SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green and his recent indefinite suspension by the NBA follows a pattern of "unsportsmanlike acts," said a league spokesperson.
He was suspended after hitting Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic in the face during a Tuesday game. Green has racked up at least 18 game ejections in his career.
Here are four notable incidents in Green's history prior to his indefinite suspension:
December 25, 2013
One of Draymond Green's first suspensions in his NBA career came during a game he played with the Warriors against the Los Angeles Clippers on Dec. 25, 2013
According to the Associated Press, Green was ejected after hitting Clippers player Blake Griffin in the face with his elbow—for which he received a flagrant 2 foul.
Griffin was also ejected after scuffling with player Andrew Bogut while Griffin chased Green to the showers, though the NBA later said Griffin's ejection was a mistake.
The NBA also fined Green $15,000 for failing to leave the court in a timely manner after his ejection.
June 10, 2016
Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors ended with Green suspended for hitting LeBron James in the groin.
The Warriors wound up losing in seven games. Then-GM Bob Myers sat with Green next door to Oracle Arena at the Oakland Coliseum for that game Green missed.
October 5, 2022
Green got into controversy after a video circulated online of an Oct. 5, 2022 Warriors practice where he got into an altercation with teammate Jordan Poole.
The altercation led to Green hitting Poole in the face, and though he wasn't suspended, Green was fined by his team.
Coach Steve Kerr described it at the time as the biggest crisis he's had since joining the team as head coach. Green apologized to Poole after the altercation.
April 17, 2023
During Game 2 of the Warriors and Sacramento Kings playoff series in Sacramento, Green stomped on the chest of Domantas Sabonis and was suspended one game.
He was given a Flagrant Foul 2 and ejected from the game while Sabonis was given a technical foul for grabbing and holding Green's ankle after falling on the floor.
The Warriors player missed the first Chase Center game of the playoff series because of the suspension.
It wasn't Green's first time receiving a suspension during a playoff series, as he got benched for one game amid the 2016 Finals for too many flagrant fouls.
November 14, 2023
Kerr said he agreed with a November five-game suspension of Green when he "took it too far" and was "wrong" in putting Minnesota Timberwolves' player Rudy Gobert in a headlock.
The altercation occurred before two minutes had elapsed in the first quarter on Tuesday, when Golden State’s Klay Thompson and Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels got in a shoving match near midcourt following a Timberwolves possession. Gobert stepped in and grabbed hold of Thompson before Green rushed in and pulled Gobert away from behind with his arm around the center’s neck in what the league called “an unsportsmanlike and dangerous manner.”
“I didn’t have a problem with him getting Rudy off of Klay because the rule of thumb is you don’t put your hands on another player on the other team... But he’s got to let go. He hung on for six, seven seconds, and it was a terrible visual for the league, for Draymond, for everybody,” Kerr said.
Thompson’s jersey was ripped during the scuffle, and he, Green and McDaniels were all ejected.
Like his recent indefinite suspension, an NBA spokesperson said Green's history of unsportsmanlike acts factored into the then-five-day suspension.
