Just watched that clip.. Draymond tries to make it look like he did it by accident, but there's zero reason for his arm to go up that way given what's happening in the play.. Someone should ask Draymond.. so if it's an accident.. what were you trying to do? Why were you swinging your arm near his head? What basketball move were you trying for? Because there's no natural movement there.. would be interesting to have him say what he was trying to do while the replay plays over and over.
He was just flailing his arms to sell the foul to the ref. Nothing to see here. /s
As @jayhoz posted his explanation was selling the foul.
I don’t think it’s shocking that he hasn’t changed.. his actions haven’t really gotten him in trouble. For the Poole punch.. didn’t the team suspend him “indefinitely” and he didn’t even miss a game?
this is nuts. he's been one of the best defenders in the league for over a decade.
Ok. So he got beat two plays earlier. Or he couldnt get good position. He's no longer good enough and hes compensating like a guy wearing a big hat to a whorehouse. This has been going on on sports since old players began to suck.
I've heard of All Hat & No Cattle...but I can't say I've ever heard of the other one
Agreed. He’s had four high profile incidents in 15 months.
To add one that I thought was less dramatic, wasn't seen as suspension worthy, but in some ways even more egregious: his subtle push/shove of Donovan Mitchell from behind the play that sent Mitchell sprawling. Zero basketball reason to do it; clearly pre-meditated in 'hey, i can get away with this here' way; and more dangerous than a punch in that it took advantage of Mitchell's momentum to send him flying.
Yeah, that to me was a super dirty play, on par with anything else he has done. Everyone that has ever played basketball understands how dangerous a shove in the back while running at full speed can be, and you throw in this is an elite athlete, who is headed towards a crowded section of people/media under the basket--Mitchell is very lucky he wasn't injured, as were fans sitting courtside.
I agree with that - though rest of his game has slid and even defensively, he can't defend quickness anymore. The other point to be made: he's been thrown out of or suspended for a big chunk of games this year, too. You can't impact games you aren't in.
I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, I'm all for restorative justice, not being retributive and giving a guy a chance to get himself right. And, clearly, the core issue here is Draymond has some sort of unresolved mental issue. On the flip side, well, I just saw a clip from Joe Dumars and that seemed to be his position, too. A lot of... "this isn't about punishment, it's about getting Dray right" sort of language. In principle, I kind of agree, but that's basically been the position of the NBA throughout: one set of rules for 99% of the players, and Dray gets to slide. It isn't that I think they should be punitive just to be punitive, but the double standards are egregious and one has to think that's been part of enabling Green to think his shit doesn't stink and he can do whatever he wants to do. That brings me back to having an issue with Dumars being the primary arbiter of discipline. Woj talks about how Green "grew up in Dumars house" (not a precise quote, but words to that effect referring to Green's college years..so I don't think it's quite growing up) and just read this on ESPN:
I mean...his "father figure" since he was 16 has been in charge of his discipline? How is that not a clear conflict of interest? How is that not part of the story of how Green has skated time and time again?
I obviously have a hard-on against Green as he's a pure piece of shit. That said, he is an intriguing personality not just because of his obvious intelligence and charm, but that he's both a great player and, weirdly, not really an "alpha-dog" even though, in general, that automatically goes with being a great player. I mean, anyone who has done what he has done has to have some of that alpha in him. But the beauty of his game is his willingness to not be an alpha dog on the court. He's remarkably ego-less in his play. There's a very good argument that he should shoot more/demand the ball more. But, at least as a player, he's almost the opposite of the typical NBA alpha dog. One of the most selfless players I've ever seen. It's a cliche to talk about guys who "do all the dirty work" but Green truly does sacrifice his own basketball ego to the greater team good to an amazing level. Frankly, he really should shoot more, demand the ball more. Much as I can't stand the guy for all the non-basketball things he does on the court (and off), his game is a thing of beauty in a non-alpha way.
You completely lost me on the "he should shoot more". Have you seen him trying to make his own offense?
Yeah he's even spoken on his podcast about how he's in his own head regarding scoring (in context of talking about what's happened to Ben Simmons). He can't be trusted to ever make an open jump shot (.294 from 3 over the last 7 seasons) and any lightly contested layup is an adventure. And that's with him spending his prime surrounded by 2-3 of the best shooters ever, the spacing was incredible.
Draymond worked on his shooting over the summer bc not only is he shooting 43% on his 3's and 83% from the line, but everything about his shot has look better.....even Curry collapsed the defense on a final possession last week on a designed game winning three attempt by Green.
Yeah he's looked miles better this year, but comparing the last 7 years and around 1400 attempts (including playoffs) at around 29% with 15 games and 42 attempts this year...I need to see more.
He's always defended all the stuff he's now saying "has to change".
He’s the coach of a team whose GM signed Dray to a 4/$100 mill extension this summer. Draymond is a super dirty basketball player, and I don’t care one way or another about Kerr, but the whole enabler/decent human thing is asinine
I would agree for a normal basketball player doing normal intense things.
Paraphrasing: Draymond just needs to revert back to being the dangerous psycho he was before it became too much for the league to ignore.
100%! This may be the first time I've defended Kerr but he's simply doing his job towing the company (Warriors) line with Coachspeak PR in protecting their investment.
Kill? Good lord lol.
Do you think that Draymond is incapable of curb-stomping a guy's head? That doesn't seem at all farfetched to me. The man is criminally insane.
Forget American History X stuff, how many times have we seen someone in a street fight get sucker punched like he hit Poole, get knocked out, and then die on the impact with the ground? It’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility for something like that to happen on a hard basketball court.
Actually your skull is pretty tough. The more likely scenario is a blow to the chest. If you do it at the right time and you can put the heart into v-fib. A few years back we had a patient found dead in a barn and the best guess was a kick to the chest by a horse. The hoof print on the sternum was a clue. You will also find case reports of hockey players dying after taking a puck to the chest.
Well, at least we know Draymond would never stomp a guy's chest, so we can rule that death scenario out.
You've hit rock bottom when you've made Rudy Gobert the sympathetic figure in the situation.
The paradox that the league finds itself in is that this kind of self-enforcement amongst players has been taken out of the game. Now the only way to fix things (if his own teammates won't step up) is through the League office, and that's far away from the court and context where Draymond's stuff is happening. I don't think it will work.
Alternate headline “Kerr tries to take attention away from Draymond Green and convince people the Warriors are the true victim”
