“I cost us a championship, but would I do it again? One thousand percent”: Draymond Green doesn’t regret his antics against LeBron James in 2016 NBA Finals

Akash Murty | 18/09/2022
“I cost us a championship, but would I do it again? One thousand percent”: Draymond Green doesn't regret his antics against LeBron James in 2016 NBA Finals

The Dub nation will always think about what could have transpired if Draymond Green didn’t get that Game 5 suspension, but Dray doesn’t.

The Warriors-Cavaliers rivalry in the latter half of the 2010s was one of the biggest rivalries in the game of basketball, if not the greatest.

And with years of back and forth comes countless ifs and buts. This had a lot of them as well, but a couple that floats at the top of the mind of both teams’ fans.

One would obviously be JR Smith’s fumble in Game 1 of the 2018 Finals, which in a way gifted the series to the Warriors instead of being a momentum-setting game for the Cavs.

Also read: LeBron James, who recently became a billionaire, lost $25,000 after a brutal loss to the Magic

The Other one would be Draymond Green’s suspension from Game 5 of the 2016 Finals, which most people, apart from Cavs fans, did change the eventuality of who lifted the championship.

Draymond Green has no regrets about his Game 5 suspension in 2016

While Smith still regrets his mistake and believes the league is blackballing him for it, the 4x champ will not change a thing about what he did that led to his suspension from a monumental game that could’ve won them a back-to-back championship.

Green conceived a flagrant 1 foul for an altercation in Game 4 with LeBron James, that had both stars getting entangled. The 4x MVP then got loose of the Warriors forward and sent him to the floor, and then tried to step over his grounded opponent.

That led to Green swinging his arm and striking James in the groin. The Warriors were 3-1 up in the series by the end of that game and were all set up for taking their second championship home after an NBA record season of 73 wins and 9 losses.

Green’s suspension led to one of the greatest comebacks in NBA Finals history, where a team came back from a 3-1 deficit and won the championship.

That won James’ 3rd and the best one of his four Championships to date, also his 3rd Finals MVP. So, Dray was probably right in doing that.

Had he not committed that bizarre foul, everyone including LeBron, Green, Stephen Curry, and even Kevin Durant would have a very different legacy than they currently have.

Also read: “Stephen Curry is the People’s Champ!”: Warriors star, who is set to sign a $1 Billion deal, gets high praise from ESPN analyst

Warriors might not have recruited KD, and we would not have seen one of the greatest teams assembled to stop James and Kyrie Irving from doubling. It also gave us some of the most dominant and entertaining brand of basketball that was never seen before.

 

 

Post Edited By: Raahib Singh
2016 NBA champions 2016 NBA Finals Draymond Green LeBron James

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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