Maybe the Warriors will rally.
Perhaps this will catalyze the Dubs to start playing winning basketball again.
This might just be a quirky footnote to history.
But in all likelihood, a Warriors’ season that started with Draymond Green punching a teammate will end in the coming days because Green decided to unnecessarily stomp on an opponent.
Oh, and Green likely stamped himself a ticket out of the Bay with his outburst, too.
The NBA announced Tuesday night that it was suspending Green for Game 3 of the Warriors’ first-round playoff series for stepping on Kings center Domantas Sabonis’s chest in Monday’s Game 2.
The stomping of Sabonis resulted in Green being ejected for the final seven minutes of that game, which the Warriors lost to fall behind 2-0 in the series.
Now, it will include 48 minutes of the Warriors’ biggest game of the season.
The NBA isn’t suspending Green for the action itself. No, they’re suspending him for his reputation. They said as much in an announcement Tuesday:
“The suspension was based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts.”
Is that just?
Probably not. It seems excessive to me.
But is it surprising? Absolutely not.
Green long ago lost the benefit of the doubt when it comes to situations like this. And because of that, the Warriors are facing a real threat of losing this first-round series in an embarrassing, unbecoming fashion.
Green hasn’t been at his best in the first two games of these playoffs, but his defense is still critical to the Dubs winning games. Without him, the Warriors’ already sub-par defense will likely slide further. Even if there is an offensive boost from Green’s absence, it will not be a net positive.
In short: Green let down his team. Yes, he acted in the heat of the moment, and no, Sabonis wasn’t some innocent bystander, as he was grabbing onto Green’s legs. But the Warriors’ forward overtly crossed the line with his actions.
Green’s a whip-smart smart guy on and off the court. Surely he must know that — for him — anything that’s hard is flagrant, anything that’s flagrant is ejectable, and anything ejectable is suspendable.
And yet Monday night, he opted to put his full body weight on Sabonis’ chest and did a little heel click after he used it as a trampoline.
Did Green think he could talk himself out of this? Did he expect the referees or the league would say, “You know what? Draymond is right.”
Green is one of the greatest defenders in the game’s history, a transformative figure in the story of professional basketball, but this is him reaping what he had sown.
And now the shorthanded Warriors must find a way to win on Thursday.
If they don’t, this Green stamp and suspension will define this series. It will be the catalyst for the change in the Bay.
Green, 33, has a player option to play next year for the Warriors. At this point, he might be wise to take it. But the expectation before Tuesday was that he would opt out and search for a long-term deal — likely his last in the NBA.
But if Golden State loses this series, whether that loss comes in four or seven games, the cost-cutting Dubs will not be the team that signs Green to that deal. I’m unsure who would, given how Green has played in this series and last year’s postseason.
Green was a one-of-a-kind winner. He was a one-of-a-kind pain in the butt, too. The first fact used to far outweigh the latter. I’m not sure it does anymore.
I want to think that this isn’t how a legend should exit, but it’s all too fitting for Green, who straddled the line between harm and help for a decade.
He crossed that line, again, on Monday.
And he might have ended two extraordinary things — his Warriors’ career and the dynasty he led — in the process.
Questions, comments, or criticisms that demand answers?
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