There’s a reason the Golden State Warriors are tolerating NBA bad boy Draymond Greene.
Warriors forward Draymond Green is scheduled to return to the court Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings after being suspended for five games.
As for Green, he spent last week in Sacramento, where he was scheduled to play, trying to promote mixed martial arts mixed with violence in the NBA.
This isn’t the NBA. It’s not the same old league that almost died in the 1970s after a decade of Green-style thuggery.
Kermit Washington knocked out Rudy Tomjanovic during a game last season with a punch to the face as Tomjanovich lay in a pool of blood.
But did you know that the Warriors are the highest-valued team in the league, according to Forbes, with a valuation of $7.7billion?
The Warriors also privately financed their $ 1.4billion Chase Center, located on San Francisco Bay.
Which means that if the Warriors decide to end this Draymond drama and suffer the financial ramifications of firing him soon after signing him to a $100 million four-year contract five months ago (which they will likely do), they won’t have to deal with him around Fisherman’s Wharf any time soon.
The Warriors will keep him, though, for three reasons.
The first is that, at 33, Green is still one of the best power forwards in the game, thanks to four All-Star appearances and four NBA all-defensive first team honors.
What about reason No. 2? The Warriors have been worse without Green than they have been with him. They entered Friday night’s game at Golden State 7-9 with seven losses in their last eight games, and three of those losses have come since Green went down with a suspension.
And then there’s reason No. 3: Just as the Warriors largely shrugged their shoulders and moved past the “Draymond Drama” of Draymond Green’s first eight seasons in the NBA (all with Golden State), so too will they this time around (although, of course, Rudy Gobert might still have Draymond’s blood on his hands).
Last week during a game between the Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves, Green appeared to grab Gobert by the neck in a headlock. Gobert later called Green’s actions “just clown behavior” and NBA Executive Vice President Joe Dumars said the Warriors power forward “forcibly grabbed” Gobert in an unsporting and dangerous manner. Green was thrown out of the game and the Warriors coach Steve Kerr initially defended his player, but only after watching film of the incident a few days later. “He definitely went too far,” Kerr said of Green, who appeared to be trying to protect Klay Thompson and Gobert from each other. “I didn’t think it was a big deal because the rule is you can’t put your hand on another player’s neck, but you have to let go,” Kerr said. “He held on for six or seven seconds and it was a bad visual for the league and for Draymond and for everyone else. He knows it was wrong.” The five games are deserved and the team will move on.
While Dumars imposed a one-game suspension on Green for “an accumulation of unsporting conduct,” NBA officials said in a statement, Dumars imposed a two-game suspension on Gobert for “a series of unsporting conduct acts.”
Dumars imposed a fine of $25.000 on Gobert for his part in the fight, and Dumars fined the same amount for each of the two players involved in the altercation, who are both Minnesota Timberwolves players. Dumars also fined the two players for their roles in the altercation, with Dumars imposing a $25.000 fine on Gobert and a $25.00 fine on each of the players for the altercation.
The NBA also announced that Dumars will forfeit $769.970 in salary due to a history of unsporting conduct
Green’s suspension history dates back to April 2023, when he was fined by the NBA for stepping on the Kings’ Dominas Sabonis’ chest in a playoff game.
In March 2023, the NBA fined Green $25,000 after he picked up a season-high 16 technicals.
In November 2018, Green was fined $25,000 by the NBA for “conduct detrimental to the club” after he and Warriors teammate Kevin Durant had an altercation.
In the 2016 Finals, Green got a $25,000 fine from the NBA for fighting with Cleveland’s LeBron James.
Let’s move forward to the eve of the Warriors’ pre-season in 2022-23, when Green punched a practice participant, Jordan Poole, in the face. The Warriors put Green into their version of a timeout, but kept him in the starting lineup as the regular season began.
At the time, the Warriors were the defending NBA champions, having won their fourth title in five years under the Stephen Curry-led regime.
Despite this, the Warriors went 44-38 in the regular season and lost to the second-round L.A. Lakers.
Still, Green stayed Green. On his way to a $60 million payday in 2021-22, he kept his per-game numbers consistent: 8.5 ppg., 7.2 rpg., 6.8 apg., and a career-best 52.7% FG.
After this season, Green opted out of his contract with the Warriors and became a free agent, hoping to find something more lucrative in the long run.
It worked. Green found that the Warriors no longer cared about him as a player; they only cared about him as Draymond.
Draymond Production.
