DeMarcus Cousins and Rachel Nichols recently discussed about Draymond Green’s indefinite suspension on Showtime Basketball’s Bully Ball touching upon the different aspects of it. Cousins spoke about the impact that Green had on the Golden State Warriors. Whereas, Nichols highlighted all the actions that led to the four-time champion being slapped with such a hefty suspension.
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DeMarcus Cousins, who was a part of the Golden State Warriors in the 2018-19 season, stated that Draymond Green was the most crucial “puzzle piece” for Steve Kerr. The entire team understands this and thus, supports their leader.
“I’ve been on the ins of that team and understand the dynamic and the way that puzzle works with Draymond being in that puzzle. Without that puzzle piece, it just doesn’t work regardless of what you want to do. I think they understand and I think, their superstar in Steph Curry understands that and that’s the reason he supports him the way he does,” Cousins explained.
While Cousins spoke about the importance of the 33-year-old, Rachel Nichols recounted the actions that led to Green’s indefinite suspension. Green has always been a menace on the hardwood. However, this time things were slightly different.
The forward came off a five-game suspension for putting Rudy Gobert in a chokehold. Merely two weeks later, he goes on to slap Jusuf Nurkic during a game.
“It hasn’t just happened once or twice or three times. And the fact that this one happened two weeks after the last one where he was suspended five games, came back, said all the right things… That’s what I think led to the indefinite suspension… To me this is a tweak more than he’s got to change his whole character. But, he does have to make the tweak because this can’t keep happening,” Nichols claimed.
Nichols wasn’t completely wrong in stating that Dray needed to tweak rather than change his entire character. Not only Warriors are having a tough season, as a result of the situations ongoing, but questions are also being raised about the sportsmanship in the league.
Green currently remains suspended for an indefinite time a possible return is at least 3-4 weeks away.
Shaquille O’Neal has different opinions on Draymond Green’s suspension
Following his ejection, the NBA quickly announced a much more serious punishment for Draymond Green. Merely a day after the fixture against the Phoenix Suns, the 2017 Defensive Player of the Year was indefinitely suspended. This refers to when an NBA player has been suspended for an unknown amount of games.
An indefinite suspension is something the NBA community hasn’t seen quite often and consequently, is split into two groups regarding the decision – the ones who agree and the ones who don’t.
Shaquille O’Neal is among the few set of people who don’t agree with Green’s suspension. According to the TNT analyst, Dray has always behaved this way. Instead, Shaq pinned the blame against Jusuf Nurkic for trying to sell the foul.
“He’s been playing like this the whole time. How many techs does he average a year? How many times you see him going to the referee? This is the way he has to play to become Draymond Green… What I really didn’t like it is the big guy (Nurkic) all on the ground. Get your big a** up,” Shaq said.
The larger group of people believe that the suspension is justified. Steve Kerr – Green’s coach – also agrees with the decision. Ultimately, it is true that Green is going through something and needs to be a better person. This is exactly what the Warriors head coach also mentioned.
“To me this is about more than basketball, it’s about helping Draymond. I think it’s an opportunity for Draymond to step away and make a change in his approach, in his life, and that’s not an easy thing to do,” Kerr said.
The Warriors will be without Green for at least a month and it’ll be interesting to see how Kerr and his team perform during this phase.
