RATHER THAN DISMISS DRAYMOND, SILVER SENDS HIM TO THE ALL-STAR GAME!
Nurkic is right when he says Green will “hit somebody else again,” now that the NBA protects a disturbed problem child with a 12-game suspension that means nothing and will lead to more violence
So much for the troubled psychological patient. After choke-holding Rudy Gobert, stomping on Domantas Sabonis’ chest and mauling Jusuf Nurkic with a punch to the earlobe region — all in a period of months — Draymond Green is being rewarded by the NBA. He will appear on an alternate telecast of the All-Star Game with Charles Barkley, two thugs on America’s prime-time screens.
It doesn’t matter that Green continues to dog-whip commissioner Adam Silver and taunt Nurkic, saying of the Phoenix big man on a podcast Tuesday, “Frankly, I’d like to know why it’s only a matter of time before I hit someone else, because I destroyed him. … He starts to question my character. What a coward.” It doesn’t matter the league suspended Green indefinitely in mid-December, with top cop Joe Dumars saying, “The only thing we really want to see him do is get better, so when he comes back, we're not dealing with the same issues over and over again.”
Not two months later, we’re dealing with the same issues. If the league had an actual commissioner and not one trying to tap the nation’s sports fandom, which counted 202.4 million viewers watching a part of the Super Bowl, Green would be permanently removed and sent to solitary confinement. We knew this after Nurkic, who had every reason to jibe after he was floored by the punch, made a “too-small” gesture for Green by hitting the hardwood twice Saturday night. At that point, Green should have ignored the crack and kept playing as a form of continuing punishment. Instead, he made a left-handed hook over Nurkic and repeated the “too small” signal.
Then, Green said after Golden State’s win over Phoenix, “You can’t be a nothing defender if you’re going to do that. You probably outweigh me by 70 pounds and you get put in the rim. If he wants me to walk around quiet like him, I’m never gonna do that — quiet guys don’t win. I thought I was pretty great tonight. He can keep riding the same horse that he rode in on. He can ride his ass out of here on the same horse. It ain’t working.” Realizing he cursed, he said foolishly, “Sorry, Adam. That just slipped out. Sorry.”
He’s not sorry. He remains the biggest a-hole in sports, knowing Silver and TNT Sports love him and are setting him up for a long broadcasting career. Wait until the Warriors make movement the next two months for the postseason. What stops Green from another chokehold, chest stomp and facial maul? A new year means another vicious episode will happen again, as Silver fades off with a new contract from the owners through 2030 and shoots for massive TV deals. Notice how Green keeps taking shots at European centers, three in a row. Shouldn’t this be horrifying to Silver and Dumars? Apparently not, as Nurkic issues a warning.
“It's sad. He didn't learn anything,” he said. “Just a matter of time. He's going to hit somebody else again. Take back everything I said. He don't deserve a chance.”
Well aware the Suns could play the Warriors in the playoffs, Nurkic is railing on Green and trying to provoke more league penalties. On social media Tuesday, he wrote, “All good bad boy just don’t stay (too) long on podcast, gonna be late for therapy session.”
Responded Green: “What happened in the game that would make you say that, other than you getting embarrassed because you're just not good enough?”
How about this, Draymond? Shut up, for once.
What’s comical is that his teammates defend his new actions. “Idiotic,” Steph Curry said of Nurkic’s words. “You can tell when someone is in your head when you go out of your way to celebrate. Then Draymond comes back at him. All of the talk, Draymond was in his head — plain and simple. I give him all the credit. Everybody talks about how much Draymond needed to change and figure out what he was doing during the suspension. Tonight was the playbook on how you play basketball at a high level. So I love it.”
A high level? Or too high in the sky? “He's given us a lift every game he's been back. He connects, obviously, our defense — but you can talk about his defense every game,” Curry said. “He gave us great energy in the sense of having that competitive spirit you need to win, to meet the moment. Draymond knows how to walk the line that he needs to walk.”
Actually, he knows how to extend the line beyond belief. The Warriors no longer are in a dynasty mode, hoping to capture a play-in berth. They’re trying to make the most of their lunatic. “That month off, that suspension was real. He knew that his career was on the line or is on the line,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He understands that he's got to be the guy he's been the last nine years, not the one he's been the last year. I see him doing that. Draymond, if he’s passive, we might as well not play him, right? Everything about him is about his force and energy, and his competitiveness. That’s what makes him unique and makes him the great player that he is.”
They are playing mind games with Silver. Kerr said he doesn’t want Green to be a “goody two-shoes” on the court, so he’s back to snorting and threatening like a bully, which goes against Kerr’s common sportsmanship and the league’s means of life. You put up with years of Draymond’s madness, see three more nasty clips in 2023, then suspend him for 12 games … and the same chaos happens?
Why? Cut to TNT Sports boss Craig Barry, Green’s keeper. “Over the last couple of years, when Draymond has come to the studio or with interactions at All-Star Games, it was really evident the chemistry between him and Charles,” he told The Athletic. “There was a lot of dialog and fun and provocative debate. It’s something that we think fans potentially want to see more of so we thought this was an opportunity to sit them down next to each other and essentially watch the game together. We thought what could we put together that would be an interesting conversation — and all things led to Draymond and Charles.”
His network is ripping off the Mannings, Peyton and Eli. Only this pairing destroys the ethics and competitive function of professional basketball. First, they suspend him because they’re worried about his mind. Now, weeks later, they stick him with Barkley this Sunday night on truTV and Max. When Green pondered retirement after the suspension, Silver didn’t sound like a commissioner ready to perpetually hammer him. “He said, ‘You’re making a very rash decision, and I won’t let you do that,’ ’’ Green said.
Nah. First, we have showtime. Never mind the bodily parts of Jusuf Nurkic, Rudy Gobert and Domantas Sabonis. The NBA has priorities.
###
Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.