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Draymond Green is undoubtedly one of the most passionate players the NBA has ever seen, but sometimes that passion has led to being ejected from games. In the heat of battle once more, Draymond Green was ejected from his third game of the season after wildly swinging and punching Jusuf Nurkic.
Golden State Warriors were visitors to the Footprint Center, the home court of the Phoenix Suns in a Western Conference showdown. Draymond Green and Jusuf Nurkic were mixing it up down low in a battle for position when Green swiftly swung with his arms wide and socked Nurkic on the side of the head. Nurkic, significantly larger than Green, was crumpled to the floor.
Officials on the floor reviewed the physical exchange, ruling it a flagrant 2 foul and leading to Green’s ejection. While it wasn’t the most direct apology, at least on its surface, Green did offer in a postgame comment that he was trying to sell a foul and didn’t intend to hit Nurkic.
Coach Steve Kerr addressed Green’s ejection, stating that the team always needs him on the floor. Green is an integral part of the Warriors’ offense, especially in his point-forward role and defensive prowess.
Green caught wind of Coach Kerr’s comments and doubled down on his point that if he never meant to hit Nurkic and stated that he isn’t one to apologize for something he intended to do, hence why he apologized to Jusuf Nurkic.
With this event being the third suspension of the year for Green, he has tied his previous ejection count in this early going of the season. Green recently served a suspension for putting Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a chokehold. It isn’t known what the NBA will decide for Green after this latest ejection.
We’ve got reactions below from NBA Twitter regarding the Draymond Green and Jusuf Nurkic dustup. We also have the video of the incident courtesy of ESPN.
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Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty
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The Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings locked horns for a thrilling NBA In-Season Tournament contest that appeared to be all but handled by the visiting Bay Area squad. However, the Kings took care of business on their home court and won the game while eliminating the Warriors from tournament play and advancing.
The first half of the contest on Tuesday (November 28) saw the Warriors, led by Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson’s scoring, go up big on the Kings and looked to be cruising to an easy win and advancing to the knockout round of the tournament. However, the second half saw an offensive explosion from Malik Monk and Kevin Huerter, who the Warriors couldn’t seem to stop.
There were also a number of careless turnovers due to errant passing by the Warriors. that led to fast-break opportunities for the Kings. The game was also the return of Draymond Green after a five-game suspension for slapping a rear-naked choke onto Rudy Gobert during an on-court altercation.
De’Aaron Fox led all Kings scorers with 29 and was equally unstoppable down the stretch. Fox and Huerter’s burst in the second half was timely as Kings big man Domantas Sabonis only contributed 9 points.
The story of the game and the topic of discussion online was the play of Stephen Curry, who also scored 29 points but made just 4 of 12 three-point attempts, including some way outside the arc while heavily guarded. This has led to some calling the Warriors’ loss a choke job online. We’ve got some of those reactions to the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings game below.
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Photo: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty
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Draymond Green will never be accused of being a player who lacks intensity, which has both benefitted his game and worked against him over the course of his career. On Tuesday (November 15), that same passion took a serious left turn after Green applied a chokehold straight from the mixed martial arts handbook on Rudy Gobert during a scuffle.
The Golden State Warriors hosted the Minnesota Timberwolves for an In-Season Tournament showdown in the Western Conference that got off to a rocky start early. The entire game unfolded into chaos after Warriors star Klay Thompson was tussling with Timberwolves Jaden McDaniels and the two grabbed each other’s jerseys on the way down to the court during a transition play.
The two swung each other around and both teams saw their benches emptied in an attempt to split them apart. Rudy Gobert tried to play a peacemaker role, prompting Draymond Green to leap into action and apply a vicious chokehold and grimacing as he applied pressure to the center’s neck.
From there, it was an all-out melee of bodies on the court with Thompson, McDaniels, and Green all being sent to the locker room. Thompson protested his ejection and Green was later assessed for a flagrant foul 2 for choking Gobert. The NBA saw no fault in Gobert, who was clearly trying to end the scuffle.
This is the 18th ejection for Green over the course of his career, leading all active players in that category. Further, it appears that these ejections happen more often when Stephen Curry isn’t playing. The sharpshooter sat out the game due to knee soreness.
After the game, Gobert called Green’s actions “clown behavior” and noted that the point forward often has trouble staying in games when Curry is out.
Across NBA Twitter, fans are discussing how many games Draymond Green should be suspended for putting the choke on Rudy Gobert. Check out those reactions below.
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Photo: Getty
Source: Christian Petersen / Getty / Draymond Green / Jordan Poole
Draymond Green is not one to bite his tongue on his podcast or social media, but his penchant for clapping back at “haters’ had him looking like quite the fool.
Even though the Golden State Warriors ultimately chose a side by sending Jordan Poole to the wall to join the Night’s Watch, aka the Washington Wizards, and sticking with the current loudest voice in the NBA, Draymond Green, there still seems to be tension between the former teammates.
In a recent episode of Patrick Beverley’s The Pat Bev Podcast with Rome, one of the topics the two players touched on was the incident involving Green punching Poole in the face during a Warriors’ training camp last season, which set the tone for the at the time defending champs shaky 2023-24 season.
Green admitted to Beverley that the incident resulted from things building up, leading to him punching socking Poole, and not just something that happened at the moment.
“I don’t just hit people. Dialogue, of course, happens over time, and you usually ain’t just triggered by something that fast, to that degree. This is a team, ain’t nobody on my team triggering me in an instant,” Green said to Beverley. “We know stuff that you don’t say amongst men. We know things that you have to stand on.”
Anthony Poole Had Time For Draymond Green
The clip quickly went viral, and it wasn’t Poole who responded to it, but his father, Anthony Poole, who had time for Greene.
“I’m stand on this that’s is some bs,” Anthony Poole tweeted. “Jp was his guy and he avoid me all last yr. He is a soft as b-tch and I’m standing on this and he didn’t apologize to me and my wife. So he lame and me and him can meet anytime he want.”
Green, of course, responded by saying, “That’s so cute… it’s impossible to avoid you an arena for a year champ. I got get my family from that family room every game. And stop using those words, they usually don’t go over well amongst men.”
Draymond Green’s Twitter Fingers Were Not Done
After his online spat with Poole, Green focused on Basketball Hall of Famer and former Boston Celtic Kevin Garnett. Green couldn’t help himself responding to a fake tweet from TheNBACentral troll account, TheNBACentel, that claimed Garnett issued a challenge to him regarding the Poole incident.
“Draymond punching JP is like a senior punching a freshman who’s half his size and than walks around talking himself up as if he’s like that. Come try me Dray,”
“I tried you when I was a rookie KG, and you started talking to yourself like I wasn’t talking to you. What’s that like? The freshman picking on a senior citizen that’s double his size?” Green said in response to the fugazi tweet.
Instead of keeping it going, Garnett jokingly responded by pointing out the tweet was fake and telling Elon Musk to “do something.”
Twitter wasn’t as forgiving and hit Green with all the jokes.
You can see the reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty
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Source: Ezra Shaw / Getty / Stephen Curry
Unlike his teammate Draymond Green, Stephen Curry rarely makes a mistake on the court, until yesterday.
The best shooter in basketball, Stephen Curry, almost cost his Golden State Warriors the game, and they could have been down 3-1 heading back to Sacramento after making an egregious blunder.
With just 40 seconds left in the game, the Kings trapped Curry leaving him nowhere to go or pass the ball. So generally, in that situation, you will call a timeout, and that’s what he did.
But there was one issue, the Warriors didn’t have any timeouts left after head coach Steve Kerr lost the team’s final timeout in an unsuccessful challenge that even Draymond Green told him not to do.
“I didn’t realize when we lost the challenge that we didn’t have any timeouts left,” Curry said. Like a true leader, Steve Kerr took the blame for the moment, protecting his all-star player.
Curry still owned up to his mistake, adding, “[Coach] took the blame for it, but I ain’t going to lie: I thought it was the smartest play in the world. I looked at the bench, and everybody was shaking their head. It was an unfortunate situation.”
The Kings took advantage of what many call Steph’s “Chris Webber moment,” referencing retired hooper calling a timeout his team did not have during the 1993 National Championship game costing the Michigan Wolverines the chip.
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With a technical free throw and a three-pointer from the NBA’s most clutch player, De’Aron Fox, the Kings were only down one in a game that at one point looked like a sure win for the Warriors.
The Warriors did survive after Harrison Barnes missed a go-ahead three-pointer.
NBA Twitter Came With The Jokes
As you can imagine, NBA Twitter had plenty of reactions to Curry’s brain lapse and Harrison Barnes’s potential game-winning brick.
You can see those in the gallery below.
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Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty
1. Accurate
2. Very true
7. Y’all aint right
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Source: Ezra Shaw / Getty / Draymond Green
The Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors first-round playoff series is already becoming an instant classic.
Draymond Green, who is no stranger to drama in the playoffs due to his behavior, is once again the subject of social media chatter.
Green was tossed from the game after he stomped on Sacramento’s forward/center Domantas Sabonis in the Warriors’ Game 2 loss to the Kings on Monday night.
The incident went down in the fourth quarter of a highly contentious game that the Kings wound up winning 114-106 to take a commanding 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.
So what exactly happened?
Keeping that chippy energy, Sabonis fell to the ground and wrapped his arms around Green’s leg. As his Warriors teammates ran up the court, Green appeared to stomp on Sabonis, leaving the Lithuanian hooper in pain.
After a lengthy review, the refs handed Sabonis a technical foul for grabbing Green’s leg, and the Warriors’ superstar was given a flagrant two-foul for pulling off the Stone Cold stomp in an NBA game.
The Golden 1 Center was already on one as they sensed the beam was about to get lit again. Green, who lives for these moments, embraced the boos he received from Kings fans as he took himself off the court and ran to the Warriors’ locker room.
Draymond Green Defends Himself
During his press conference, Green defended his on-court actions adding that Kings’ guard Malik Monk made a similar move to him on Saturday.
“My leg got grabbed. The second time in two nights with the referees just watching,” he told reporters during his post-game press conference.
“I got to land my foot somewhere, and I am not the most flexible person, so it’s not stretching that far. I can only step so far and pulling my leg away, so it is what it is,” he continued.
Reporters asked Green what the referees told him he did he said: “The explanation was I stomped too hard. It was Monk last game so either you’re going to stop it.”
“(Referee) John Goble was looking at Monk hold my leg the last game, and he just let it go, and Zach (Zarba) was clearly watching my leg get held this game and let it go, so I guess ankle grabbing is okay.”
Green even took things further in his Instagram Stories by sharing a photo of Sabonis grabbing his ankle with the caption, “Nothing wrong here. Solid basketball play!!”
Sabonis downplayed the incident during a post-game interview on TNT, saying, “We fell on each other. Stuff happens. It’s basketball. We’ve got to move on to the next play.”
Was Draymond Green Out of Line?
Immediately following the incident, the reactions came in, with many calling for Green, who has a history of these kinds of theatrics, to be suspended.
But some fellow NBA hoopers did come to his defense. Inside The NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal put on his cape for Green.
“I’m not gonna sit up here and be a hypocrite. I would have done the same thing,” O’Neal said.
“Don’t be grabbing me because what am I gonna do? If I stay there and just try to run forward, I’ll fall. You gotta get him up off you. And if you up off me and you in the way, you might get stomped on. Was it a dirty play? Of course, it was a dirty play. But, hey, don’t grab me, and this won’t happen.”
Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley disagreed with him.
Portland TrailBlazers all-star Damian Lillard had an interesting take calling it a “take foul on Sabonis” and saying, “Dray tried to step down.”
Okay.
Draymond Green was doing too damn much. Now his team might pay for his actions once again, as they did in the 2016 NBA Finals.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty
1. Seriously
2. According to the NBA rules
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Source: The Washington Post / Getty
The Golden State Warriors were guests of honor at the White House to celebrate their championship, with E-40, Too Short & other legends from the Bay in attendance as well.
On Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 17th), the White House was buzzing with excitement as the Warriors were on hand to celebrate their 2021-2022 NBA championship at a ceremony held by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The crowd also boasted Hip-Hop royalty from the Bay Area, as E-40, Too Short, and Mister F.A.B. along with media personality Sway Calloway were present for the reception.
Superstar point guard Stephen Curry presented President Biden and Vice President Harris with customized team jerseys. Vice President Harris beamed as she introduced the team. “As a very proud daughter of Oakland, California, it gives me immense personal pride as the vice president of the United States to say, Dub Nation is in the house,” she said. She joked about her jersey which bore the number one, remarking that it’s because she’s the number one fan. Curry joked that he wanted the jersey to be up on the wall of the Oval Office. “Hopefully we can come back and check if it’s up there,” he said.
It was the first time since 2015 that the Warriors were honored at the White House. Former president Donald Trump publicly disinvited the team in 2017 after Curry had stated that he wasn’t interested in visiting. The Warriors also weren’t invited after their 2018 championship win. President Biden addressed that in his comments, saying: “The Golden State Warriors are always welcome in this White House.” Earlier in the day, Curry and coach Steve Kerr addressed reporters in the White House briefing room, with Curry thanking the administration for their efforts in bringing WNBA star Brittney Griner home from imprisonment in Russia late last year.
The Bay’s best rappers have long been avid supporters of the Warriors, with E-40 and Mistah F.A.B being constant fixtures at home games at the Chase Center in downtown San Francisco and prior to that, at the Oakland Coliseum. They were spotted taking numerous photos with Harris, along with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is now a member of the Biden administration.
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