draw foul calls.
Green scored six points, made 1 of 9 shots and committed four turnovers in a game to forget.
Green also acknowledged that he played poorly and that he simply didn’t respond well to the negativity and criticism he was hearing before the game.
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Monday, America’s sports media endlessly debated whether the kick was intentional, and how Green’s transgression should be handled.
