The NBA announced that it was suspending Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green “indefinitely” following his latest on court incident involving Jusuf Nurkic Tuesday.
“Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green has been suspended indefinitely for striking Phoenix Suns centre Jusuf Nurkic in the face,” the league announced in an official release. “The incident occurred with 8:23 remaining in the third quarter of the Warriors’ 119-116 loss to the Suns on Dec. 12 at Footprint Center. Green received a Flagrant Foul 2 and was ejected.”
“Green’s suspension will begin immediately. He Will be required to meet certain league and team conditions before he returns to play.”
The former MSU alum had already been suspended 5 games this season, and his status as a repeat offender, with six suspensions on his resume to date, factored into the indefinite ban. In addition to his suspensions, he’s been ejected from games 18 times and has accumulated at least $2.231M in fines over the course of his NBA career.
Adrian Wojnarowski has reported that as a condition of his reinstatement, Green, Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr., and Green’s agent, Rich Paul are expected to meet this week to discuss a counselling plan in order to satisfy league requirements.
Previous Suspensions
| Season | Length | Suspension |
| 2016 | 1 game | The infamous LeBron groin shot in the playoffs |
| 2018-19 | 1 game | Sideline argument with teammate Kevin Durant (team imposed) |
| 2022-23 | 1 game | Required to sit 1 game due to accumulating too many technical fouls |
| 2023 | 1 game | Stepped on the chest of Domantas Sabonis in Game 2 of the playoffs |
| 2023-24 | 5 games | Green puts Rudy Gobert in a headlock following a scuffle |
| 2023-24 | Indefinite | Struck Jusuf Nurkic with his arm |
Draymond addressed the ejection post-game, attempting to paint the picture that it was an unintentional blow when speaking to reporters. “I’m not one to apologize for things I mean to do, but I do apologize to Jusuf because I didn’t intend to hit him. I sell calls with my arms … so I was selling the call … and I swung and unfortunately I hit him.”
“Like I said, if I intended to do that, then I would feel awful about not being there,” Green continued. “But my intentions were just to sell the foul.”
Nurkic viewed things quite differently in his post game comments telling the media “What’s going on with him, I don’t know. Personally, I feel like that brother needs help…I’m glad he didn’t try to choke me.”
With Draymond sidelined for the foreseeable future, the 33 year old will forfeit $153,941 per game while he attempts to get things back on track emotionally and mentally. While his on court antics have been well documented, the Warriors have essentially painted themselves into a corner when it comes to disciplining Green at this point.
Following the altercation with former teammate Jordan Poole in the summer, many believe that Golden State took too lenient a stance on the incident. As a result, a once promising young player was essentially run out of town, while the Warriors are left trying to keep together their title aspirations with an aging core that’s beginning to show cracks in its foundation.
While no one will argue that Draymond is a vital contributor to Golden State’s on court product, one has to wonder how much longer the front office can “keep the band together” given Klay Thompson’s declining play, and Green’s increasingly frequent outbursts.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Erik Drost. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.