NBA
Warriors coach Steve Kerr rectifies and now says Draymond Green’s chokehold was ‘inexcusable’
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All posts by Antonio KozlowUpdated17 Nov 2023
Now that a couple of days have past and the air has been cleared, the NBA decided to give Draymond Green a five-game suspension and fine all the other players involved in this week’s brawl between Golden State and Minnesota. This meant that Rudy Gobert, who suffered a chokehold at the Warriors forward’s expense, Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels all received a $25,000 fine.
After losing the game 104-101 against the Timberwolves, coach Steve Kerr told the press he believed that the French big man had provoked the situation. However, now he decided to rectify and admit that his player’s actions were “inexcusable.”
“Draymond has to find a way to not cross the line. I’m not talking about getting an ejection or getting a technical. I’m talking about a physical act of violence. That’s inexcusable,” the trainer said before facing the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night.
Rudy Gobert didn't agree with Steve Kerr when he initially defended Draymond Green's actions. 😬🤡 https://t.co/Sp3t7aVYDa pic.twitter.com/ZTTTMxcCW7
— theScore (@theScore) November 17, 2023
“So we have to do everything we can to give him the help and the assistance that he needs to be able to draw that distinction between being an incredible competitor, which he’s always been — it’s why he’s in the position he is, it’s why he’s the player he is,” Kerr added. “But, he can’t cross that line. And he crossed it the other night, for sure.”
During the league’s ruling, the NBA cited Green’s “history of unsportsmanlike acts,” a part of the reasons why they decided to deliver such a bold punishment. After giving it some thought, Kerr acknowledged that the sentence was “deserved.”
“I didn’t have a problem with [Green] getting Rudy off of Klay, because the rule of thumb is you don’t put your hands on a player on the other team,” he explained. “You get your own guy. So I thought Rudy was wrong for putting his arms on Klay, regardless of his intentions. So I had no problem with Draymond getting him off of him.”
He revealed that Green knows he made a huge mistake.”But, he’s got to let go, and he hung on for six-seven seconds. It was a terrible visual for the league, for Draymond, for everybody. Draymond was wrong. He knows that. It’s a bad look. The five games is deserved, and we move forward,” he concluded.
Stephen A. Smith called the NBA ‘soft as tissue paper’ amid Draymond’s headlock on Gobert
Most of the NBA community expressed shock after the recent brawl that exploded after Thompson and McDaniels pulled their jerseys, and resulted in Green holding Gobert in a dangerous headlock for several seconds.
After the league announced their punishment, Stephen A. Smith says the NBA shouldn’t only blame Draymond for the situation. “The last line he said there, there’s something to hold on to, ‘I taught you better than that.’ What is he trying to say?” the ESPN analyst said. “When something’s about to go down, you got to be one of those dudes in line ready to do something about it.”
According to the broadcasting icon, Rudy’s teammates could’ve done something about it instead of just letting the Warriors forward attack their big man.
“Why did you just stand there and be in the scene and just holding on to everybody instead of grabbing Draymond and getting him the hell off of Rudy Gobert, who was your teammate,” Smith insisted.
