Draymond Green knows all about suspensions in the playoffs having been on the short end of one of the most famous suspensions of the NBA Finals.
Green has a number of reasons to be upset is being kicked out due to a blunder 2 in the second quarter of the Warriors’ 117-116 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in Game One of the second round on Sunday. Because what’s left in the background is the possibility of getting suspended if he makes more glaring mistakes during qualifying.
In Game 4 of the 2016 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Green got a crack at what the National Basketball Association called “hand to thigh revenge” for LeBron James. The Warriors won that match to advance 3-1 in the series, but Green was suspended for Game 5 because he collected four blatant points over the course of the playoffs.
Then, the Warriors lost three consecutive times in a historic meltdown that left the 73-win regular season team without a championship. If Green hadn’t been suspended in Game 5 at the Oracle Arena, the Warriors might have shut down the Cavaliers and changed the course of NBA history — as Kevin Durant likely wouldn’t have signed with the Warriors the following season.
Which brings “Green” to this day. green Recorded an “Emergency” podcast From the Draymond Green Show from his hotel room in Memphis after the game, where try to talk Why the referees kicked him out for fouling Brandon Clark Many in the NBA world think he shouldn’t have justified the Rocket 2.
But Green also pointed out the fact that he now has 2 glaring error points because it was blunder 2 (flagrant 1 lead to 1 glaring error point). Two additional points lead to an automatic suspension of one game, and this will be followed by a suspension for each subsequent point.
“My biggest concern going forward is that he would give me two blatant foul points, and as we know I was fired for accumulating blatant foul points,” Green said. “So I hope the right thing happens, and that it gets scrapped at least to make it blatant.”
At the end of the podcast, Green updated his statement to: “I look forward to canceling it.”
Related: Draymond’s perfect response to Clarke’s expulsion statement
Even canceling the bug to Flagrant 1 would be a big deal for Green, because he’d have to accumulate three more Flagrant 1 bugs before hanging or he could even pick up another Flagrant 2 and be fine. But now, he has to get through the rest of the playoffs without picking up another Flagrant 2, and he has less room for fouls overall should the judges call them outrageous.
The Warriors may have won their first match, but they have a long way to go toward a potential championship. They need Green on the field to get them there, and having endured the 2016 postseason chaos, Green knows that for sure too.