You've all heard the story by now. The Golden State Warriors have comfortably claimed victory in Game 4 of the 2016 Finals, giving them a 3-1 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers and putting them in position to clinch the championship on their home floor in Game 5. Instead, Draymond Green commits a nearly meaningless foul on LeBron James by hitting him in the groin with the Warriors up 10 and the game clock showing less than three minutes. The NBA reviews the foul after the fact and deems it a flagrant, giving him four flagrant foul points for the postseason, which triggers an automatic suspension. Cleveland wins Game 5 with Green sidelined, and ultimately steals the series in seven games.
To this day, the Warriors have remained frustrated by the league's decision to suspend Green from Game 5. Green himself has even accused James of baiting him into the foul. On Monday, former Cavaliers big man Channing Frye confirmed those suspicions in hilarious fashion on The Athletic's A King's Reign podcast.
"Of course," Frye responded when asked if the Cavs baited Green. "What do you mean, of course? Everybody was trying to bait him! Are you joking? He shouldn't have had that many fouls. He shouldn't have been kicking people in their wee-wee. It's not our fault. We're supposed to take advantage, hey, if somebody's shoe is untied, I'm gonna step on their laces. No harm, no foul. It is part of the game. He knew we were baiting him. If you watch that game, everyone was trying to bait him. And they're mad about it. You know what you should have been mad about? The other 25 technicals, crazy technicals."
Frye is ultimately correct. It doesn't matter if the Cavaliers baited Green because Green took that bait. He's the one who earned enough flagrant foul points to put himself in that position. Had he not committed his earlier flagrant fouls, he would not have been suspended for Game 5. The NBA said as much at the time. "While Draymond Green's actions in Game 4 do not merit a suspension as a standalone act, the number of flagrant points he has earned triggers a suspension for Game 5," then-NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Kiki Vandeweghe said in a statement before Game 5.
Green is a Hall of Fame player with one fatal flaw: he commits completely unnecessary fouls at times that critically weaken his own team. The Cavaliers exploited that flaw to get him off of the floor for Game 5, and it helped them win a championship.
