NBA suspends Green five games for headlock on Gobert
Published
Make it five career suspensions for Draymond Green.
The NBA has suspended the Golden State Warriors forward for five games following an incident at the start of Tuesday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Just over 90 seconds into the first quarter of the In-Season Tournament game, Warriors guard Klay Thompson and T-Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels got into a fracas near centre court. McDaniels and Thompson each had a hold of the other’s jersey and attempted to throw the other man to the floor.
After some shoving between the two, a wider scuffle occurred with Green racing in to put Minnesota centre Rudy Gobert into a headlock and drag him to the floor. Thompson, McDaniels and Green were all ejected.
The NBA also fined Thompson, McDaniels and Gobert $25,000 apiece, but Green was the only player suspended.
The T-Wolves went on to win the game 104-101.
The suspension is Green’s first since last spring’s playoffs. He was suspended for one game for a stomp on the chest of Sacramento Kings forward Domantas Sabonis during Game 2 of a first-round series in April. The postseason suspension was his second of the 2022-2023 season. On March 17, he served a one-game suspension for accumulating 16 technical fouls. Green was also fined by the Warriors last season for an altercation during practice with then-teammate Jordan Poole.
In November of 2018, Green was given a one-game suspension by the team following an altercation with then-teammate Kevin Durant during an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. Miscommunication between the two during the final seconds of regulation spilled over into an argument on the bench and then into the locker room.
Green’s first suspension came in the 2016 NBA Finals when he was banned from Game 5 after striking Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James in the groin during Game 4.
A native of Saginaw, Mich., Green is in his 12th NBA season out of Michigan State. A four-time All-Star, Green has won four NBA titles with the Warriors and was a member of two gold medal-winning United States squads at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro and 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Through nine games this season, the 33-year-old Green is averaging 8.8 points on .482 shooting, 5.1 boards and 5.7 assists over 22.2 minutes a night.
Green is in the first season of a four-year, $100 million deal.