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Ease up mean Draymond Green

By Arnie Leshin 
To start with pounding on a rival player’s chest, Draymond Green has no doubt done more than stand on a rival player’s chest.
 
Now maybe he didn’t deserve a game’s suspension for stomping on Domantas Sabonis’ chest, but the number of flagrant points the  outspoken Golden State Warriors forward has earned triggers a suspension for game five. 
 
That was the comment made by National Basketball Association’s vice president of operations, Kiki VanDeWegh. 
 
Unlike his 2016 ban, Tuesday’s suspension was not automatically triggered. Instead the NBA considered Green’s history of Transgressions in deciding to levy a standalone suspension. 
 
During the regular season in March after his 16th technical foul triggered an automatic ban, he was assessed No.16 for bouncing a ball off Russell Westbrook’s head during a game against the Los Angeles Clippers. 
 
This time Green’s pending absence once again arrives at a critical juncture in a playoff series. The defending champions Warriors new return home to San Francisco looking to avoid a 3-0 series hole that would put them on the brink of a first-round playoff exit. 
 
Not that the aging Warriors are not capable of winning versus the upstart Pacific Division Sacramento Kings, but Green made another mess, for sometimes he doesn’t think.
 
So after officials had already assessed a technical foul on Sabonis for the grab of mean Green’s leg, it was quick and dumb of Green planting his foot where it didn’t belong and that brought Green’s second flagrant 2, which triggered an automatic ejection. 
 
He wasn’t having much of a game anyway and left with eight points, five assists, four rebounds, one steal and five turnovers. Sabinis? Try on 24 points, nine boards and four assists and his team is up 2-zip. 
 
Later, Joe Dumars, executive vice president of basketball operations. wrote that the ban was based in part on Green’s history of unsportsmanlike acts, thus Green will miss game three on Thursday. 
 
To break this latest Green occurrence down, it came during a fight for a rebound that the Kings grabbed and scored, and in the change of possession, Green made a kick Sabonis’ way with his left ankle and Sabonis pushed it away.
 
Then it led to the Green stomp that he followed with a run down court while Sabonis withed on the floor in pain. 
 
During his 2016 suspension in the finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, this one led to what VanDeWeigh’s statement pointed out. That came in March when Green picked up his 16th technical for bouncing a ball off the chest of Westbrook during the contest versus the Los Angeles Clippers.
 
Now Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal defended Green on TNT, saying he would have followed up if an opponent grabbed his foot the way Kings forward Sabonis did. 
 
Now did Green commit a dirty play? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s the NBA’s decision, not O’Neal’s via his TV opinion. 
 
Of course Green’s teammates Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson also spoke up in defense of Green, but that figures, every teammate for every teammate. 
 
So Mr. Green, you just have to sit out another one. You pounced on a rival’s chest and the NBA officials decided what comes next. 

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