The premier player for the Golden State Warriors, Draymond Green, who was given a five-game NBA suspension for headlocking Rudy Gobert of Minnesota, defended his choice to stand up for a teammate on Sunday.When teammate Klay Thompson and Timberwolves player Jaden McDaniels got into a fight and Green witnessed Gobert attempt to pull Thompson away, Green lost his composure in the first few minutes of a San Francisco game.
He wrapped his arm around Gobert’s neck and pulled him across the court in what the referees deemed a headlock, but was really more like a chokehold.
“Whenever a situation arises where a teammate needs you to stand up for him, I will stand up for them,” Green declared as he got ready to play again against Sacramento on Tuesday.
“Especially with a person I’ve worked with as a coworker for twelve years. That’s a brother, not just a teammate.
“People are free to interpret things however they see fit; I’m not here to correct or critique others’ views. They are the entities that they are. However, I promise to always support my teammates.”
When it handed down a ban “based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts,” the NBA may have been hoping for greater introspection from Green.
According to Green, that is unfair.
“To continue saying, ‘Oh, what he did in the past…’ I paid for those,” Green stated.
He said, “I got suspended for game five of the Finals,” alluding to the one-game suspension he received in the Championship series of 2016. “So you can’t keep suspending me for those actions.”
However, Green stated he would “need to adjust where I see fit” because the league had “made it clear” that they would continue to consider earlier breaches.
“I’m going to play basketball the way I play basketball,” Green stated. “My style of basketball has brought me to this point. I will always be myself as my style of basketball has helped me succeed both myself and as a member of a team. However, I am aware that I still have opportunity to improve and that I must act more wisely in those and other circumstances.” (AFP)
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