Draymond Green Out For Game Five: Yeesh

Clustermuck

I realize that I may seem entirely in the bag for the Warriors at this point, but for heaven's sake, NBA... can you make your desire for an additional game or two of ad revenue more obvious?

Let's look at the context of the incident as it occurs. The Warriors are up in the fourth quarter, and nearly have the game fully in hand. The Cavs have spent much of the quarter unable, or unwilling, to move the ball on offense, and haven't been getting whistles on drives to the hoop; they've also been cold from the arc. The refs have botched most of the game, but since there is margin, no one one notices this.

James fouls Green; Green falls. James steps over Green despite the lack of a ball or anything else compelling him to do so. Green rises, flares his shoulder into James, and catches him in the undercarriage. It's such a devastating shot that James continues with the play, and both men eventually collide under the rim again, finally generating enough notice from the refs to stop play. They review it on replay, because the NBA does that far too often now, and the decision comes down: double fouls, no technical, play on. The game more or less ends soon after that, with Green continuing to provide top-flight defense, and James too gassed, with a jumper that hasn't been right most of the year, to do much about the outcome.

Now, I get that Draymond Green has become the poster child for Hate The Warriors Now That They Seem Dynastic. I get that he's borderline spastic at times, that he does things to draw ref attention, and that he's emotional and one good contract away from being a full-on head case. But FFS... context, people. If he had hit James that hard in the nethers, wouldn't James have sold it? Why is he going after James with a lead in the fourth, with his past technical issues, unless he's pretty much been punked twice in a 2-second interval? And why is it OK to suspend a man for a game when the in-game refs gave next to nothing for the interchange, without more or less saying that this ref crew deserves summary end of employment?

I love the Association, honestly, with full heart. But if there's one thing that isn't right in this league, beyond the fact that we're years into intentional fouling rules that make no sense, it's the uneven and intolerable state of the officiating. And the post-game refs aren't much better.