NBA executive vice president and head of basketball operations Joe Dumars joined ESPN’s First Take on Thursday to discuss the decision to issue an indefinite suspension for Warriors star Draymond Green.
Dumars made it clear that the league’s goal first and foremost was to get Green the help he needs.
“First of all, we knew there would be some level of punishment,” Dumars said. “But we didn’t want that to be the focus. We wanted the focus to be on how can we help Draymond as well. We thought indefinite was the best way to that.”
Dumars said the concerns about whether a defined number of games would be considered too high or too low also factored into the decision to suspend Green indefinitely.
“So people don’t get caught up on the number. ‘Oh, is it too low, is it too high?’” Dumars added. “Indefinite means, ‘Get yourself right. We want to see you at your best,’ and the best way for you to do that is to get yourself mentally and emotionally back to where you need to be. So that’s how we got to indefinite.”
Joe Dumars speaks on how the league landed on an "indefinite suspension" for Draymond Green: pic.twitter.com/y5mSO0RgcF
— First Take (@FirstTake) December 14, 2023
A separate report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski indicated that the NBA Players Association planned to fight back against the league’s indefinite suspension, but Green agreed to it.
Green was ejected for the third time this season on Tuesday night after he punched Suns center Jusuf Nurkić in the face while jostling to gain offensive position on an inbounds pass in the third quarter.
Golden State is back in action on Thursday night against the Clippers and will be without Green for the considerable future.
