Draymond Green is adamant that there was nowhere else for his foot to go.
To hear him detail the situation, Green had to stomp on Domantas Sabonis’ chest after the Kings’ center gave the Warrior’s legs a bear hug.
I don’t know about that, but I do know that it would be overkill if the league suspended Green for Thursday’s Game 3 for that incident.
What Sabonis did was dirty. You can’t go full Jeff Van Gundy and wrap yourself around your opponent’s legs.
What Green did was unnecessary. Sorry, but there were more options than “stamp on opponent’s chest” or “stand there.” So, yes, you can call it dirty, too.
Both players probably deserved to be thrown out of Monday’s game, but — as any hockey fan would tell you — the retaliation is always treated worse than the initial infraction. That’s especially true if the retaliating party is No. 23 on Golden State.
But given that Green has plausible (though unconvincing) deniability, it would be out of bounds for the league to extend the Warriors forward’s punishment into Thursday’s game.
He served his time — the final seven minutes of a critical playoff game. Green was in the locker room when the Warriors’ season felt on the brink.
With the way Green has played in this series, a suspension for Game 3 might not be a death sentence for the Dubs. That said, it’s not a clear case of addition by subtraction, either.
Better not to mess around with it.
Of course, Kings fans want blood. They’re new to this whole playoffs thing and don’t quite yet understand that the level of physicality increases when you’re playing in the second half of April.
Warriors fans want to pretend everything about the play was normal, and Green is a victim of an unfair reputation.
Let both sides yap until Thursday.
Just make sure Green is in that game.
Looking at this objectively, what Green did Monday fails to rate with other suspension-worthy playoff actions.
It wasn’t what Dillion Brooks did to Gary Payton II in last year’s playoffs. It wasn’t even what Green did in the 2016 NBA Finals — a punch to the nether regions is way worse than using a Sabonis as a step stool.
Plus, the Kings’ big man really milked it after Green stepped on him. Even Jordan Poole thinks No. 10 needs to tone down the acting a bit. Don’t reward that.
The joy of the playoffs is that it’s basketball at its highest level. Whatever that was on Monday marred an otherwise brilliant game by the Kings.
The NBA should drop this issue and shift the focus back to the game. Objectively speaking, they’ve been pretty awesome.
