On Monday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver arrived at the league's headquarters in New York with plenty of reasons to be pleased.. The NBA Cup, the In Season Tournament, had been a success in Las Vegas, with the victory of LeBron James' Los Angeles Lakers and unique media attention. As happened with the 'Play-in', the invention had worked. But Silver's happiness or, at least, peace of mind only lasted a few hours.. The problems multiplied again to tarnish the image of the competition and force unpleasant measures to be taken..
A few days after the return of Ja Morant, the Memphis Grizzlies star who showed a gun on Instagram and hit a teenager on the street, two other NBA leaders, Draymond Green and Giannis Antetokounmpo, showed their worst side.
Although the severity of both episodes had nothing to do with. In fact, the first, the one starring Green, ended in a historic sanction: the Golden State Warriors player was suspended “indefinitely” by the NBA this Wednesday and will miss a good part of the season. On Tuesday, the teammate of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson was ejected for the third time this season for punching Jusuf Nurkic of the Phoenix Suns in the house, and the league decided to keep him off the court until he regains his composure.
As is usually done in these cases – as was done with Morant – what happened will be analyzed behind closed doors and the details of the punishment will not be exposed.. In any case, it is unlikely that Green will play again before the All-Star game in February, who knows what will happen after. His history of assaults is already too long.
More than 170 techniques
This same year he had grabbed Rudy Gobert by the neck and stepped on Domantas Sabonis on the chest, although in the past he had even his own teammates as victims.. In 2018, he argued with Kevin Durant in training and last year he threw a punch at Jordan Poole. Despite everything, with more than 170 techniques received, 20 expulsions and six suspensions in his career, Green continues to be a key piece for the Warriors and, in his own words, it is difficult for him to change.
“I'm in year 12 and you keep telling me to stop being Draymond. Don't do a technique, blah, blah, blah. 12 years and you're still trying to train me on how I should be? “I'm better at being Draymond than anyone else!” he exclaimed in one of his podcasts with little purpose of amendment.. The NBA's complacency towards him also does not help to redirect his behavior and, in general, does not avoid similar situations.
You just have to see what happened with Giannis Antetokounmpo this Wednesday. Among the problems of his Milwaukee Bucks adapting to the new players -Damian Lillard- and the new coach, the Greek star scored 64 points against the Indiana Pacers and, at the end of the game, he was involved in an incident that darkened his performance.
Despite being in Milwaukee, a Pacers assistant kept the game ball and Antetokoumpo, furious, went to the locker room to look for it.. He wanted the ball as a souvenir, it had been his highest score in the league. But in the halls of the pavilion he did not find who he was looking for, the security officials asked him to calm down and he, still angry, went out to the court again in search of the Pacers star, Tyrese Haliburton, to insult him for not helping him.. In the end, Antetokounmpo went home without the ball and with a stain on his record.