[WC First Round] (3)Sacramento vs. (6)Golden State

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Kawakami: Why did NBA suspend Draymond Green for Game 3? It’s clearly personal

The commissioner’s office is tired of the Draymond Green drama and it doesn’t care if you, Draymond, the Warriors organization or all the other teams in the league know it. Doesn’t care if it sinks the Warriors, who are already in a perilous 0-2 position against the Kings in their first-round series. Doesn’t care if it ends the Warriors’ dynastic run.

Doesn’t care if Monday’s midnight (ET) surprise decision to suspend Green for Thursday’s crucial Game 3 feels a little personal.

The NBA powers that be are sick and tired of Draymond Green, who, let’s be clear, is far from innocent in this situation and most assuredly has been given many warnings about this. Green has tired out a lot of people over the years. He’s previously been suspended both by the league and by the Warriors, and there have been many other times when he could’ve been punished by either, including his training camp punching of Jordan Poole.

Let’s be more specific: Commissioner Adam Silver was right there in a nice seat at Golden 1 Center on Monday night to witness Green’s tug-stomp fracas — Domantas Sabonis fell to the floor and grabbed Green’s leg and Green purposely landed his foot hard on Sabonis’ chest in response — then Green’s egging on and taunting the Kings crowd when 18,000-plus started shouting at him before he was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul.

In non-Green incidents, specifically during the playoffs, the league has usually bypassed a following suspension if a) the player was ejected from the game after the incident and b) if that player was in any way incited by the actions of an opponent. I think it’s pretty clear that the Green situation qualifies in both regards.

But I can picture Silver and his lieutenants feeling like Green was taunting them, too, for those few minutes Monday. I’m not saying they’re entirely wrong to feel this way.

So maybe the suspension shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. The league office took all day to decide this and then put executive vice president Joe Dumars’ name on the decision, but I can’t imagine the league would do this much to affect a playoff series (after Green was already ejected for the final 7:03 of the Warriors’ Game 2 loss) without Silver signing off on it. And it seems clear that the league specifically included a reference to Green’s “history of unsportsmanlike acts” in the press release to make sure that everybody understood that this was a little personal.

But I think this punishment is too harsh. I don’t think Green’s previous suspensions should be held against him in this case, including his suspension for Game 5 at Oracle Arena during the 2016 NBA Finals against Cleveland, when the Warriors were up 3-1 but lost Game 5 without Green and then the series in seven games.

I think that Green is getting hit with all kinds of multiple jeopardy here — he’s already served the time for other incidents and now that’s being counted against him. He already was ejected for the deciding minutes of a playoff game, he already has two Flagrant foul points and can get another suspension if he tallies two more points, and now his absence for Game 3 makes it more likely that the Warriors will lose the game and go down 0-3. He should be punished at the scale merited for what he did Monday, not at a scale that measures how much he irritates the league office.

But there’s no conspiracy. Silver isn’t doing this to make sure the Warriors lose Game 3 and the series. The league is doing this because it’s been worn down by Green, challenged by Green, taunted by Green and now it has retaliated almost as peevishly as some of Green’s taunts and jibes.

The league and Green both have chips on their shoulders in this situation. And the only way Green can win is the way he always can win — hope his teammates win Game 3 without him, come back and play great in Game 4 on, win this series and then keep winning playoff series. You know Green will take this all personally; 1,000 percent personally. If the Warriors somehow win another title this June, the championship trophy ceremony with Silver would be an all-timer.

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Shaq, Chris Mannix, Jay Williams should let Draymond (or Terrence Jones or anyone) stomp on them.