Green ran out of second chances and left NBA no choice but to drop the hammer
Green has only himself to blame for missing a potential Finals clincher
By
Ken Berger
•
2 min read
Just remember: Draymond Green did this to himself.
When you are assessed a flagrant-2 for flailing your leg and kicking Steven Adams in the groin during the Western Conference finals, putting you one flagrant point away from an automatic suspension, you're supposed to be on your best behavior.
Green wasn't even on his best behavior in the very next game, in which he again flailed his leg -- twice -- making contact with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. In Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Green flailed his leg again, making contact with Kyrie Irving.
He'd skated by long enough. He'd gotten enough leash, and enough benefit of the doubt.
And so while Green's "retaliatory swipe" to LeBron James' groin after James stepped over a prone Green in Game 4 of the Finals "[did] not warrant a suspension as a standalone act," executive VP of basketball operations Kiki VanDeWeghe said, it also left the NBA no choice but to adjudicate it harshly.
First and foremost, the league sought to evaluate whether Green's shot to James constituted "unnecessary contact," the threshold for a flagrant foul, penalty-1. The league ruled that it did. Thus, with his fourth flagrant point of the postseason, Green is hit with an automatic one-game suspension.
It makes Green's decision to throw Houston's Michael Beasley to the floor in the first round -- a flagrant-1 -- seem even more pointless than it was.
Green's actions against James did not rise to the level of "unnecessary and excessive contact," which would've made it a flagrant-2 -- and triggered a two-game suspension. For his part, James was assessed a technical foul for physically taunting Green.
While Green's past actions technically had nothing to do with the ruling (aside from putting him over the flagrant threshold for suspension), don't think for a minute that Green ran out of second chances and benefit of the doubt long ago. He did, and it's his fault.
Suspended players are banned from attending the game in question, but league sources say the NBA is still working through the details of how to handle postgame. If the Warriors were to win, one person familiar with the situation told CBS Sports that the league would not ban Green from the postgame championship celebration.
So now the Warriors will have to try to close out the Cavs and clinch their second championship without the man who arguably has been their best player through the first four games. No team has squandered a 3-1 lead in the Finals, but it's important to note that teams with such a lead are only 13-10 in Game 5 at home.
Only twice in 32 previous occasions has the team trailing 3-1 managed to force a seventh game.
But the Cavs aren't concerned about Game 6 or 7; only the game that is being played Monday night. And now it will be played without one of the most impactful forces on the floor, for better or worse.
In this case, worse. And through no one's fault but his own.
