Draymond Green did it again Tuesday night.
The Golden State Warriors forward was ejected in the third quarter of their game against the Phoenix Suns after smacking Phoneix big man Jusuf Nurkic in the face. Green’s actions earned him a flagrant foul 2 and a one-way ticket back to the locker room for the night.
To say Green got his money’s worth would be an understatement, as he appeared to catch Nurkic pretty flush in the side of the head.
Given a chance to own up for his actions after the game, Green did apologize — sort of.
“I am not one to apologize for things I mean to do, Green told reporters, per ESPN.com, “but I do apologize to Jusuf because I didn’t intend to hit him. I sell calls with my arms … so I was selling the call … and I swung and unfortunately I hit him.”
It’s a curious explanation. If you watch the play, Nurkic isn’t really touching Grene at all. In fact, just before Green turns around and wallops Nurkic in the head, you can see Green grab Nurkic’s jersey and pull him closer as he turns around to hit him. Green certainly has drawing calls down to an art form, but he certainly hasn’t earned the benefit of any doubt for the rest of his career.
It’s not even Christmas, and this is already the third ejection for Green this season. He’s also looking at a second suspension. The NBA banned him for five games for an incident with Rudy Gobert a month ago.
“What’s going on with him, I don’t know,” Nurkic told reporters after the game. “Personally, I feel like that brother needs help. I’m glad he (didn’t) try to choke me, but at the same time, it had nothing to do with basketball. I’m just out there trying to play basketball. … Hopefully whatever he’s got (going on) in his life gets better.”
If that’s the case, chances are Green is going to get a league-sanctioned break from basketball to work on whatever is going on in his life pretty soon.
