Draymond Green is at it again.
Four months removed from a playoff run that saw him in constant controversy for his various assaults on opponents' nether regions with his "natural motion" high kicks, Green resumed his high kicks Friday night in the Warriors' final preseason tilt against the Blazers, hitting forward Allen Crabbe, who took exception.
Minor incident, surely, but it is notable that the league literally made such plays a point of emphasis for officials this season, and here was what Joe Borgia, head of referee operations, said about it:
"Now all of a sudden legs are coming out in different directions at weird times, they're coming higher," he said. "Well, for the protection of the players, we're going to stop it."
So, it's preseason, and Green didn't make contact with Crabbe's reproductive organs, he actually kicked so high he missed, so maybe he gets a pass here. It's just an interesting set up, given that the league made a big fuss over how they were going to treat these things seriously.
Green has maintained the kicks aren't intentional, and one intrepid person on Twitter went back and actually made a film clip of all the times Green has done it to show that it's not intentional. But does it matter? If this were accidental elbows to the head, would we react the same way? For whatever reason, this particular set of circumstances is dealt with differently.
If Green is being honest, if he truly has no control of his legs, then first, he should get that checked by a doctor, and secondly, it may take actual punishment from the league to get him to stop. Even if he can't control it, that's not a reason to allow it, when there could be injury that results from it. This is going to continue to be a thing, even after Green arguably lost the Finals for the Warriors after being suspended for his undeniably intentional hit on LeBron James in the same area as Golden State lost the Finals after being up 3-1.
