NEW YORK -- Five days after the NBA suspended Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green indefinitely, Joe Dumars reasserted that there is no minimum or maximum amount of games attached to the punishment.
"No and no," Dumars, the league's executive vice president and head of basketball operations, said Monday during an interview with a small group of reporters at the NBA's head office in Manhattan. "So, obviously, it doesn't go on truly indefinitely -- at some point it will come to an end -- but just in terms of a minimum, no, we have not put a minimum in for him."
Green was suspended for "striking Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in the face" last week, but the official press release noted that the "outcome takes into account Green's repeated history of unsportsmanlike acts." The incident occurred two weeks after he returned from a five-game suspension for grabbing Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert around the neck. Given Green's past offenses, the NBA sees this as a "special situation," Dumars said.
Draymond has been ejected after flagrant foul on Nurkić pic.twitter.com/RmrLU5tdw8
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 13, 2023
Hours before the interview, The Athletic's Shams Charania reported that Green is expected to miss at least the next three weeks, citing league sources. Dumars, however, said that, since "we're having something here that's continuing to happen," the league decided that "just casting a certain amount of games on him may not be the best way."
After Green hit Nurkic in the face Dumars said, "We were like, 'OK, how about let's deal with the root cause of this?'" Implicit in the suspension was a message to Green: "Take some time off, get yourself right, whatever you need to do. Get your help and get yourself right.
"The only thing we really want to see him do is get better, so when he comes back we're not dealing with the same issues over and over again," Dumars explained. "And so that was the whole purpose behind 'indefinitely.' And when he is ready, then he'll come back. When we feel like he's ready, he'll come back. When the team feels like he's ready, he'll come back."
Dumars likened Green's situation to the suspension of Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, which stipulated that he'd miss a minimum of 25 games but would be required "to formulate and fulfill a program with the league that directly addresses the circumstances that led him to repeat this destructive behavior." (Morant had twice appeared on a live stream while brandishing a firearm.) Dumars also said that he' is "not sure" whether or not this approach will be appropriate in future situations involving player discipline.
Green "may have already started counseling," Dumars noted. "Just in terms of talking with somebody, talking [about] how you deal with issues, how you deal with your emotions. I think those are the things that have to happen."
The week prior to his suspension, Green told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne: "You don't become what I've become if you can't control your emotions. You don't win four championships if you can't control your emotions." ESPN described him as "defiant" and determined to prove that he could avoid more infractions and stay on the floor. Since this suspension, though, Green has "been very receptive" and has "not pushed back on this," according to Dumars.
"He hasn't been defiant about this at all," Dumars said.
Dumars has a personal relationship with Green that dates back to when the latter was a sophomore in high school. "That's like a father to me," Green told reporters at the 2012 NBA Draft Combine, having spent many nights talking about life and basketball with Dumars and his son, Jordan, one of Green's closest friends.
"In terms of the personal aspect for me, I can compartmentalize pretty good," Dumars said. "So I can sit here and do my job and do what's right for this league, for Golden State, for him as a player, and I can also have personal conversations with him outside of that. And that's what I do. But there's a lot of people in this league, man, that I know personally. So I have to do that a lot."
The specific benchmarks Green must reach in order to return to the court remain unclear. Dumars said that "a lot of different people" would be involved in determining when he can rejoin the Warriors.
"You talk to the health professionals, you talk to the team, you talk to the player, you talk to the [National Basketball] Players Association," Dumars explained. "So it's not like you're making these type of decisions in a vacuum."
What the NBA is trying to do, according to Dumars, is both punish Green and help him decrease the likelihood he'll need to be punished for something similar again.
"Listen, I don't think that dealing with player issues has to simply be punitive," Dumars said. "I don't believe that. I think there's also an obligation to help these young guys get better in maturing and how to deal with things."
NBA considering IST tweaks for Year 2: 'This is happening now'
Will the second iteration of the NBA In-Season Tournament return to Las Vegas or head elsewhere?
"I want to say Vegas, but I'm not sure," Dumars said. "All of that is up for discussion. We just had a conversation Friday about this. So I think Vegas, but I'm not sure. I don't want to commit to that right now."
Could the league potentially move the semifinals to home markets?
"It was a part of the conversation afterwards," Dumars said.
Will the courts remain bright and shiny?
"Up for discussion," he said, laughing.
In keeping with commissioner Adam Silver's public statements, Dumars said that the league is open to tweaking various aspects of the tournament. He didn't suggest any specific changes were likely, but emphasized that everything is up for discussion.
The NBA is "gathering information" about this year's tournament, Dumars said. It is soliciting feedback from players, coaches and the competition committee, and "pretty soon here" there will be "a big discussion" about how to improve it.
"We really don't want to drag it out too far," Dumars said. "So this is happening now."
On the subject of slippery In-Season Tournament courts and the Dallas Mavericks' court going unused, Dumars noted that the league will have "more lead time" in Year 2. The courts in this tournament were designed, painted and transported to team facilities in the span of a few months.
"These are the things that we'll learn from," Dumars said.
Dumars called the tournament a "huge success" and said that "there's a nice flow" in the calendar this season, with the tournament beginning less than two weeks after opening night and ending about two weeks before the NBA's Christmas Day showcase. He said that, as optimistic as he was heading into it, "you just didn't know" that it would be as competitive as it was or would produce the type of crowds that showed up for the quarterfinals in Sacramento and Indiana.
"Once you saw the atmosphere of what it was like, you realize, yeah, this has hit with the players," Dumars said. "As I said to Adam the other day, we can come up with all these ideas, but if the players don't buy into it, they're just ideas."
Pistons' losing streak 'tough to watch'
Dumars spent all 14 years of his Hall of Fame playing career as a member of the Detroit Pistons, then spent another 14 years as team president. He won two championships with the "Bad Boys" and one more as an executive. It pains him to see the Pistons, who are 2-24 on the season and have lost 23 consecutive games, approach a different kind of history.
Dumars said he'd feel disappointed for "any of the other 29 teams" if one was going through such a gruesome stretch. He will always, however, be connected to one franchise in particular.
"It's the Pistons," Dumars said. "I feel for the organization, for the fans there. Yeah, it's -- you know, I spent my whole career there, and so it's tough to watch the guys go through that. And I'm close with a lot of people there, with Monty [Williams] and Troy [Wevaer] and Arn Tellem and [Tom] Gores and all those guys. So, you know, it's tough to watch. I hope they can end the slide sometime soon."
