LOS ANGELES — The NBA suspended Draymond Green indefinitely, the league announced Wednesday in a statement that provided vague language for the terms required for him to return to play.
Green was suspended for hitting Jusuf Nurkic, earning him a Flagrant 2 foul and ejection in the Warriors’ loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.
“He will be required to meet certain league and team conditions before he can return to play,” the league statement reads.
This is Green’s second suspension of the season just 23 games into the year and marked his third ejection of the season. Green will be out for the Warriors’ next game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday and likely more depending on the terms.
This suspension has all the makings to bury the Warriors as they hope to escape a 10-13 start to the year in complete disarray. Green is Golden State’s most important cog after Steph Curry, fueling and connecting both the offense and defense. With starters Andrew Wiggins and Klay Thompson benched in crunch time of Tuesday’s loss, it appears the foundation is crumbling along with this untimely suspension. As coach Steve Kerr, Steph Curry and the rest of his teammates have said without hyperbole: They need Green to win.
“All the pieces fit for a reason,” Curry said on Tuesday. “They have for a very long time. So when you’re missing one, it’s tough. We still had opportunities to win the game tonight. I didn’t shoot the ball well in the second half… We want to be able to overcome the incident, his ejection, but we need everybody available, that’s how we’re built. It’s no secret to our success.”
Joe Dumars, the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations and mentor of Green, has said the NBA works within a repeat offender framework for Green, specifically, based on his past transgressions.
After the loss, Green said he was agitated by Nurkic holding onto him during an inbound play and was trying to “sell” the foul by swinging his arms around.
“I’m not one to apologize for things I meant to do,” Green said. “But I do apologize to Jusuf. Even though I didn’t intend to hit him, I sell calls with my arms. I don’t fall to sell a call. I’m not a flopper. I was just selling the call because he was grabbing and pulling my hip. So, I spun away. And, unfortunately, I hit him…So, I apologize to Jusuf because I didn’t intend to hit him.”
Nurkic told reporters this: “That brother needs help. I’m glad he didn’t try and choke me. But at the same time, it had nothing to do with basketball. I’m just out there trying to play basketball and they’re out there swinging. I think we saw that often. I hope whatever he got in his life it gets better.”
Green’s first suspension this season came against the Minnesota Timberwolves for putting Rudy Gobert into a chokehold and pulling him off teammate Klay Thompson. Green was issued a five-game suspension for the incident, a harsher punishment because of the repeat offender rule that only appears to apply to Green.