Charles Barkley spoke about the disciplinary situations of Draymond Green and Ja Morant during a recent segment on NBA on TNT. Chuck, who has continuously accepted the importance of Draymond to the Warriors’ setup, seemingly wanted to give some tough love to the Warriors legend. Barkley claimed that Green’s regular run-ins with discipline mean that he cannot continue to call him a ‘good dude.’
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“Yo, I think you are a good dude, but at some point, if you keep doing stupid stuff, you ain’t a good dude,” he said.
Barkley has been a consistent supporter of Draymond Green despite several controversies he has been involved in, especially this season. The 33-year-old has been involved in three altercations since the start of the year. The latest one, with Jusuf Nurkic, is expected to be around three weeks long.
Barkley claimed that the Warriors needed Green despite him not being the same player as he once was. Chuck believes that the Warriors can get at least four more years out of their tenacious veteran, even though the NBA will most probably adopt a no-tolerance policy on his future antics, if any.
“They probably gonna have zero tolerance, worse than zero tolerance. So he is gonna have to really get his act together. The same thing with Ja, I can’t wait to see him play tonight,” he claimed.
Barkley then went on to talk about both Morant and Green, stating the importance of financial loss involved with this, “You know in our job, people think we wanna talk bad about people…Nobody does that. We want these guys to be great basketball players. You know, the millions of dollars they giving up, millions of dollars, you can put that towards your family, your kids, our grandkids.”
“Each one is probably going to lose 5 or 10 million dollars, that’s crazy, that they will never see again. So, I wish both of them luck,” he said, before outlining his excitement to see Ja Morant’s return to the league.
As things stand, Green has already reportedly started counseling, although there is no specific timeline for a return. His situation will be evaluated in three weeks, which means that the suspension will last at least that amount of time.
Shaquille O’Neal launched a passionate defense of Draymond Green
Shaquille O’Neal seems to be one of the few analysts, who have continued to be sympathetic to Draymond Green’s situation. The Lakers big man claimed that Green was simply standing up for a teammate and that there was nothing wrong with the player himself.
Shaq brought up the example of Julius Erving and Larry Bird to explain how such things were a part and parcel of the game. While Shaq claimed that Green simply needed counseling, he said that Draymond’s playing style has always been exactly the same.
Of course, while Green’s issues have helped him amass a total of 170 technical fouls, he is hardly the worst when it comes to disciplinary issues. The Warriors ace ranks 12th in the list of the highest technical fouls in the league’s history, with Karl Malone leading the way with 332. Three of Green’s total have come this season alone, and all have led to suspension, according to ClutchPoints.
