A year removed from one of the greatest letdowns by an NBA title frontrunner, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green took the blame for his team's fall from a 3-1 series lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers and talked in-depth about the Game 4 incident which sparked his consequent Game 5 suspension.
Following a play in which Green had fallen to the ground, Cavs forward LeBron James stepped over Green as he headed toward the three-point line, resulting in the Warriors big man striking him in the groin on the way up in efforts to get his attention.
“He stepped over me and I had a natural reaction to get up from under him,” Green told ESPN's Tom Rinaldi in a compelling E: 60 sit-down interview. “You don't step over a grown man, it's disrespectful.”
“And if it happened again I would do the same thing. Get off of me.”
Green was suspended for the following game shortly after Game 4's win, stemming from a post-game call made by the league office to assign him a Flagrant 1 call, giving Green his seventh technical foul of the postseason and resulting in a loss during his absence in Game 5.
“LeBron figured out a way to get in Dray's head and that's what happened,” said Green's mother, Mary Babers. “The heart and soul of the team. If you take out the heart, how does the body live?”
Golden State would go on to lose the next two games, even with Green back in the lineup, a feeling he's long harnessed for nearly a whole calendar year.
“It was one of the most brutal things I've ever had to go through in my life,” Green explained. “If I played, we win of course — so I do feel it's my fault that we lost.”
“Absolutely my fault, but I don't feel wrong for what I did at all.”
The Warriors forward totaled 12 technical fouls during this 2016-17 season, and two more in the postseason — this time five shy from last year's playoff total.
A little more concealed than last season, Green's fiery style of play is what elevates him above his competition — but being wise about when and when not to use said emotion could prove key on his team's success or demise in the remainder of these NBA Finals.
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