The NBA has suspended Golden State’s Draymond Green for five games for grabbing Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert around the neck “in an unsportsmanlike and dangerous manner,” the league said on Wednesday night.
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Gobert, his Minnesota teammate Jaden McDaniels and Golden State guard Klay Thompson were also penalized by the league for their roles in the incident, which happened early in Tuesday’s game between the Timberwolves and Warriors. The trio were fined $25,000 by the league.
Draymond Green put Rudy Gobert in a headlock and was ejected 😳 pic.twitter.com/ub7ZT34WiL
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) November 15, 2023
But Green will pay the biggest price, both in terms of games missed and money lost. The suspension will cost him $769,704 in forfeited salary. Green’s salary this season is $22.3m.
“The length of the suspension is based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts,” the NBA said in the release announcing the penalties. Those sanctions were handed down by Joe Dumars, the NBA’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations — and a longtime mentor of Green’s.
The incident started when Thompson and McDaniels “became entangled and were grabbing and pulling at one another’s jerseys,” the NBA said, and got further out of hand when Gobert became involved and put his arms around Thompson. Green intervened not long after that, wrapping his arm around Gobert’s neck.
Thompson and McDaniels were each assessed a technical foul and ejected, while Green was assessed a Flagrant Foul 2 for grabbing Gobert. That category of flagrant comes with an automatic ejection, which was Green’s second in Golden State’s last three games.
“Not much to say,” Gobert said after the game. “That’s just clown behavior.”
Green will miss home games Thursday and Saturday against Oklahoma City, another home game Monday against Houston, a road game with Phoenix on 22 November and then a home NBA In-Season Tournament game against San Antonio on 24 November.
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He would be eligible to return on 28 November at Sacramento. The Warriors – who will also be without star guard Stephen Curry for at least Thursday’s game because of a knee issue – have lost four consecutive games and are 6-6 through 12 games this season, just 1-4 at home.
“Every time Steph doesn’t play, [Green] doesn’t want to play without his guy Steph, so he does anything he can to get ejected,” Gobert said.