SAN FRANCISCO — Don’t expect Draymond Green to change his ways in the wake of his Game 3 suspension.
“They created Draymond rules before, them sh--s don’t work. Here I am, still sitting here, still winning,” Green said proudly from the podium after Saturday’s practice.
“They created those rules before, they didn’t work, they still don’t work. Maybe they did. Draymond won’t be moved by no Draymond rules. I will continue to play the game, I love playing the game. Operate how I operate, be exactly who I am because that leads to winning. If I was losing, they wouldn’t be creating Draymond rules. As long as they’re creating Draymond rules, that means we’re winning, and that’s great.”
Green believes Doc Rivers said it best when the 76ers coach shared his thoughts on Green’s punishment.
Speaking to reporters Friday, Rivers said he disagreed with the league’s decision to suspend Green. He also suggested the NBA might’ve set a “very dangerous precedent” by “punishing the retaliators and not the instigators” of on-court clashes.
After Saturday’s practice, Green said he “strongly agreed” with Rivers.
Green was handed a one-game suspension this week for stomping on Kings center Domantas Sabonis’ chest. The act got him tossed with seven minutes to go in Game 2. The NBA said Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts played a factor in its decision.
NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars said on NBA Today it’s possible that if the player wasn’t Green they might not have been suspended. He also told the Associated Press that Green’s play was “excessive, over-the-top, dangerous, repeat offender.”
Green watched Game 3 from home but greeted his teammates in the locker room after the win. He said this suspension was much different than 2016 when he was barred from Game 5 of the NBA Finals for hitting LeBron James in the groin because the stakes were higher this time around.
“Being in a dog fight and not being able to participate, that’s tough,” Green said. “There’s never a suspension that will bother me. There’s no game that could compare to [Game 5 of the 2016 NBA Finals.]”
Green chose not to share his personal feelings about the suspension, saying “it’s neither here nor there.”
“I’ll get suspended again at some point,” he said. “It is what it is.”
Still, it pained him to not be available to go to war with his teammates when they were facing a 2-0 deficit to the Kings.
“We come here every single day all year and prepare for battle with these guys,” Green said. “And to know you’re in the battle with your backs against the wall, and to not be there for them, that’s a letdown. So for me, that was it. It’s just not being in the dogfight.”
The Warriors kept their championship hopes alive with their 114-97 win over the Kings on Thursday. They have a chance to even the first-round series before it heads back to Sacramento with Game 4 on Sunday.
Green credited his teammates to responding to the adversity of his absence.
“There’s a lot of front-runner stuff that goes on in this league and we pride ourselves on not being that,” Green said. “When the going gets tough, we get tougher and guys did that and that’s all it really matters honestly.”
