While Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green is undoubtedly a future Hall of Famer, he will also be remembered for his on-court antics, one of which was the infamous chokehold he put longtime nemesis Rudy Gobert in.
The incident garnered plenty of attention at the time, and still does. But during a recent appearance on Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet’s podcast, ‘Unguarded,’ Draymond Green admitted that he did not realize how long he had Rudy Gobert in a chokehold in the moment.
“I’m going to tell you this though, I did not realize I was choking him that long. I did not realize I had him that long,” Green said. “See when I got back to the locker room, I was watching this and I was like, ‘damn, this is bad.’ I didn’t realize I had him that long.”
“Once I saw how long it was I just went inside the equipment room, I was talking to the equipment guys and I said, ‘Damn man, what do you think is going to happen?’” Green said. “And they were like, ‘Dray, you held him for so long.’ I’m like bro I didn’t think it was that long.”
In the aftermath of the incident, Green ended up being suspended for five games by the NBA. The other players involved in the altercation, Gobert, Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels, only faced fines and no suspensions. Part of the league’s reasoning for Green’s punishment was his prior incidents.
The No. 35 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, Green is now in his 14th season in the NBA, all with the Warriors.
