Late NBA thread: Green still a mega pos

Submitted by TeslaRedVictorBlue on April 18th, 2023 at 12:28 AM

The Kings/Warriors series has been really good so far. 

Green stood on a player's chest just now and keeps whooping it up. Such a bitch. Yes, his leg was grabbed a bit. But he stood on the guy's chest.

As a Celtics fan who saw this first hand in the finals last year, good riddance to that punk.

76ers and Celtics appear on a collision course. Lakers going to likely win that series if ja is out for good.

I expect Giannis will recover soon enough and the bucks will be fine

Wide open field this year!

mbutts83

April 18th, 2023 at 12:57 AM ^

I'm a big Draymond hater.  But stood on his chest is a stretch.  Stepped on him?  Absolutely.  I am by no means an NBA athlete, but stepping on him might have been unavoidable after the leg grab.  Did he step on him harder than necessary?  Possibly.  Stood on?  No

JMo

April 18th, 2023 at 1:07 AM ^

Kind of a weird line you're drawing there. To clarify, "step" is active, "stood" is stationary? Is that the point of contention? 

Either way, here's the clip. Everyone can decide how they want to define this particular Draymond foot-related incident.

BR is going with "step". Honestly the replay to me feels like a "stomp"? (:30 seconds into clip)

 

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1648180487712821248

WestQuad

April 18th, 2023 at 8:20 AM ^

I used to work at a company that had a search deal with Google.  We had access to all of the aggregate search terms (non-PII).  “Trampling” was a very popular search term for a time.   Evidently it is a sex thing where women stand and/or walk on men.  

mbutts83

April 18th, 2023 at 1:27 AM ^

Yes, to me "stood on" portrays a much more negative imagery than "stepped on".  Especially since given the circumstances I'm not sure stepping on him was avoidable.  And given Draymond's past I'm also not ruling out your theory of a stomp.  I appreciate the video post as well sir, so people can make their own assessment.

BlueTimesTwo

April 18th, 2023 at 12:22 PM ^

Sorry, but when a professional athlete claims that they were unable to control their body properly, I claim BS.  He could have avoided stepping on him, or at least could have put less weight on him, if he wanted to.  He didn't want to because he is a terrible person.  His whole persona is built on being awful and getting as much attention as possible.

lhglrkwg

April 18th, 2023 at 10:58 AM ^

Yeah, his weight was clearly almost entirely on his left foot with his right resting on Sabonis. Any normal person immediate picks up their right foot. Draymond however pauses and then uses Sabonis' chest as a launching point and then flops in air like it was an accident. Pretty on-brand for Draymond

BoFan

April 18th, 2023 at 5:43 PM ^

I am not a Green fan and find defending him difficult.  
 

But…you can see he hopped off his left foot to keep the weight off of Sabonis.  
 

The sequence and close inspection seems to all point to Sabonis at fault. 
 

1). In one angle Sabonis clearly grabbed Green’s foot and Green had trouble getting it loose

2). When he got it loose, the rebound on his effort is what caused it to land on Sabonis’ chest. He didn’t look as though he put his full weight on it. if he was falling forward at all when he got his foot free he would have had to put his foot on Sabonis’ chest or fall over him and risk his own injury. 

3) If his weight was falling toward/over Sabonis’ body, he only had three options. Crush Sabonis’ body with his weight to stop his fall or use his left foot at the last minute to leap up and avoid injuring Sabonis. If you watch the video closely it looks as though his left foot did all the work and the sudden and awkward leap also suggests he used his left foot and leg at the last minute to avoid crushing him. 

4) Sabonis is holding his lower abdomen when “acting” in extreme pain but the foot was on his rib cage. 

Again, I don’t want to defend the guy.  But putting my bias from his past actions aside I think he actually made the effort to avoid any serious injury to Sabonis and Sabonis did hold his foot and caused him to be unbalanced. 
 


 

 

Charlestown Chiefs

April 18th, 2023 at 3:37 AM ^

I don't think it can be totally discounted how Sabonis held onto his leg and essentially put Green in that position where his leg was over him.  Now, did he have to press down like he did?  Of course not.  But it's the playoffs and if you're going to grab onto someone like that, especially that guy, you have to expect something is coming.  Sabonis did go full soccer player afterwards too.  Not justifying what Draymond did but Sabonis definitely has to take some of the blame there too.  If you grab Draymond's leg in a playoff game and expect him to be courteous to you afterwards, you're an idiot.

WrestlingCoach

April 18th, 2023 at 9:27 AM ^

Full soccer player? Try having a 250 pound elite athlete with tree trunks stomp on your ribcage and let's see if you bounce right up. A grab (unintentional?) does not justify what Green did. Kick him out of the entire playoffs. And then his coaches and team dap him up on the way to the bench. Kerr losing respect in my eyes...

Charlestown Chiefs

April 18th, 2023 at 4:23 PM ^

Seemed ok when he shot free throws a couple minutes later and played the rest of the game.  Again, not saying Draymond didn't pull an "accidentally on purpose," but Sabonis bears some of the burden here also.  Serious question here: what were his teammates supposed to do there?  Every team would react similarly.  Not supporting your teammates is the easiest way to fracture a locker room.

WrestlingCoach

April 19th, 2023 at 9:59 AM ^

Punching your own teammate in the face seems like a good way to fracture a locker room also, Draymond doesn't care about his team. And oh I don't know maybe don't reinforce violence against the other team when your teammate who has a pattern of behavior does it for the 12th time in a playoff series AND it has cost his team games (a series I think) in the past. Honest question for you now, how is Sabonis to blame at all when he simply covered his face in traffic while laying on the floor. What exactly did he do to warrant this behavior.

jdraman

April 18th, 2023 at 10:11 AM ^

https://twitter.com/brendennunesnba/status/1648180185811025926?s=46&t=dZntsI62nwvvkA0P6Ak3gQ

This alternative replay angle makes two things positively clear. 1. Sabonis doesn’t intentionally grab Draymond, his arms instinctively go up towards his head and neck to protect himself (as one usually might do when they’ve fallen in a crowded space). 2. Draymond forcefully steps down and pushes off with his full weight on Sabonis’s chest. Should be a multiple game suspension and a fine for Donkey-face.

jdraman

April 18th, 2023 at 12:10 PM ^

Sabonis falls backwards and as he is falling brings his arms up to his head to brace/protect himself. How could he even see Draymond behind him and "intend" to grab his legs? Sabonis doesn't even use his hands for this so called "grab", his arms just happen to be around Draymond's lower leg because that's where he fell. Looks like pretty sensible and rather self-defensive actions from Sabonis and then an all-out cheap shot by Draymond. 

jmblue

April 18th, 2023 at 1:47 PM ^

I haven't watched the series, so I don't know what backstory they might have, but I wonder if a guy falling backwards head-first is really going to have the presence of mind to intentionally provoke someone (could he even tell it was Green?).

PBR

April 18th, 2023 at 2:29 PM ^

I do not like Draymond Green. Full stop. But he is in fact "very good at actual basketball things" - as well as getting in players' (and others') heads. Green is part (albeit not the most important part) of the nucleus of a Warriors team that has won four NBA championships. He was a defensive player of the year and is generally recognized as one of the league's best interior defenders.  

drjaws

April 18th, 2023 at 1:55 AM ^

he straight up stomped on the guys chest. not stood, stomped.  

can take the pos out of east landfill, but can’t take the east landfill out the pos.

Oh Deer

April 18th, 2023 at 4:57 AM ^

Draymond is a POS with a looong history of doing pretty shady things, but this one isn't really that bad. Sabonis grabs his leg and the force Green applies isn't all THAT much.

In my opinion, Sabonis deserves more scrutiny here for the original leg grab (and exaggeration of how bad the stomp was). I feel dirty defending Draymond, but come on, if this were a different player nobody would be making it a big deal.

HenneManCrush

April 18th, 2023 at 8:32 AM ^

I might be in the minority -- and I have no horse in this race -- but it sure looks to me like Sabonis fell hard on his back and was immediately reacting to that pain. I thought he was semi-consciously bringing his arms up to cover his face because of the pain (a thing people certainly do) and/or because he wanted to avoid getting stepped on while on the ground. His eyes are closed the entire time.

I don't see anything intentional about what he did. I think Green's leg just happened to get caught up between his arms as he reacted to the pain of falling awkwardly on his back. And then Green did what he did.

It's possible I'm way off base or there's more context I'm not aware of, but I was surprised I hadn't at least seen anyone else mention that possibility.

DennisFranklinDaMan

April 18th, 2023 at 10:30 AM ^

Fully agree. But I don't thing Green had much option either but to step on Sabonis. I think he undoubtedly applied more force to that "step" than he had to, and I don't really have any objection to him getting kicked out, but ... honestly, with adrenaline high and emotions roiling late in a playoff, game, I'm not surprised Green acted out the way he did. I don't believe for a second he went into that play thinking, "man, give me the opportunity, and I'm going to stomp on a fool!"

Reminds me of when Cameron Brown ripped off Roman Wilson's helmet in the 2021 UM-OSU game. Wilson definitely initiated it by grabbing Brown's leg, and Brown reacted with emotion and anger (anybody who suggest that Brown was somehow looking for an opportunity to rip off Wilson's helmet in front of an official is being silly). 

Green gets silly emotional, and has obvious problems with impulse control. It's who he is. 

 

kehnonymous

April 18th, 2023 at 12:58 PM ^

Reminds me of when Cameron Brown ripped off Roman Wilson's helmet in the 2021 UM-OSU game. Wilson definitely initiated it by grabbing Brown's leg, and Brown reacted with emotion and anger (anybody who suggest that Brown was somehow looking for an opportunity to rip off Wilson's helmet in front of an official is being silly). 

I completely agree that Roman Wilson baited Cam Brown, and if we're being objective the correct call should've been offsetting personal fouls instead of just penalizing Brown (which wouldn't have materially affected the on-field result seeing as how it happened at the 1-yd line)

The difference between this and the Draymond incident is that Wilson grabbing Brown's ankles was in a dead-ball situation after the play was over, so it's chippy and probably kinda cheap but hardly an injury risk to Brown. Plus you could also argue that Roman was trying to help out Cam Brown by keeping him close, since Cam demonstratably has a hard time staying near Michigan WRs.