Draymond Green knows all about being eliminated in the playoffs after being short on one of the most scandalous penalties in the NBA Finals.
Green has a number of reasons to be upset that he was sent off for foul 2 in the second quarter of the Warriors’ 117-116 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in Game 1 of Sunday’s second round. Because what’s left in the background is the ability to leave if he takes more rough fouls during the playoffs.
In Game 4 of the 2016 NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Green received a scream for what the NBA called “revenge of his hand on his groin” by LeBron James. The Warriors won the game to lead 3-1 in the series, but Green was penalized for Game 5 for scoring four striking points in the playoffs.
The Warriors then lost three in a row in a historic collapse that left a regular season team with 73 championshipless wins. If Green hadn’t been stopped for Game 5 at the Oracle Arena, the Warriors could have closed the Cavaliers and changed the course of NBA history – as Kevin Durant probably wouldn’t have signed with the Warriors next offseason.
Which brings Green to this day. Green recorded an “emergency” podcast of the Draymond Green Show from his hotel room in Memphis after the game, where he tried to explain why the judges dismissed him for violating Brandon Clark, which many in the NBA world believe should not have guaranteed Flagrant 2.
But Green also mentioned the fact that he already has two screaming foul points because it was a rough 2 foul. Two more points result in an automatic stop for one game and a stop will follow for each subsequent point.
“My biggest concern is that he gives me two screaming foul points, and as we know, I was kicked out for accumulating rough foul points,” Green said. “So I hope that the right thing will happen and that at least it will be canceled out loud.
At the end of the podcast, Green updated his statement to: “I look forward to it being repealed.”
Related: Draymond’s perfect response to Clark’s expulsion remarks
Even repealing the Flagrant 1 violation would be huge for Green, because he would have to accumulate three more Flagrant 1 violations before removal, or he could even take another Flagrant 2 and fix it. But now he has to go through the rest of the playoffs without taking another Flagrant 2, and he has less leeway when committing fouls in general, in case the referees find him rude.
The Warriors may have won Game 1, but they have a long way to go to a potential championship. They need Green on the court to get them there, and after experiencing the chaos of the 2016 postseason, Green definitely knows that.
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